WWII Airman's 'Piloting Skill' Helped Save 7 from a Crash in 1944, His Remains Have Now Been Found
DPAA
The remains of a war hero have been found nearly 80 years following his death after he saved seven fellow soldiers.
Lt. William B. Montgomery of the U.S. Army Air Forces was "accounted for" on Jan. 10, 2023, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced on Monday, March 13.
Montgomery's body went missing on June 22, 1944, when he was piloting a B-24H Liberator plane. At the time, Montgomery, a Ford City, Penn., native, was assigned to the 844th Bombardment Squadron, 489th Bombardment Group (Heavy), Eighth Air Force.
On the fateful day, Montgomery's plane "was struck by anti-aircraft after a bombing raid on a German airfield" near Versailles, France, the DPAA said.
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DPAA
The plane had suffered damaged, however, "Montgomery's piloting skill" helped him fly it into England. Once there, he told his crew to get out of the plane.
"Seven of the airmen parachuted successfully while the other three crew members, including Montgomery, were still on board. Two of the crew witnessed the aircraft crashed into a farm in West Sussex, England," said the DPAA.
Two years later, the American Graves Registration Command, Army Quartermaster Corps began searching for missing Americans in the European Theatre. It scoured the crash site in 1947 but none of the remains for Montgomery or the other crew members that were still on the plane were found. Montgomery was deemed "non-recoverable" on May 10, 1950, the agency said.
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DPAA
The search picked back up in 1974, when an archaeology group looked for parts of the plane at the site. DPAA also continued looking for Montgomery and the crew members in 2017 and 2019. It wasn't until a recovery mission in June 2021 that officials found human remains.
They were confirmed to be Montgomery's through an "anthropological analysis" and other evidence.
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In honor of his recovery, officials will put a rosette next to his name that is currently on the Wall of the Missing at Cambridge American Cemetery, with other missing WWII soldiers, in Cambridge.
He will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. A date has not been scheduled yet.
