Remains of a World War II soldier killed in France nearly 80 years ago, identified and reburied in the national cemetery

A World War II soldier killed during a German offensive in the mountains of France in 1944 has been identified and his remains will be reburied at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginiamilitary officials said this week.

Jeremiah P. Mahoney, 19, of Chicago, was killed in the Vosges Mountains of France on January 17, 1945, during weeks of fighting.

Mahoney was assigned to the Army’s Anti-Tank Company, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division, and his unit supplied and reinforced the regiment during the fighting.

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Jeremiah P. Mahoney, 19, of Chicago, was killed in the Vosges Mountains of France on January 17, 1945, during weeks of fighting. (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)

“At some point on January 17, Mahoney was killed, but due to the intensity of the fighting, his unit was unable to recover his body as it had to withdraw from the area,” the Defense POW/MIA Agency (DPAA) said. a release on Thursday. “Because there were no records of the capture of Mahoney by German forces and no remains had been recovered, the War Office published a ‘Finding of Death’ in January 1946.”

His death came just four months earlier Germany surrendered to the Allied troops in France in May 1945.

Mahoney’s remains were recovered by the American Graves Registration Command in 1946, but could not be identified at the time and were eventually buried in 1949 at the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium.

A school alumni reports Mahoney’s death. (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)

Two years ago, Mahoney’s remains were exhumed from the cemetery when DPAA historians began conducting in-depth research on soldiers who went missing in the area, believing that the remains, then known as Unknown X-6379, might belong to Mahoney could be.

His remains were exhumed in August 2022 and transferred to a DPAA laboratory for analysis.

Using DNA, anthropological and circumstantial evidence, he was identified in May this year and will eventually be reburied in Arlington National Cemetery.

A clip from Mahoney’s memorial service after the War Department issued a “finding of death” while he was missing. (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)

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A rosette will also be placed next to his name on the Walls of the Missing at the Epinal American Cemetery in Dinozé, France, to signify that he has been found.