Tanker from the Second World War (Baskind, N.) > Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency > PressRelease ArticleView

Washington –

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that 1st Lieutenant Nathan B. Baskind, 28, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, killed during World War II, was listed as of May 8, 2024.

In June 1944, Baskind was assigned to Company C, 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion, as a platoon commander of four M-10 tank destroyers. According to historical war records, 1st Lt. Baskind and another man from his company were scouting ahead of their tank destroyers when enemy forces descended on them in an ambush. The other soldier, badly wounded, escaped the firefight and returned to the main American force, believing that Baskind was killed in the attack. Several attempts were made to retrieve Baskind’s body from the ambush, but they were unable to locate his remains.

After the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in Europe. Investigators discovered a death and burial report of 1st Lieutenant Baskind among the foreign documents recovered from the Germans, apparently submitted after the war on May 29, 1945 in Meiningen, Germany. The report revealed that 1st Lieutenant Baskind was captured and later died in a hospital for German air force personnel near Cherbourg on June 23, 1944. German troops subsequently buried him in the military cemetery in the city. In early 1948, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) sent the U.S. Army one of 1st Lt.’s identification tags. Baskind. It is believed that the German government probably submitted the label to the ICRC after the war, along with a death and burial report.

In November 1957 the Volksbund, the German War Graves Commission, contacted the US Army about 1st Lt. Baskind. During the excavation of a mass grave of probably 24 Germans buried in the Cherbourg cemetery, a Volksbund The team discovered one of 1st Lt.’s identification tags. Baskind and remains of an American shirt with the rank of first lieutenant and the tank destroyer insignia. The remains in the mass grave were mixed and the German team was unable to divide them into individual sets. The German researchers therefore placed the remains in seven grave bags and then reburied them at the German war cemetery Marigny, 65 kilometers south of Cherbourg. Subsequent attempts to recover the remains of 1st Lt. To identify Baskind by American and German researchers were unsuccessful.

In 2023, the Volksbund and other interested private research organizations have excavated the commingled remains of the Marigny War Cemetery for analysis. In February 2024, these investigators contacted DPAA to inform the agency that the remains of 1st Lt. Baskind had been analyzed by a private American laboratory and requested the agreement of DPAA. To verify Baskind’s remains, Armed Forces Medical Examiner System scientists reviewed previously conducted analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), Y-chromosome DNA (Y-STR), and autosomal DNA (auSTR).

The name of 1st Lt. Baskind is listed on the Walls of the Missing at the Normandy American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Colleville-sur-Mer, France, along with the others still missing from World War II. A rosette is placed next to his name to indicate that it has been taken into account.

For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.

DPAA is grateful to the American Battle Monuments Commission and the US Army Regional Mortuary-Europe/Africa for their partnership in this mission. DPAA is grateful for the Volksbund for their tireless work in helping to identify fallen service members from both sides of the conflict. DPAA is grateful to the Jewish heritage non-governmental organization Operation Benjamin for their dedication to the fallen of World War II, and their assistance in returning the lost to their rightful homes.

For additional information about the Department of Defense’s mission to ensure accountability for Americans who have gone missing while serving our country, please visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, or find us on social media at www. facebook.com/dodpaa or https://www. .linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.

Baskind’s employee profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000001nzTqQEAU.