Top Photo: US Navy destroyer USS Glennon (DD-620), right, after the stern was blown off by a mine off Normandy, France, on June 8, 1944. Official US Navy Photo NH 44311 

Researchers have identified the remains of an American sailor who died after German artillery struck his destroyer near Utah Beach in the days following the D-Day invasion of Normandy in World War II.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced that 25-year-old US Navy Carpenter’s Mate Second Class William R. Burns of Raleigh, North Carolina, was accounted for more than 80 years after his death.

Burns was aboard the USS Glennon as the destroyer supported the D-Day landing operations off Utah Beach, protecting the bombardment group from German submarines and firing on enemy machine gun nests and shore batteries.

The Sinking of the USS Glennon

On June 8, 1944, Glennon struck an acoustic mine, causing a “tremendous explosion” that tossed several crew members into the air before they landed overboard. Sixteen crew members were rescued from the water, including one sailor who had broken legs and possible internal injuries after being thrown 40 feet into the air. An immediate damage assessment showed the ship was not in danger of sinking, but its stern had become anchored to the shallow bottom by its starboard propeller.

Ultimately, Glennon’s Lieutenant Commander Clifford A. Johnson ordered the wounded men and half of the crew to transfer off the ship, then instructed those who stayed aboard—including Burns—to continue salvage efforts.

On June 10, just as Johnson was about to resume efforts to save the ship, a German artillery battery near Quinéville began firing on the ship. Johnson then gave the order to abandon the ship after separate salvos struck the destroyer amidships and injured more men.

Glennon continued to float until around 9:45 p.m., when it began listing heavily and sank.

After the attack, 38 sailors were wounded and 25 were missing, including Burns. His remains were not accounted for, and he was deemed nonrecoverable on April 14, 1949.

Remains Discovered in 1957

In 1957, pieces of the Glennon were hauled ashore by salvagers, and a resident searching through larger sections of the wreckage found human remains within the forward portion of the ship. The remains were turned over to American officials, and processing determined that the remains belonged to at least two individuals. After efforts to identify them were unsuccessful, the remains were interred on March 4, 1959, at Ardennes American Cemetery in Neupré, Belgium.

In 2021, DPAA researchers began an effort to account for the unresolved sailors from Glennon. In August 2022, the two sets of unknown remains were exhumed. Scientists from DPAA conducted anthropological analysis and used circumstantial evidence to identify one set of the remains as Burns. In addition, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used DNA analysis, including nuclear single nucleotide polymorphism testing, for identification of Burns’s remains.

Burns’s name is recorded at the American Battle Monuments Commission’s Tablets of the Missing at Ardennes American Cemetery. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate that he has been accounted for.

Burns will be buried in Chadbourn, North Carolina. The date for that ceremony has not yet been announced.