Recovery and Identification of World War II Dead: American Graves Registration Activities in Europe

Abstract

Abstract About two thirds of the 281 000 Americans who died in World War II (WWII) fell in the European Theater. Of the 148 000 bodies recovered from Europe, nearly 99% were identified. Through the efforts of the Graves Registration Service and the American Graves Registration Command, more than 171 000 Americans who died overseas worldwide during WWII were eventually returned to the United States for final burial. The procedures used at the Central Identification Point in Strasbourg, France, for the identification of unknown remains is illustrated by the case of an Eighth Air Force crewman killed over Germany in 1943 whose body was recovered in 1947.