28 June 2023
FORT KNOX, Ky. (KSNW) – The remains of a soldier killed during World War II will be buried in Garden City on July 7.
Army Sgt. Gregory V. Knoll, a native of Garden City, was killed in action on Nov. 7, 1944, at the age of 22. Garnand Funeral Chapel will perform graveside services preceding the interment at Valley View Cemetery.
Knoll was assigned to Company M, 3rd Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division, which was tasked with capturing the town of Schmidt, Germany, in the Huertgen Forest in the fall of 1944. A heavy German counterattack overran his unit, forcing survivors to withdraw to Kommerscheidt, where Knoll was reported killed in action. His remains could not be recovered following the battle.
After the war’s end, the American Graves Registration Command, tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in Europe, conducted several investigations in the Huertgen area between 1946 and 1950 but was unable to recover or identify Knoll’s remains. He was declared non-recoverable in November 1951.
Later, a historian with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency determined one set of unidentified remains, designated X-2519 Neuville, recovered at Kommerscheidt in April 1946, possibly belonged to Knoll. The remains that had been buried in Ardennes American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium, in 1949, were disinterred on July 2021 and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for identification.
Knoll was accounted for by the DPAA on Jan. 3, 2023, after his remains were identified using circumstantial evidence as well as anthropological, mitochondrial DNA, Y chromosome DNA and autosomal DNA analysis.
His name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Hombourg, Belgium, along with others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.