Five days after the D-Day invasions, the 96th Bomb Group’s B-17 Flying Fortresses left Royal Air Force Base Snetterton Heath for a key mission to take out bridges in France and cut off Hitler’s forces. The lead plane was equipped with newly developed Pathfinder radar to help the crew find their targets in dense fog. The success of the mission rested on the highly-trained, 25-year-old First Lieutenant who operated the radar to sight the bombs. Though I arrived decades after this event, that young radar operator was a member of my family.
The lead plane never returned.. Of the 12 airmen on board, one survived. The others have not been recovered. There are 81,000 missing American personnel from World War II to the present. Around 200 are identified each year and remains are returned to their families. If you are related to a missing service member, a DNA sample may help identify their remains. Contact their branch of the military and ask for a Casualty Service Officer to learn how to provide a sample.
Fiction and nonfiction for adults focused on stories of unaccounted for prisoner of war and missing in action military personnel.
View Full List My family’s story is one of many. Explore some of the fascinating books written about Prisoners of War and Missing in Action service personnel, their experiences, and those of their families. Here are some on my reading list.
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