Remains of soldier killed in WWII identified

An American soldier killed in Germany during World War II has been accounted for, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

Army Sgt. Gregory V. Knoll was assigned to Company M, 3rd Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division, according to the agency. He was reported killed in action on Nov. 7, 1944.

Knoll’s battalion had been tasked with capturing Schmidt, Germany, a town in the Hürtgen Forest. After German soldiers overran the unit, survivors withdrew to Kommerscheidt and continued fighting German forces.

The American Graves Registration Command, responsible for recovering American service members in Europe, conducted several investigations in the Hürtgen area between 1946 and 1950. They were unable to recover or identify Knoll’s remains.

A historian studying American losses in Hürtgen determined a set of remains could be Knoll. The remains were recovered at Kommerscheidt in 1946 and had been buried in Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium in 1949. They were disinterred in July 2021 and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. Scientists used anthropological analysis, circumstantial evidence and DNA analysis to identify Knoll’s remains.

A rosette will be placed by Knoll’s name on the Tablets of the Missing at Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery in Belgium. He will be buried in Garden City, Kansas on July 7, 2023.