The remains of a World War II airman from Michigan have been identified nearly 80 years after he was killed in a bombing raid over Romania.
Second Lieutenant Peter A. Timpo, 24, of Ecorse, was a bombardier with the 343rd Bombardment Squadron in the summer of 1943, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) said on Wednesday.
He is believed to have been killed in action on Aug. 1, when his B-24 Liberator was hit by enemy fire during Operation Tidal Wave, a massive Allied operation against oil refineries north of Bucharest, the agency said.
Timpo’s unidentified remains were buried in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery in Romania before being relocated to Belgium after the war.
In 2017, the DPAA exhumed the unidentified bodies associated with Operation Tidal Wave, which were then sent to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska for DNA testing.
Timpo was officially accounted for using mitochondrial, chromosomal and autosomal analysis on July 20, 2022, the agency confirmed.
The young airman’s name is also memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery in Italy. A rosette will be placed next to his name to acknowledge that he has been identified.
Peter A. Timpo was assigned to the 343rd Bombardment Squadron in 1943. Defense Pow/Mia Accounting Agency
Timpo and members of his squadron in an undated photo. Defense Pow/Mia Accounting AgencyThe DPAA said Timpo’s remains will be reinterred at Arlington National Cemetery.
A fleet of 177 aircraft were deployed in Operation Tidal Wave, CBS News reported. Timpo’s B-24 — nicknamed “Four Eyes” — was among 51 that did not return.
Of the five other servicemen on Timpo’s plane, three — Staff Sergeant Robert C. Elliott, Second Lieutenant John E. Kraft and Technical Sergeant Lawrence R. Reitz — remain unaccounted for.
