The United States was able to identify the remains of a commander killed in a tank in Germany in 1944.
Lieutenant Gene F. Walker was fighting against Nazi forces when his tank came under an anti-tank attack near the German-Belgian border, BBC News reported.
“The strike caused a fire that would have killed Mr. Walker instantly,” said the US agency MIA Accounting, which was able to identify the soldier. The surviving soldiers were unable to recover his body from under the rubble due to clashes around the tank.”
After the war, the American unit responsible for caring for the deceased was unable to obtain information about the deaths of citizens in the region.
Gene F. Walker was reportedly buried at the American Military Cemetery in Hamburg, Belgium in December 1944.
Only in 2021 were his remains exhumed and sent to MIA Accounting for analysis.
The agency was later able to identify Trooper Walker.
Since 1973, it has identified 1,543 Americans who went missing after World War II.
The fate of about 72,000 American soldiers who participated in that war has not been determined, according to government data.
