WASHINGTON – The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Tuesday that 28-year-old U.S. Army Pfc. William A. Gervais, Jr. of New Bedford, Massachusetts, killed during World War II, was accounted for on June 18th.
Gervais’s family received their full briefing on his identification, therefore, additional details on his identification can be shared.
In December 1944, Gervais was assigned to Company F, 2nd Ranger Battalion. On Dec. 7, the unit was part of the effort to take and secure Hill 400 near Bergstein, Germany, in the Hürtgen Forest. Soon after successfully taking the hill, the battalion had to defend against the German counterattack. During the fighting, Gervais and another Soldier were instructed to make contact with another platoon on a different part of the hill. They never made it to the platoon. Due to continuous artillery fire and the threat of additional German attacks, the battalion could not search for Gervais. He was listed as missing in action.
Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in Europe. They conducted several investigations in the area where Gervais was killed between 1946 and 1950, but were unable to recover or identify Gervais’s remains. He was declared non-recoverable in December 1951.
While studying unresolved American losses in Germany, a DPAA historian determined that one set of unidentified remains, recovered in April 1946 and designated X-2485 Neuville, possibly belonged to Gervais. The remains, which had been buried in what is now Ardennes American Cemetery, were disinterred in August 2022 and sent to the DPAA laboratory for examination and identification.
To identify Gervais’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA analysis and nuclear single nucleotide polymorphism testing.
Gervais’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Netherlands American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Margraten, Netherlands, along with the others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Gervais will be buried on December 7th in Bourne, Massachusetts.
For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.
DPAA is grateful to ABMC and to the U.S. Army Regional Mortuary-Europe/Africa for their partnership in this mission.
For additional information on the War Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil or on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa, https://www.linkedin.com/company/dodpaa, https://www.instagram.com/dodpaa/, or https://x.com/dodpaa.
Gervais’s personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000XlCWEA0.
