Memorial

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S/Sgt Gerald V. Atkinson was a sales clerk. He enlisted at Fort McClellan, Alabama on 3 September 1943.

He was the original waist gunner on another airplane on which he flew five missions. Then his crew position was changed from waist gunner to spot jammer, voice interpreter and radio control measureman and he flew in these positions for 15 missions with 11 different pilots.

The aircraft was victim of a persisant attack of a ME-262 jet fighter on the tail. It burst into flames between #3 and #4 engines but was not seen to fall apart. It held course for a very few seconds after being hit, then peeled slightly up and then slid over and down to the right through the formation. It appeared at that time to be out of control. A few moments later the airplane blew up and broke up into two main parts and crashed in the Gross Glasow Lake, 20 kilometres northeast of the target. A wing and engine fell in the upper part of the lake and the tail and part of the fuselage came down in the lower part of the lake. The wreckage could be seen at 50 to 150 feet from the shore. One crew member survived and was taken prisoner, eight were killed.

In 1946 and 1947, German nationals recovered remains from Gross Glasow Lake believed to be the remains of American airmen and they were buried as unknowns in a local community cemetery. In August 1947, the remains were exhumed by the U.S. Army Graves Registration Command (AGRC) and reinterred as unknowns at Ardennes Cemetery Belgium.

In December 1948, the remains were again exhumed for possible identification and it was determined the remains were members of Atkinson’s crew; however, the AGRC could not conclusively establish individual identifications and the unidentified remains were reinterred as unknowns in the Brittany American Cemetery and Memorial in St. James, France in November 1951.
In 2012, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) re-examined the AGRC’s records and concluded that the possibility of identification of the unknown remains now exist. To identify Atkinson’s remains, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) used circumstantial evidence and mitochondrial DNA, which matched Atkinson’s cousin.

On 6 August 2014 The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced that the remains of S/Sgt Atkinson were identified.

He was buried on 16 August 2014 in the family plot at Mount Pleasant cemetery in Chattahoochee, Gadsden County, Florida.