Military officials say a Kansas man who died in Germany during World War II has been identified and his remains will be returned to his home state for burial.
HILL CITY, Kan. — The remains of a Kansas man who died during World War II in Germany have been identified and will be returned to his home state for burial later this year.
US Army Corps Sgt. 22 Gregory V. Knoll, Hill City. He was identified in January, but his family only recently received a full report, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Friday.
Knoll was assigned to Company M, 3rd Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division. In November 1944, his battalion was invaded by German forces as they attempted to capture Schmidt, Germany, in the Hurtgen Forest.
The survivors of the attack withdrew to Kommerscheidt, where Knoll was reported killed in action on 7 November 1944.
The American Grave Search Command conducted several investigations in the Hürtgen area between 1946 and 1950, but was unable to find or identify Knoll’s remains.
A DPAA historian later determined that a set of unidentified remains recovered at Kommerschedt in April 1946 possibly belonged to Knoll. The remains had been buried in the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium in 1949.
They were unearthed in July 2021 and shipped to the DPAA lab at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, where scientists used DNA and other analysis to identify Knoll’s remains.
Knoll will be buried July 7 in Garden City.
