WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that U.S. Army Air Forces Tech. Sgt. Clarence E. Gibbs, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, killed during World War II, was accounted for March 24, 2025.
Gibbs' family recently received their full briefing on is identification, therefore, additional details on his identification can be shared.
In late 1944, Gibbs was assigned to 368th Bombardment Squadron, 306th Bombardment Group, 1st Bombardment Division, 8th Air Force. On Dec. 29, Gibbs, a top turret gunner onboard a B-17G “Flying Fortress,” went missing in action when his plane was hit by heavy anti-aircraft fire while on a bombing mission to Bingen, Germany. All nine crewmembers were able to bail out of the aircraft, and only one airman was found dead by German forces near the crash site. Five men were captured and processed into the German prisoner of war (POW) camp system, ultimately surviving the war. Gibbs and two other crewmembers were unaccounted for, and there was no record of them being held as POWs.
In 1946, the American Graves Registration Command, the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel in the European Theater, began investigating several crash sites from downed aircraft of the Bingen air raid. Local German citizens were interviewed, and several accounts were recorded seeing American troops landing by parachutes. One airman was recovered by a local civilian who took him in and provided aid, but the airman was ultimately taken into custody by German military authorities and his fate following capture was not known. Investigators could not locate information concerning Gibbs and the third missing airman. Investigations continued for several years, but by April 1950, the AGRC exhausted all efforts to recover these missing men and recommended they be declared non-recoverable.
In 2013 DPAA researchers learned of documents discovered by two German researchers in a regional German state archive, documenting three airmen who had bailed out from their aircraft and been killed by SS troops near Kamp-Bornhofen. Two DPAA investigation teams followed up on this lead by conducting local research in cemetery records in this area in 2015 and 2019. In May 2021, DPAA teams began excavation of a suspected burial site in the Kamp-Bornhofen Cemetery, where the three airmen were believed to be buried. Under the supervision and direction of two Scientific Recovery Experts, the team recovered possible osseous remains and associated materials. These items were transferred to the DPAA Laboratory for analysis and identification.
To identify Gibbs’ remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial and Y-chromosome DNA analysis and mitochondrial genome sequencing data.
Gibbs’ name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Lorraine American Cemetery, St. Avold, France, 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.
Gibbs will be buried in Clinton, South Carolina, on a date yet to be determined.
For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.
For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving their 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.
Gibbs’ personnel profile can be viewed at: https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000Xe73EAC.
Read Gibbs' initial ID announcement here: Gibbs.