[John Manrho]

The root cause of this puzzle lies with the VdK....they list several dead as "Unter den Unbekannten" or under the unknowns for several different war cemeteries. This was done under numerous instances, but is not always really the truth...

Sometimes indeed there was documentary proof that somebody was buried somewhere else initially (field grave or community cemetery) but during transfer to a war cemetery could not be positively identified. However, there are also hundreds of cases where there is proof the victim did not survive (for instance other pilot saw a/c crash and pilot did not leave a/c) and that they simply list the closest war cemetery as likely candidate.

I have numerous pilots in the NL which are listed as "Unter den Unbekannten" for Ysselsteyn while there is no shred of evidence (at the VdK or WASt) they were ever buried there or were found at all. All that is sure they were killed in the crash.

I also noted the english translation on the VDK Datenbank site is even more positive then the actual German text....

Bottom line....if there is a statement "Unter den Unbekannten" in the VDK Datenbank it has no value at all....

Regards,

John