BRISTOL, Pa. — The remains of a Pennsylvania soldier killed near the Belgian-German border during World War II have been positively identified, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Thursday.
U.S. Army Private Walter G. Wildman, 20, formerly of Bristol, Bucks County, were positively identified on Jan. 26, the DPAA said.
Wildman was reported killed in action on Nov. 13, 1944, the DPAA said. Because of the fighting, his body was unable to be recovered.
Wildman was assigned to Company M, 12 Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. His unit was fighting as part of the Hürtgen Forest offensive when he died, according to the DPAA.
Prior to his death, Wildman was wounded in France in June 1944, a few days after his arrival in Europe, according to newspaper accounts at the time. He returned to action in September of that year after recovering in England, and was killed about a month later.
After the war, the American Graves Registration Command was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in Europe. They conducted several investigations in the Hürtgen area between 1946 and 1950, but were unable to recover or identify Wildman’s remains. He was declared non-recoverable in December 1951, according to the DPAA.
While studying unresolved American losses in the Hürtgen area, a DPAA historian determined that one set of unidentified remains, designated X-5441 Neuville, originally discovered by a German demining team and recovered by the AGRC in 1947, possibly belonged to Wildman.
The remains, which had been buried in Ardennes American Cemetery, were disinterred in April 2019 and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for examination and identification.
To identify Wildman’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used Y chromosome DNA (Y-STR) analysis.
Wildman’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Netherlands American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Margraten, Netherlands, along with the others still missing from World War II.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Wildman will be buried on May 23, 2022, in Newtown, Pennsylvania.
