The discovery of a missing plane from the Second World War brings closure to the Napoléonville family

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Less than two weeks after D-Day in 1944, two American B-24 bombers crashed over the Baltic Sea.

The bombers were flying in close formation when the propeller of one plane clipped the tail of the other. As both planes spun out of control, some of the airmen were able to parachute out and drift into the waters off the Danish coast.

The co-pilot of one of the bombers, Lieutenant Oscar Boudreaux, was rescued by Danish fishermen and later spotted by a German patrol boat. He spent the next ten months as a prisoner of war.

At the end of the war, Boudreaux returned to the family home in Napoléonville and continued his life. But his family says he always felt the World War II chapter was not completely closed. The wreckage of the two planes that crashed – carrying his fellow aviators – was never found.

In 2019, amateur divers discovered an area in the Baltic Sea where there appeared to be pieces of a plane. The Danish and US navies were alerted, as well as Trident Archaeology, a private Dutch company, to explore the wreck.

Now, based on what has been found, the Army Casualty Bureau, which is a branch of the Defense Department's Prisoner of War and Missing Persons Accounting Agency (DPPA), is informing the families of at least one of the airmen who was shot down in Lt. Boudreaux's plane that his remains may have been recovered.

The airman was Master Sergeant John Danneker, 18, of Williamsport, Pennsylvania. He was a machine gunner on board the plane.

To make a positive identification, DPPA collects DNA samples from family members to compare them to DNA collected from the remains of a deceased service member.

If the samples match, the family can request that DPPA leave the remains where they are, or send the remains home for private burial, or bury the remains in a Department of Defense cemetery. All this is done at no cost to the family.

Greg Gardner, chief of the Army's Bureau of Wounded Services, said: “We owe these families answers.”

The Defense Department has searched for the remains of those who served in Vietnam and Korea for years, but only began searching for World War II remains in 2012, when Congress mandated it.

Gardner estimates that there are between 65,000 and 70,000 missing servicemen from World War II.

They are not forgotten.

“I spent 28 years in the Army on active duty,” Gardner said, “[and] I can certainly say that this is the most honorable and important mission I have ever accomplished.

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