The United States has managed to identify the remains of a commander killed in a tank in Germany in 1944.
The lieutenant, identified as Gene F. Walker, was fighting Nazi troops when his tank was hit by an anti-tank attack near the German-Belgian border, BBC News reports.
“The attack caused a fire that would have killed Mr. Walker instantly,” reports the American agency MIA Accounting, which managed to identify the soldier. Surviving soldiers were unable to retrieve his body from 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 compatriots in the region.
Gene F. Walker was reportedly buried at the American Military Cemetery in Hamburg, Belgium in December 1944.
It was not until 2021 that his remains were exhumed and sent to MIA Accounting for analysis.
The agency was later able to identify Trooper Walker.
Since 1973, she has been able to identify 1,543 Americans who went missing after World War II.
According to government figures, about 72,000 American soldiers who fought in that war were never accounted for.