Wildman, Walter G.
Army Private

Walter G. Wildman, age 20, from Pennsylvania, Bucks county.

Service era: World War II
Military history: 12 Infantry 4 Division

Date of death: Monday, November 13, 1944
Death details: On January 26, 2022, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Private Walter George Wildman, missing from World War II. Private Wildman entered the U.S. Army from Pennsylvania and served in Company M, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. By the fall of 1944, U.S. forces had advanced to the western border of Germany. The Hürtgen Forest offensive lasted from 19 September 1944 to 10 February 1945, consisting of a fierce series of clashes between U.S. forces and the entrenched German forces. On November 13, 1944, elements of the 12th Infantry Regiment assaulted German positions near Germeter, but the attack was broken up. Private Wildman was a member of a machine gun unit during the assault and was likely killed during this operation. His remains were not immediately recovered. In the coming years, many remains of U.S. service members were recovered from the area, but not all could be identified with techniques available at the time. One set of these remains was interred as an unknown in the Ardennes American Cemetery in 1950. Historical analysis by DPAA suggested these remains were a candidate for possible identification through modern forensics, and they were exhumed for study in April, 2019. The laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established the remains as those of Private Wildman.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency