Lemuel Dent Jr., an African American from Charles County, Md., died in fierce fighting in Italy during World War II.
Three months after the World War II battle at the Cinquale Canal in northwest Italy, searchers with the U.S. Army’s Graves Registration Service found the body of an American soldier buried in an isolated location.
It was actually half a body. The chest, head and arms were missing, a testament to the brutality of the fighting between the Germans and the regiments of the African American 92nd Infantry Division. Enemy artillery, mortars and machine guns cut down scores of Black soldiers.
Especially hard hit was Company L of the 366th Regiment, which lost 13 men that day, including Pfc. Lemuel Dent Jr., from Charles County, Md., whose body was lost in the aftermath of the fighting.
But this month, the Pentagon’s agency that works to account for missing service members announced that 79 years after the Feb. 8, 1945, battle, the remains in the grave have been identified as those of Dent.
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