Remains of a WWII heavy bomber gunner identified nearly 80 years after his death

WASHINGTON — The remains of a U.S. Air Force gunner have been preserved for nearly eight decades after the heavy bomber he flew in was shot down over France during World War II, military officials said Monday.

Staff Sgt. Franklin P. Hall, 21, of Leesburg, Florida, was identified in July by scientists using anthropological and DNA analyses, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said in a news release.

Hall was assigned to the 66th Bombardment Squadron, 44th Bombardment Group (Heavy) in the European Theater in January 1944, officials said. The pilot was the left hip gunner on a B-24D Liberator named “Queen Marlene” when it was attacked by the German Air Force near Équennes-Éramecourt, France. German forces located the crash site and found nine sets of remains, which were buried in the French cemetery in Poix-de-Picardie. Hall’s remains were not taken into account after the war and in 1951 he was declared unrecoverable.

Ongoing investigations into missing soldiers during the fighting around Équennes-Éramecourt eventually led to the discovery of two sets of remains buried at the Normandy American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site. The remains were exhumed in 2018 and transferred to the DPAA laboratory, where one set was identified as Hall.

Hall’s name is listed on the Tablets of the Missing at the Ardennes American Cemetery, France, along with others still missing from World War II. A rosette is placed next to his name to indicate that it has been taken into account.

Hall will eventually be buried in Leesburg, Florida, although officials are not saying when.