Memorial

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Pfc William F. Delaney worked on a farm.

He enlisted at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia on 14 November 1942.

On 11 March 2019 the POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today Pfc Delaney, was accounted for on 17 December 2018.

On 22 November 1944, Pfc Delaney served with Company A, when his battalion launched a massive firing demonstration against a large pocket of German defenders near the town of Grosshau, in the Hürtgen Forest in Germany. During the battle, an enemy artillery shell struck Pfc Delaney’s foxhole, and he died before he could be medically evacuated. Due to ongoing combat operations, his remains were not recovered at that time.

In 1947, a set of remains was recovered by the AGRC from District #135, a section of the forest west of Grosshau. According to records, local citizen Siegfried Glassen first discovered the remains and concluded they were of an American soldier who had been killed by artillery fire. The remains were sent to the AGRC central identification point in Neuville Belgium. After efforts to identify the remains were unsuccessful, the remains, designated X-5425 Neuville, were declared unidentifiable and interred at Neuville (today’s Ardennes American Cemetery).

Following thorough analysis of military records and AGRC documentation by DPAA historians and scientists, which suggested a likely association between X-5425 Neuville and Delany, the remains were disinterred in June 2017 and the remains were sent to DPAA for analysis.

To identify Delaney’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological, as well as circumstantial and material evidence. Additionally, the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.