On August 21, 2015, while the Ohio Valley Archaeology, Inc. team (OVAI) was conducting the recovery mission in Allies Park in Lubin, Poland, something rather dramatic (perhaps, even providential) happened.

One of our key researchers, Marilyn Walton, was searching the internet for an old photo of Allies Park during wartime when it served as a municipal cemetery. Since Gen. Albert Clark had reported the POW burial party entered the front of the cemetery through an ornate iron gate, Marilyn thought finding a photo of it might help Dr. Jarrod Burks and the OVAI team who were in the midst of conducting their DPAA recovery mission. Beginining as far back as 2006 with then DPMO lead researcher Chief John Gray, repeated searches for such a photo revealed nothing. On Aug. 21 (the anniversary of the day Sconiers brought Johnny Reb back to England), Marilyn thought she'd try just one more time. She Googled "Lubin, Poland cemeteries".......

1. And as had always been the case, Marilyn found no photo of Allies Park or its former gate. Instead, a website called billiongraves.com emerged...and on that website, it showed a cemetery with a cross at grave 908. The name on the cross read "Sconiers, Edouard."

2. We soon learned the cross is located in Wojskowy Cmentarz Francuski in Gdansk, Pomeranian Volvodeship, Poland...6 hours north of Lubin on the Baltic Sea. The photo was taken by Adam Gas on May 27, 2015, and the scant information related to it was posted July 11. Sconiers' niece, Pamela Sconiers Whitelock, communicated with Mr. Gas, and he graciously provided his photo below. Here is the man whose photograph that fateful day may well have helped lead Ewart home.

Adam Gas

3. No one on any government research team before had any reason to inquire about the place, for there were no U.S. MIAs from that region. And, as the dates of the photo reveal, there was no online information one could even have accidentally found...until July 2015.

4. Ewart's full name was Ewart Theodore Sconiers. His military buddies called him "Ed." In fact, Gen. Clark (who was at Ewart's burial and who wrote about it in his book) referred to Ewart as "Ed Sconiers"...as did many others in their books.

5. When Sconiers was buried, there were 6 graves running in a row beside his, each with a small, white, wooden cross with a name on it. Sconiers' grave was #7, but no cross was placed on his grave until after the POW burial party had been taken back to Stalag Luft III. 

6. Col. Delmar Spivey's history of the South Compound included a report of Maj. Clermont Wheeler stating that five of the graves beside Sconiers' were those of fallen French soldiers. Both Spivey and Wheeler were part of Sconiers' burial party. It has long been believed the Frenchmen's remains were exhumed, though no one had any concrete documentation to that effect..again, until now, perhaps.

7. As it turned out, OVAI did not find Sconiers' remains in the northeast corner of Allies Park in Lubin. Meanwhile, "Ewart's Army" was heavily engaged in investigating the newly discovered cross in Gdansk.

8. So that the existence of the Sconiers cross might be validated, another long-standing member of "Ewart's Army," Szymon Serwatka, of Krakow, Poland, asked someone to actualy visit the Gdansk cemetery and take a current photo of it. 

9. The existence of the cross was validated. The only information associated with the cross was a date, 1939-1945, the dates of the WWII conflict. And, different from other crosses was the omission of the phrase (in French) "Died for France."

COL. CHRIS FORBES

(with Carolyn Clark Miller, daughter of Lt. Gen. Albert P. Clark)

Director, Europe/Mediterranean Directorate

Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA)

By this time, Col. Chris Forbes was in charge of Sconiers' case in Gdansk. Col. Forbes proved to be both a superb leader and a responsive, compassionate liaison between DPAA and Sconiers' family.

Our wizard researcher, Ed Reniere in Brussels, Belgium confirmed and shared with DPAA the following: (a) There was no information on any other "Sconiers" from WWII associated with Lubin, the cemetery in Gdansk, etc. It seems quite plausible that the name often associated with Ewart Sconiers--that is, "Ed Sconiers"--became Edouard Sconiers. (b) At least one French person buried in the Gdansk cemetery had been previously buried in Lubin. (c) No "Sconiers" served in WWII for either France or Belgium.

10. After WWII, Russia took over Poland. France was granted a 99 year lease on the land in Gdansk for a military cemetery while they feverishly worked to identify and repatriate as many of their French countrymen as possible. About 1100 military graves remain in the Gdansk cemetery.

11. The evidence and history supported the following: When the French got permission to remove remains of their military buried in the Lubin cemetery, they may have taken Sconiers with them. Whether they might have thought him to be French...or whether they did so because they thought him an ally, we have no idea, of course. But, it became clear Sconiers may have been reburied in Gdansk.

12. On September 8, 2016, DPAA exhumed remains from Grave 908 in Gdansk. Remains were taken to a nearby lab where a joint forensic exam was conducted by DPAA and Polish experts. Sconiers' extensive dental records were readily available. Though appearing positive, the dental assessment was not conclusive enough for the Polish government to release remains.

13.  A fragment of the remains was sent to our government's DNA lab in Dover, Delaware. The DNA analysis was sufficiently positive to warrant release of the remains to the U.S., and they were flown from Poland to a U.S. base in Germany.

14.  On November 18, the remains arrived at the DNA lab at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.  A thorough forensic exam was conducted there, an exam that lab officials stated typically took 10 weeks. Sconiers' niece was to be notified of the final report, which could possibly arrive sometime near the end of the year.  

15.  At 1:50 p.m. April 5, 2017, the Army Casualty Service called Sconiers' niece, Pamela Sconiers Whitelock, to officially report that DNA analysis confirmed the exhumed remains were, indeed, those of Lt. Sconiers!!!!

16.  Soon, Pamela will meet in person with her Casualty Officer for an I.D. Briefing that will focus on the loss, recovery, I.D., and "the way ahead"....or next steps to guide planning for Sconiers' reburial next to his mother in DeFuniak Springs, Florida.

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