Memorial

More information

Statement of Billy Anderson, S/Sgt, Waist Gunner:
This plane (771) was flying in the high group and was flying about off our left wing and high, and the ME-109 came up from his tail and leveled off and then the B-17´s started on fire and winged over to the right, went down under our left wing and then it blew up. Then I saw one chute open up.

Six crew members were killed, four were taken prisoner. The six casualties were initially buried at the Leipzig-Lindenthal Cemetery on 26 August 1944. A field investigation after the war could only recover the remains of 2n Lt Daniel P. Giove (bombardier). At that time, three remains were evacuated to St. Avold Cemetery as unknowns but further investigation could not link them to one of the other crew members and were subsequently designated Unknown X-1047 and X-183. In 1947, it was determined that X-1047 contained the remains of two separate individuals. They were segregated and redesignated as X-1047A and X-1047B.

In 2017, while studying American losses and unidentified remains recovered from outside Leipzig, Germany, a DPAA historian determined that X-1047A, X-1047B and X-183 could likely be associated with crewmembers from McTigue’s B-17G Flying Fortress.

In April 2019, the Department of Defense and ABMC disinterred X-1047A, X-1047B and X-183 and accessioned the remains to the DPAA laboratory for identification.

To identify McTigue’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

Lt McTigue was given his final resting place in Woodside, New York on 18 November 2019.