CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — This week, a World War II soldier from River Grove will be buried — 76 years after he died when his plane was shot down over Germany.
His name was Francis Wiemerslage and he was a U.S. Army Air Force sergeant. As a ball turret gunner, he sat in the cramped compartment in the belly of the plane.
“He was a little guy. 5-foot-3, 124 pounds. But he was full of — as my grandma would say — piss and vinegar,” his nephew Phil Wiemerslage told WBBM Newsradio.
On March 2, 1945, Francis Wiemerslage was only 20 when his B-17 bomber was shot down over Germany.
Two men parachuted to safety but six died and their remains were identified in the 1940s.
But Francis Wiemerslage was unaccounted for. His mother, who never wanted him to go to war, clung to the idea of seeing him again.
“She really never gave up hope that maybe he was still miraculously alive. Somewhere with a different family or was wandering around,” Phil Wiemerslage said.
It wouldn’t be until this past summer, 76 years later and long after his and his mother's deaths, that Francis Wiemerslage’s remains were positively identified using DNA testing.
Not long before he died two years ago, Francis Wiemerslage’s brother Rollie gave a DNA sample after officials began focusing on remains they believed might be Francis Wiemerslage’s.
“One of the last things he said to us was, ‘Don’t forget about Frankie,’” Phil Wiemerslage said.
On Friday, the family expects to receive articles found in Germany including part of a wallet that may have belonged to Francis Wiemerslage.
And on Saturday, he will be buried in River Grove.
“He’ll live on forever. He never got to live his life, but hopefully, through the memories and the documents and the stories, he’ll live on,” Phil Wiemerslage said.
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