Memorial

More information

Lt Litherland graduated from South Williamsport High School and was employed at the Muncy Wire Rope Company.

He enlisted in July 1942, was commissioned in April 1943 and was sent overseas in October 1943. He had completed eleven missions.

According to the navigator, who survived the mission, the airplane was hit by flak and immediately fell into a spin and exploded in mid-air.

One crew member was taken prisoner, two men evaded capture and returned to England and seven men were killed. They were initially buried at a British WW 1 cemetery in Abbeville, France.

In 1945 American investigators reviewed German documents detailing American planes and their crew during the war. Those documents revealed six sets of remains were recovered near the crash site Le Translay and were buried in the English World War I Memorial Cemetery at Abbeville, France on 2 March 1944. In June 1945 American Graves Registration team disinterred the six sets of remains from Abbeville and interred them in the United States Military Cemetery at St. Andre, France. Five of the six sets of remains were identified the one unknown set of remains was designated as X-452 St. Andre.

Beginning in 1946, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), Army Quartermaster Corps, was the organization tasked with recovering missing American personnel in the European Theater. In March 1947 AGRC investigators identified X-452 as being associated with Litherland but were unable to identify him and X-452 was transferred to Suresnes American Cemetery, France. Litherland was declared non-recoverable on 26 December 1950.

In September 2017, a DPAA Investigation Team traveled to Le Translay to locate Litherland’s crash site; in August 2018, a DPAA Recovery Team recovered material evidence and osseous remains from the site, which the DPAA laboratory accessioned for analysis. In October 2019, the Department of Defense and the American Battle Monuments Commission exhumed the unknown remains designated X-452 St. Andre, believed to be associated with Litherland, from Suresnes American Cemetery.
To identify Litherland’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), and autosomal DNA (auSTR), analysis.

Litherland’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at Ardennes American Cemetery. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Lt Litherland was buried on 9 September 2023 at Wildwood Cemetery in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.