Remains of a Soldier killed in 1943 were just identified

It's encouraging to see that remains of soldiers who were never found or returned from wars, continue to be found. Here's an amazing story of people working together to bring back the remains of a World War 2 soldier. His remains were finally interred on Memorial Day of this year.

(Photo: Sgt. Richard Hammond. Credit: U.S. Army Human Resources Command)

New England soldier killed in WWII to be buried during Memorial Day week

Sgt. Richard Hammond was killed in 1943, but his remains were just identified last year

 WMTW l-TV, May 24, 2024

 

NORTHWOOD, N.H. — A native of Northwood, Hammond enlisted before the United States entered the war and was later assigned to Company A, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion, in the North African Theater as a crew commander of an M3 Gun Motor Carriage “half-track.”

On Feb. 17, 1943, when he was 24 years old and had been in the Army for about two and a half years, his unit was engaged in battle with German forces near Sbeitla, Tunisia, when his half-track was struck by an enemy high-explosive tank shell. The explosion disabled the half-track and threw Hammond several yards from the wreckage.

The area immediately came under heavy fire, forcing the surviving crewmembers to retreat. Witnesses maintain that while egressing from the area, they looked back several times and did not see any movement from Hammond. He was declared missing in action, but the Germans never reported him as a prisoner of war. On June 1, 1949, with no evidence Hammond survived the fighting, he was officially declared non-recoverable.

Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in Africa. On Sept 9, 1943, AGRC personnel recovered a set of remains from an isolated grave near a destroyed half-track in the vicinity of Sbeitla. At the time, AGRC personnel could not conclusively identify the remains, designated X-5137 El Alia (X-5137), and they were interred in the U.S. Military Cemetery, Constantine, Algeria.

While studying unresolved American losses in Tunisia, a DPAA historian determined that the M3 half-track information gathered by AGRS in the area potentially belonged to Company A, where Hammond was assigned.

The remains were exhumed in 2022, and Hammond was identified by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency on Sept 5, 2023.