Remains of WWII airman from Tennessee identified 80 years after plane shot down

The remains of a World War II airman were identified 80 years after his plane was shot down during a bombing mission in Germany, military officials said this week.

In the spring of 1944, U.S. Army Air Force Tech. Sgt. Sanford G. Roy, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, was assigned to the 732nd Bombardment Squadron in the European Theater, according to a news release from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. Roy and several other airmen were aboard the B-24H Liberator “Little Joe” on a bombing mission to Brunswick, Germany on April 8. The plane was shot down by German forces and other airmen flying near the aircraft did not report seeing any crew members exiting “Little Joe” before it crashed. His name was engraved on the Walls of the Missing at the Netherlands American Cemetery. 

Though military members saw the incident, the crash site could not be located during the war. The remains of Roy and eight other crew members were listed as unaccounted for after the war. In 1946, the American Graves Registration Command began investigating bomber losses like the one that Roy died in in the region. Those efforts still failed to find any crash or burial sites associated with the crew of Little Joe. 

An independent research group finally shed new insight into the crash in 2015. The Missing Allied Air Crew Research Team contacted historians from the DPAA to inform them of a possible crash site near Wistedt, Germany. The DPAA conducted interviews with local residents, which led to the realization that there had been two crash sites, but only one had been examined and had remains recovered from it during the war. 

DPAA investigators found the second crash site and recovered various pieces of wreckage and possible human remains. Those remains were transferred to the DPAA’s laboratory, but no identifications could be made. Between 2021 and 2023, the agency conducted more research at the crash site, including excavation and recovery of more remains. By the end of November 2023, all evidence from the crash site had been transferred to the DPAA laboratory. 

Scientists used anthropological and dental analysis, as well as DNA analysis, to identify the remains. One set of remains from the crash site were identified as those of Staff Sergeant Ralph L. Mourer. Another set of remains was identified as Roy’s. 

Roy’s surviving family has been informed of his identification. He will be buried in his hometown on April 8, 2025, the 81st anniversary of his loss. A rosette has been carved next to his name on the Walls of the Missing to indicate that he has been identified.