Sergeant Sanford G. Roy’s Remains Were Identified in 2024

A World War II waist gunner who was killed in action in 1944 when his B-24 was shot down in Germany was located and identified in June 2024. He is now set to be buried at Chattanooga National Cemetery on the 81st anniversary of his passing.

Tech. Sgt. Sanford Gordon Roy volunteered for the US Army in August 1942 and was assigned to the Army Air Forces. He was put onto a B-24H bomber, dubbed ‘Little Joe,' to serve as a left waist gunner. His role made him responsible for defending the plane’s left side using a .50 caliber machine gun.

Roy had just celebrated his 31st birthday and, on April 8, 1944, was tasked with a bombing mission. He and nine other crew members were flying alongside nearly 200 Allied bombers towards Brunswick, Germany, where they would destroy airfields, plants, and German aircraft. However, while en route to the target, over 50 German aircraft appeared to intercept them.

A total of 31 US B-24Hs were shot down by the German Focke-Wulf 190s and Messerschmitt 109s over Salzwedel, Germany. Little Joe was among the aircraft destroyed, killing all 10 on board.

"Other bombers in the group saw Little Joe take heavy fire from the German fighter planes and roll onto its back, catching fire and falling out of the formation," Roy’s obituary states. "No one saw any parachutes leave the plane as it headed towards the earth."

Witnesses reported that the plane had gone down in a Russian-occupied area of Germany, but no efforts could be made to retrieve it until after the war. Even then, there were no formal records of the aircraft in Germany. The military listed Little Joe as ‘unrecoverable,’ and the case was cold until, in 2015, the Missing Allied Air Crew Research Team located a potential crash site.

After battling an uncooperative landowner, the team was able to dig up the plane and the remains of its crew. The entire site had been excavated by November 2023, and Roy’s remains were positively identified in July 2024. A public burial will be held for him at Chattanooga National Cemetery at 12:30 pm on April 8, exactly 81 years after his death.

FMI: www.cem.va.gov