A soldier from Chicago was killed in a WWII assault launched on New Yr’s Eve 1944. He is lastly been accounted for.

A 19-year-old soldier who was killed throughout World Conflict II has been accounted for, navy officers mentioned Thursday. 

U.S. Military Pvt. Jeremiah P. Maroney was assigned to an anti-tank firm in Europe throughout the conflict, the Protection POW/MIA Accounting Company mentioned in a information launch. Maroney, initially from Chicago, was a part of the 157th Infantry Regiment, forty fifth Infantry Division.

Shortly earlier than midnight on New Yr’s Eve in 1944, German forces launched a serious offensive within the mountains of Alsace-Lorraine, France, surging over Allied defenses alongside the border of France and Germany, U.S. officers mentioned. The offensive became a large battle stretching over 40 miles. The battle raged for weeks, with Mahoney’s unit resupplying and reinforcing his regiment close to the French village of Reipertswiller. 

On Jan. 17, 1945, Mahoney was killed amid the combating. His physique couldn’t be recovered, and the Conflict Division issued a “Finding of Death” a yr later. 

In 1946, the American Graves Registration Command started in search of lacking American personnel within the space the place Mahoney had final been seen. In August 1947, division personnel recovered a set of stays from a forest close to Reipertswiller. The stays, and clothes and gear discovered with them, have been analyzed, however an identification couldn’t be made. The stays have been buried as “Unknown” within the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium, and his title was recorded on the Partitions of the Lacking on the Epinal American Cemetery in France. 

Many years later, the DPAA started investigating lacking troopers who died within the Reipertswiller space. They believed that the unknown stays might be Mahoney’s. In August 2022, the stays have been exhumed and transferred to the DPAA Laboratory for evaluation. Scientists used a number of varieties of DNA testing, in addition to anthropological and circumstantial proof, to review the stays. 

On Could 6, 2024, the DPAA positively recognized the stays as Mahoney’s. 

A rosette has been positioned beside his title on the Partitions of the Lacking to point that he has been accounted for. His stays shall be buried at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery on a date to be decided, the DPAA mentioned.