Illinois Army Air Forces Tech killed during World War II now accounted for

(WAND) - The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Tuesday that U.S. Army Air Forces Tech Sgt. William L. Leukering, 28, of Metropolis, Illinois, who was killed during World War II, has been accounted for as of March 20, 2023.

In the summer of 1944, Leukering was assigned to the 816th Bomber Squadron (Heavy), 483rd Bomber Group (Heavy), 15th Air Force based.

Leukering was a radio operator on a B-17G Flying Fortress that was hit by enemy anti-aircraft during a bombing raid on German air defense installations in Memmingen, Germany.

The pilot ordered the crew to bail out. Six of the airmen parachuted successfully while the other five crew members including Leukering were believed to still be on board.

The surviving crew witnessed the aircraft explode in an area south of Memmingen, Germany.

Leukering’s body was not recovered, and the Germans never reported him as a prisoner of war. The War Department issued a finding of death on July 19, 1945.

Starting in 1946, the American Graves Registration Command, Army Quartermaster Corps, was the organization tasked with recovering missing American personnel in the European Theater. In 1946, AGRC investigators searched the area of the crash site and discovered two sets of remains however neither were associated with Leukering. He was declared non-recoverable July 26, 1951.

In 2012 a German researcher notified Department of Defense investigators to an aircraft crash site near Kimratshofen, Germany, possibly associated to Leukering’s B-17. The information led to an investigation in 2013 and excavation efforts in 2018. The excavation team found possible human remains and material evidence.

In 2019, a DPAA partner team from the University of New Orleans continued work at the Kimratshofen site, recovering additional material, which was also transferred to the DPAA laboratory.

To identify Leukering’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis. Scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

Leukering’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Epinal American Cemetery an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Epinal, France., along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Leukering will be buried in Round Knob, Illinois, on a date to be determined.