STEUBENVILLE, Ohio — The stays of an Army Air Forces technical sergeant from Ohio, who died after he was despatched to a prisoner of warfare camp throughout World Struggle II, have now been positively recognized, Protection Division officers introduced Tuesday.
Tech. Sgt. William F. Teaff, 26, of Steubenville, was assigned to the 351st Bombardment Squadron, one hundredth Bombardment Group (Heavy), eighth Air Pressure. On March 6, 1944, he was the radio operator aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber that was half of a bigger mission to bomb targets in Berlin, based on the Protection POW/MIA Accounting Company, or DPAA.
German fighters attacked the B-17′s formation whereas it flew over the Netherlands, and Teaff’s aircraft was destroyed. The aircraft’s navigator was killed when the plane was hit, however the remainder of the crew bailed out earlier than it exploded within the sky.
The crew was captured by the Germans and a number of other of them, together with Teaff, have been despatched to Stalag Luft 6, a prisoner of warfare camp in Heydekrug, Germany. Teaff was one in all solely three People who died in that POW camp. He died July 10, 1944, within the close by village of Macikai, Lithuania, the place he was receiving medical therapy for diptheria.
After the warfare, the American Graves Registration Command couldn’t recuperate the three People’ stays as a result of the POW camp — now inside Lithuania because of post-war border shifting — was deep contained in the Soviet occupation zone. Regardless of continued efforts over the subsequent few years, Teaff’s stays couldn’t be discovered and he was declared non-recoverable in March 1954.
After Lithuania grew to become unbiased in 1992, officers discovered the Soviet Union destroyed the POW camp in 1955 and reverted the realm to farmland. In 2006, officers investigated the positioning and really useful excavation, however important points prevented them from sending a restoration workforce.
DPAA partnered with Ohio Valley Archeology Inc. in 2019, and a workforce was later capable of finding doable gravesites for the three lacking People. Then, the DPAA partnered with a Lithuanian archeological group and excavated the realm in August 2021.
The stays have been transferred to a lab in Nebraska for evaluation. Scientists used dental and anthropological evaluation, in addition to materials and circumstantial proof to determine Teaff.
Teaff was really accounted for again in April, officers mentioned, however the announcement was delayed till his household obtained a full briefing. The date and site for Teaff’s funeral has not been decided.
