An Aroostook man who died when his plane was shot down over France during World War II has finally returned home.
U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Merrill E. Brewer, 26, of Monticello was a waist gunner on a B-24 Liberator bomber with the 858th Bombardment Squadron, 492nd Bombardment Group, Eighth Air Force, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
His unit was engaged in a series of secret missions as part of Operation CARPETBAGGER, dropping supplies, weapons, equipment, leaflets and agents to assist French groups resisting Nazi occupation.
But on Sept. 16, 1944, an American anti-aircraft artillery unit stationed near Lebeuville, France, mistook Brewer’s B-24 for an enemy plane and shot it down.
Two crew members parachuted to safety, while Brewer and five others went down with the plane. It was their last mission, to drop supplies to resistance fighters 40 miles east of the Moselle River.
The next day American soldiers recovered remains from the crash site, along with four sets of identification tags, including Brewer’s. They were buried in a common grave at the U.S. Military Cemetery in Andilly, France. Those remains were moved in 1949 and buried in a single casket at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.
Then in 2013 a team from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency went to Bainville-aux-Miroirs, France, where they gathered information and surveyed the crash site. The area was excavated between Oct. 16 and Nov. 16, 2021, when a team from Geoscope Services Ltd. recovered new remains and evidence.
Brewer’s remains were positively identified on Dec. 20, 2024.
His name has been listed on the Walls of the Missing at Lorraine American Cemetery, where a rosette will be placed next to Brewer’s name to indicate he has been found, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said Wednesday.
Brewer was buried in Bridgewater in September.
