Missing in Action No More

The remains of Henry Allen Jr. were returned home to Covington and laid to rest more than eight decades after he enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces. He had been shot down over Germany during a mission in a B-24 Liberator on April 8, 1944.

Henry Hanes Allen Jr. had recently graduated from Newton County High School and was a student at North Georgia College when the United States of America entered World War II. He decided to enlist with the United States Army Air Forces while still in his late teens. The date was June 10, 1942.

Allen became a sergeant and was a top turret gunner assigned to the 732nd Bombardment Squadron, 453rd Bombardment Group, 2nd Combat Bomb Wing, 2nd Air Division and 8th Air Force in the European Theatre. On April 8, 1944, Allen and nine other crew members were aboard “Little Joe,” a B-24 Liberator, when they were shot down over Germany while on a mission. Allen was listed as missing in action, as days, months, years and then decades passed.

Then on June 20, 2024, Allen’s remains were found in a cornfield near Salzwedel, Germany. Eighty-two years and 10 days after he enlisted, he returned home to Covington.

Allen’s cousin, Ray Bouchillon, who lives in Eatonton, was contacted by way of public records for a DNA sample to confirm the identity of the remains. Though Bouchillon was just a year old at the time of Allen’s death, he commends his cousin for the sacrifice he made in service for America.

“It was really a brave thing he did as an 18-year-old to just go ahead and join the Air Force.”
Ray Bouchillon

“I think he was very brave to do that at the age of 18,” Bouchillon said. “I sure wouldn’t have done it at 18.” Bouchillon also shared that the Army sent him a book detailing the process of discovering Allen’s remains. He found one tidbit to be most interesting. “The place where the plane went down was a cornfield in Germany, and there were 31 bombers on that mission that day. I think they were all shot down,” Bouchillon said. “What amazed me was that a German, who was a child at that time, remembered seeing the plane come down and pointed it out to the exploration team where it had crashed. By this time, the plane had been covered in five to six feet of dirt. They had to dig down that much in order to find the plane.”

An 11Alive news article provided a timeline of movement on the search from the past decade. In the years immediately after World War II, all searches by the American Graves Registration Command were unsuccessful. Then, in 2015, fresh details came to light when the Missing Allied Air Crew Research Team (MAACRT) contacted historians in the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). The independent research group located evidence that hinted at a potential crash site in the Wistedt, Germany, area.

The crew of b-24 “Little Joe.” Sergeant Allen is second from the right, front row. Aircraft behind is not “little joe.”

MAACRT discussions led to investigators being sent to two sites—one unrecovered by America after the war and the second where wreckage and possible human remains were discovered. Years later, from 2021–23, additional searches were completed. In November 2023, all “recoverable evidence” was sent to the DPAA laboratory for analysis. Evidence included potential osseous remains and life-support equipment. Starting the identification process, DPAA scientists utilized anthropological and dental analysis. Simultaneously, the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used the mitochondrial DNA analysis that ultimately led to Bouchillon being contacted.

Allen was the son of Henry Allen Sr. and Maria Allen of Jackson. He was born on Aug. 30, 1923 and moved to Covington soon thereafter. Allen grew up in Covington and graduated from Covington Public Schools. He was not the first member of his family to join the armed forces, as his father served a four-year stint in the United States Navy. Interestingly, when Allen enlisted, he did so without his parents’ knowledge. After his plane was shot down, Allen’s mother continued to wait for her son to walk through the door once again. Bouchillon wishes Allen’s remains had been found before his mother died in 2003.

“His mother shared with me [that] she thought he’d come home any day, because he was missing in action,” Bouchillon said. “They never said they were sure he was dead, but he was just missing in action. So, from 1944 until her death in 2003, she expected any time he might come home.”

Not being old enough to have memories of the fallen soldier, Bouchillon recalls the stories Allen’s mother relayed about him. Photos in Bouchillon’s possession suggest that Allen worked two jobs, with one possibly being in the newspaper business. He thinks Allen would have pursued something in the manufacturing sector had he returned home.

Despite the reality that he never made it back to Covington alive, Allen’s heroism lives on in various ways. The Walls of the Missing at the Netherlands Cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands, still bear his name, and according to the 11Alive article, a rosette has now been placed next to it to signify Allen has been found.

Once his remains were returned, services were held at the Chapel of J.C. Harwell & Son Funeral Home on Oct. 12, 2024, with full military honors. Officiating the service was Rev. Neeley Rentz Lane, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Covington, where Allen’s mother attended. Several people thanked Allen for his service to the country on the funeral home’s tribute wall. “You are not forgotten,” one person wrote. Bouchillon’s niece named her firstborn son Haynes—similar to Allen’s middle name, which was used to differentiate him from his father.

Bouchillon encourages local community members to honor his cousin by placing a flower on his grave or remembering him in a church service. Much has transpired in the eight-plus decades since Allen’s enlistment. All these years removed from that day in 1942, Bouchillon continues to marvel at his cousin’s courage.

“It was really a brave thing he did as an 18-year-old to just go ahead and join the Air Force,” Bouchillon said. “Everybody here and everybody there in Covington missed him that knew him.”

Click here to read more stories by Phillip B. Hubbard.