As part of ongoing work with the United States Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), Cranfield Forensic Institute has been instrumental in the recovery and identification of a World War II airman who was missing in action for over 80 years.
Based in Tunisia in the summer of 1943, Second Lieutenant Allan W. Knepper, age 27, took off on July 10 in his P-38 ‘Lightning’ aircraft, assigned to attack Axis forces in Caltagirone, Sicily. The United States Army were landing troops that day and the U.S. Air Force were sending planes every 30 minutes in an attempt to obstruct the enemies from moving to intercept the beach landing.
Knepper’s squadron came under heavy anti-aircraft fire and another pilot saw Knepper’s plane plummet to the ground. There was no witness account of a parachute opening before the crash, so it was believed that he was still in the aircraft as it went down. His remains were never discovered and he was declared missing in action.
Researchers for the DPAA at the United States National Archives found a German report from July 10, 1943, detailing that two P-38 planes had been shot down and crashed west of Caltagirone, Sicily. Reports from other pilots involved in the mission had suggested that Knepper’s plane went down in a different location closer to Palagonia, so the discovery of this report was key to directing the archaeological teams.
Between 2015-2023, the DPAA and their partners – including Cranfield University – researched, investigated and excavated the crash site, painstakingly recovering material evidence that was later identified to be associated with Knepper.
Dr David Errickson, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology and Anthropology at ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥’s Forensic Institute led the team as the Principal Investigator for one of the recovery missions on this case in Sicily. He explained that as a partner of the DPAA, Cranfield hopes to be working on one or two deployments per year to help the United States recover their missing personnel. From World War II alone there are more than 72,000 American servicemen and women unaccounted for.
How a recovery happens
Once a site has been identified and the required permissions have been received from landowners and the state, the first challenge is to locate exactly where the aircraft impacted. That can involve searching multiple fields, and given that 80 years have passed since the end of WWII, there is 80 years of agricultural and landscape change that can have altered the terrain dramatically.
“We’ll start using methods like metal detection”, explains Dr Errickson. “There are even signs in the soil that can be identified. For example if a plane has burned upon impact you can still find traces of that in the earth decades later.
“Then once you’ve pinpointed the crash site you can start to open up the ground and see if you can find the wreckage. At this point it is an important step to identify the plane itself. A lot of aircraft went down in the Second World War, and you have to make sure that you’re excavating the plane you have permission for.”
“Comparatively speaking, lots of P-38 Lightnings went down in mainland Italy and Sicily. That means you need to try and locate fragments like data plates or radio call plates to make sure that you’ve found the exact plane you’re looking for.”
He continued, “At the crash site, you have to use the pattern of the wreckage to judge the location that the pilot will mostly likely be. In the case of a single occupant fighter plane like this one it’s easier because you’re only looking for one person, but in something larger like a bomber it can be much more difficult. Those planes can have had as many as ten or more people on board who would all have been thrown around when the plane went down so identifying who’s who is far more complex.”
Everything found on a site like this has to be meticulously recorded and handed over to the local authorities – in this case the Italian police – who will then transfer the evidence over to either the US Embassy or direct to the DPAA lab for DNA analysis and identification.
The recovery of the plane and occupants and subsequent identification isn’t a quick process. In this case it took 8 years from the start of the recovery until the DPAA was able to officially confirm that Lieutenant Allan W. Knepper had been accounted for . In this case, Cranfield University worked as part of a larger group with teams from the University of Illinois, American Veterans Archaeological Recovery and Geoscope Services Limited who all excavated the site and helped recover evidence.
Second Lieutenant Knepper’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will now be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for. On 2 August 2024, Second Lieutenant Knepper was buried in his hometown of Lewiston, Idaho.
- The team from Cranfield Forensic Institute are currently on site in Sicily working towards another DPAA recovery.
