NEWS

Remains of missing S.D. fighter pilot recovered after 70 years

Jonathan Ellis
jonellis@argusleader.com
1st Lt. Ben Barnes in a fighter plane. Barnes was shot down in World War II and declared missing in action.

The remains of a World War II fighter pilot from South Dakota will be laid to rest in his home town of Miller next week more than 70 years after he went missing during a fierce combat mission.

The remains and some personal items belonging to 1st Lt. Ben B. Barnes were recovered by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency from a crash site northeast of Berlin. Barnes will be laid to rest at a ceremony at 2 p.m. on Oct. 15 at the GAR Cemetery in Miller.

Barnes remained missing and presumed dead for decades, in part because the area where he crashed was located in East Germany behind the Iron Curtain after World War II ended and the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States began.

“We couldn’t get in the area,” said Lt. Col. David Fossum with the South Dakota Army National Guard. “The Russians wouldn’t let us.”

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Barnes was an only child and both of his parents died – his father in 1956 and mother in 1973, Fossum said. He was married in July of 1944 shortly before leaving for Europe, but investigators do not know what happened to her. They did not have children.

Still, despite not having direct relatives, Barnes was well known among his generation in Miller, said Jim Jones, a Hand County commissioner and longtime board member of the GAR Cemetery. Jones said his 87-year-old mother recalled that Barnes, while training as a fighter pilot, would sometimes call old friends to let them known he would be flying over. The students at the high school would crowd the windows to see Barnes’ plane buzz the town.

“He has this kind of lore that exists to him,” Jones said.

Barnes was a West Point cadet, which means he would have been smart and presumably a good athlete, Fossum said. He had also been awarded two air medals by the time he was shot down. Although his records don’t indicate why he earned the medals, an air medal was often awarded for flying 25 combat missions or performing some other kind of deed, Fossum said.

Ben Barnes as a West Point cadet. Barnes was a fighter pilot in World War II who was shot down and declared missing in action. He grew up in Miller, S.D.

One month before he was shot down, Barnes’ squadron transitioned from the P-47, a rugged fighter, to the P-51, a speedier, nimbler long-distance fighter. Fossum likened the change from driving an SUV to driving a Ferrari.

His final mission came on Dec. 5, 1944. Barnes, flying with the 361st Fighter Squadron, 356th Fighter Group, was on an escort mission to protect U.S. bombers. Following the bombing run, the group spotted 40 to 60 German FW-190 fighters, according to an after-action report by 2nd Lt. John Lindsay, who was Barnes’ wingman. Barnes was leading a group of fighters to attack when about five German fighters jumped them from behind. Lindsay reported becoming separated from Barnes in the ensuing dogfight, which lasted about 15 minutes.

Barnes never made it back to his base in England. A year and a day after he went missing in action, his status was changed to missing in action, presumed dead.

Sixteen P-51s crashed in Germany that day. Half the pilots were killed, and two of those, Barnes and 1st Lt. Russell Scharnberg, were missing.

German investigators researched the crash site in 1953, and eyewitnesses reported seeing a burning plane crater into the ground. Human remains were in the crash site. But German troops covered the hole without removing anything. Based upon the last locations in which Barnes and Scharnberg were reported, the U.S. Army initially thought that the crash site belonged to Scharnberg’s P-51.

But in 2008, a German aircraft researcher identified Scharnberg’s plane with one that had been pulled out of a lake in the same region of Germany where both men had gone down. The serial number from the wreckage, which was stored at a military history museum, matched Scharnberg’s plane.

Ironically, the two men who died on the same day and declared missing were born only a couple weeks apart and served in the same fighter group. Scharnberg grew up in Everly, Iowa, in northwest Iowa.

Investigators visited the crash site described by the 1953 German investigators in August 2010. The team found pieces of aircraft wreckage. The site couldn’t be excavated until last summer.

The excavation revealed two machine guns with serial numbers that were matched to Barnes’ P-51. They recovered dog tags, aviator wings and a wrist watch. They also recovered bone fragments, including five teeth, Fossum said.

Next, they had to confirm that they had discovered Barnes by finding relatives. Marc Krogstad of Chamberlain was one of Barnes’ distant cousins.

“He was always a topic in the family,” Krogstad said. “We would talk about him and always kind of wonder. We knew the military was looking for him, but never thought they would find remains.”

A DNA sample from Krogstad’s sister confirmed that the remains were Barnes. Krogstad calls it a “phenomenal story” and credits the military for not giving up.

Barnes’ death has been marked for decades at the GAR Cemetery with a headstone that declared him as missing in action. In recent years, Jones said he has found himself lingering over the headstone, reflecting on the sacrifice that Barnes made.

“I’m glad they put that headstone there, 60 or 70 years ago,” he said.

Come Oct. 15, Barnes’ remains, which were under a German field for more than 70 years, will be at his hometown cemetery, resting in peace with friends and family, his people. The location will be immediately next to a veterans’ memorial in the cemetery, which Jones said is “poetic.”

And even though Barnes has few remaining relatives, Krogstad, Jones and Fossum are expecting a big turnout on Oct. 15 when 1st Lt. Ben Barnes is finally laid to rest.

A headstone for 1st Lt. Ben Barnes, who was shot down and declared missing in action during World War II. Barnes remains were recovered more than 70 years later.