Amateur historian’s 40-year search uncovers remains of lost Second World War airman
An American airman missing since the Second World War will finally get a proper war hero’s burial after his remains were unearthed following an amateur historian’s 40 year investigation.
Lieutenant William Montgomery was killed when his B-24 Liberator came down on land near Arundel, West Sussex in June 1944.
The plane had been shot at by anti-aircraft gunners during an attack on a German airfield in northern France.
It limped across the English Channel before it began to lose height off the Sussex coast.
Seven of the 10-man crew successfully bailed out while 24-year-old Lt Montgomery, his co-pilot John Crowther and Sgt John Holoka, the engineer, remained on board in an attempt to recover the situation.
When the plane caught fire and then crashed, the body of Sgt Crowther was recovered, but nothing was ever found of his two American colleagues.
Only an identity bracelet belonging to Lt Montgomery was ever retrieved, but thanks to the efforts of Andy Saunders, an amateur historian, that has now changed.
Mr Saunders looked into the fate of the bomber in the 1970s and pinpointed the most probable crash location to be a farm in Arundel.
Nothing was done about it until 11 years ago when Mr Saunders mentioned both the recovered bracelet and his crash site theory to an officer with the US Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) at a conference.
It prompted the Americans to do their own research, culminating in two excavations in 2019 and 2021 carried out with British historians.
As well as mangled wreckage that proved to be from the B-24 Liberator, a significant amount of human remains were found, which were transported to the US for DNA testing.
It has since been confirmed that some of the remains belonged to Lt Montgomery and he will be buried with full military honours at the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
His family are said to be “absolutely delighted” by the news.
Mr Saunders said: “I found the site in the 1970s when I spoke to an elderly local resident who remembered one of the crew was called Montgomery and he had found the bracelet with his name on and that unlocked the story.
“I researched the crash, tied all the bits together and realised there were two missing airmen from the crash.
“But nothing happened until I bumped into an American major with the US Department of Defence many years later and that sparked their interest.
“It is hugely satisfying to have played a significant part in bringing somebody home to his family and knowing that William Montgomery would still be missing today had I not initiated it.”
The DPAA said: “US Army Air Forces 1st Lt. William B. Montgomery, 24, of Ford City, Pennsylvania, killed during World War II, was accounted for Jan 10, 2023.
“A number of DPAA investigation and recovery efforts took place in 2017 and 2019, with a June 2021 recovery mission finding possible human remains and material evidence.”
Lt Montgomery and Sgt Holoka were part of 844 Squadron of the United States Air Force stationed in RAF Halesworth, Suffolk, during the war.
The squadron took part in strategic bombing missions of Normandy before, during and after D-Day.
On June 22, 1944 the ill-fated bomber took part in a raid on an airfield near Versailles when it was peppered by the flak that led to its destruction.
