Staff Sergeant Ralph H. Bode

In late 1944, SSgt. Bode was assigned to the 700th Bombardment Squadron,445th Bombardment Group, 2nd Air Division, 8th Air Force in the European Theater. On Sep 27, Bode, the tail gunner onboard a B-24H “Liberator”, was lost when his aircraft was shot down while on a bombing mission over Kassel, Germany. During the mission, the formation of Allied aircraft encountered heavy resistance from ground and air forces, which resulted in the rapid loss of 25 Liberators. Several surviving crew members from Bode’s aircraft reported seeing other crew members near escape hatches, but they did not see Bode escape the aircraft. After the crash, German forces captured 3 crew members as prisoners of war but Bode was not among them. After a year without a sign of Bode, the War Department issued a finding of death on September 28, 1945.

In Sept 1951, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel in the European Theater, received information from local residents of Richelsdorf, Germany, about several bombers that had crashed in the woods just outside town. Investigators were able to locate remains of crashed aircraft and various bits of scattered clothing, and the osseus remains belonging to multiple service members. These remains, labeled X-9070 Liege and X-9071 Liege, were believed to be those belonging to members of Bode’s downed aircraft. At the time, identification of these remains was not possible, and they were interred in the Luxembourg America Cemetery, Luxembourg, and the North African American Cemetery, Tunisia, respectively. The separate burials were done due to a lack of space in a single location. In April 2018, DoD and American Battle Monuments Commission personnel exhumed X-9070, but it wasn’t until May 2022 that X-9071 was able to be exhumed. Both sets were transferred to the DPAA Laboratory for analysis and identification. To identify Bode’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.