"He served as a Replacement Soldier with the 29th Division for less than 24 hours before being shot in the head."
Unfortunately this story about your ancestor is all too common.
Many American army infantry divisions experienced so many combat casualties from the invasion of Normandy to the crossing of the Rhine, from June 1944 to spring 1945, that the numbers exceeded 100% in the small units that bore the brunt of the fighting, the squads, platoons, and companies. If you can stand it, see the film 'When Trumpets Fade' to get some small appreciation for the true combat conditions our ancestors faced. Many have written of this but it has largely been ignored. Most people cannot conceive of the utter chaos such high losses, highest among the small unit leaders, caused for the American army. The 29th was such a unit, it was a National Guard unit and had few well-trained professionals. During the war such stories were repressed or not even written. Few journalists would venture to the actual front. Ernie Pyle was a rare exception, and it got him killed. The truth is that our Crusade in Europe was badly managed and badly led, but the marketing and propagandizing was first rate. Reputations and careers were on the line, from the military commanders to the politicians (from alderman to president) and industrialists back home. Close ranks and pronounce how wonderful everything is going. I can believe that the remains your family received were not the correct ones. I can also imagine that the statements by the witnesses in the other case you cited, by the local coroner et. al., were made in order to 1) give solace to grieving parents and 2) defend the system and try to make the matter go away. In the context of all the casualties, human and material, and the need to get on with life, it would make sense. I do not have expertise in how graves and registration was handled by the American army in Europe in WW2, but I do know, from my studies and my personal experience, that military systems and processes, even during peacetime, are best understood by the phrase WW2 American enlisted men created: 'Situation Normal, All F---ed Up.'
Thank you for your thoughts. I agree most people do not understand the combat experience, losses, and how our war dead were handled. To clarify - My cousin Frank was ID'd correctly. Kenneth Vix was also. I have seen other files where Graves Reg pulled an ID out of thin air or assumed because "The tank personnel were sitting in certain spots in the tank that it must be those people (positions)." I've done extensive research on Graves Registration the last 15 years. I write and teach on it as well. I can tell when an identification is good and when it's made up.
From the hundreds of IDPFs I've read, the military sent form letters to "give solace" as you mentioned. That is true. In some of the files they also make notes about the 'emotionally unstable mother' who was seeking information about her son, along with the other mothers/wives of a bomb crew. Had that been a man asking then no notation would have been made. Yet in other files like Harvey Robitshek (you can search him on my website and read his 361 page file https://wwiirwc.com) the military covered their asses to make sure his father had answers to all his questions and everything was done correctly.
I think the public, from all my research, really had no idea how it all worked. They were told the bare minimum through propaganda and newspapers, telegrams and letters, so would of course have questions. They would of course wonder if the remains were that of their loved one. The bigger issue in the article I wrote is about cognitive dissonance and how that impacted the family and the generations.
"He served as a Replacement Soldier with the 29th Division for less than 24 hours before being shot in the head."
Unfortunately this story about your ancestor is all too common.
Many American army infantry divisions experienced so many combat casualties from the invasion of Normandy to the crossing of the Rhine, from June 1944 to spring 1945, that the numbers exceeded 100% in the small units that bore the brunt of the fighting, the squads, platoons, and companies. If you can stand it, see the film 'When Trumpets Fade' to get some small appreciation for the true combat conditions our ancestors faced. Many have written of this but it has largely been ignored. Most people cannot conceive of the utter chaos such high losses, highest among the small unit leaders, caused for the American army. The 29th was such a unit, it was a National Guard unit and had few well-trained professionals. During the war such stories were repressed or not even written. Few journalists would venture to the actual front. Ernie Pyle was a rare exception, and it got him killed. The truth is that our Crusade in Europe was badly managed and badly led, but the marketing and propagandizing was first rate. Reputations and careers were on the line, from the military commanders to the politicians (from alderman to president) and industrialists back home. Close ranks and pronounce how wonderful everything is going. I can believe that the remains your family received were not the correct ones. I can also imagine that the statements by the witnesses in the other case you cited, by the local coroner et. al., were made in order to 1) give solace to grieving parents and 2) defend the system and try to make the matter go away. In the context of all the casualties, human and material, and the need to get on with life, it would make sense. I do not have expertise in how graves and registration was handled by the American army in Europe in WW2, but I do know, from my studies and my personal experience, that military systems and processes, even during peacetime, are best understood by the phrase WW2 American enlisted men created: 'Situation Normal, All F---ed Up.'
Thank you for your thoughts. I agree most people do not understand the combat experience, losses, and how our war dead were handled. To clarify - My cousin Frank was ID'd correctly. Kenneth Vix was also. I have seen other files where Graves Reg pulled an ID out of thin air or assumed because "The tank personnel were sitting in certain spots in the tank that it must be those people (positions)." I've done extensive research on Graves Registration the last 15 years. I write and teach on it as well. I can tell when an identification is good and when it's made up.
From the hundreds of IDPFs I've read, the military sent form letters to "give solace" as you mentioned. That is true. In some of the files they also make notes about the 'emotionally unstable mother' who was seeking information about her son, along with the other mothers/wives of a bomb crew. Had that been a man asking then no notation would have been made. Yet in other files like Harvey Robitshek (you can search him on my website and read his 361 page file https://wwiirwc.com) the military covered their asses to make sure his father had answers to all his questions and everything was done correctly.
I think the public, from all my research, really had no idea how it all worked. They were told the bare minimum through propaganda and newspapers, telegrams and letters, so would of course have questions. They would of course wonder if the remains were that of their loved one. The bigger issue in the article I wrote is about cognitive dissonance and how that impacted the family and the generations.
Fascinating and definitely one of those stories worth remembering as we look through our own military ancestors.
Thank you for reading!