(Mirror.)

Although the Second World War is a well‐known historical period, anthropological recoveries, especially of enlisted soldiers, are rare for the period. […] According to the biological profile of the soldiers recovered, a wide range of ages was represented (18–50 years old). This air force population contained young German boys, who were enrolled just before the beginning of the war (from the outskirts of Berlin, for example) (Adams, 1944) and military personnel who had several years of experience with the Luftwaffe (notably when engaged during the Spanish [Civil] War).

The young aviators were recruited from the age of 18, and training lasted a few months for bombers (Adams, 1944). The [Reich’s] air force was very selective. In 1939, the Luftwaffe was composed of young soldiers (half of the enlisted records) and supervised by former pilots from the First World War or by men who had moved from the Reichswehr to the air ministry in 1933 (Razoux, 2019).

This age distribution is consistent with the cohort of soldiers exhumed. All ages are represented without a predominance of young soldiers, which will be more important at the end of the war. They also had a minimal height requirement to be a pilot of at least 160 cm, and being between 170 and 185 cm was preferred (Moulin, 2009). The estimated stature of individuals was ranged from 157 to 179 cm. The estimate is proposed with a standard deviation, which explains the somewhat low range compared with the minimum size requirements.

However, we are still within the standards. All individuals were required to be within the specified heights to be recruited. The biological profile corresponds to the known recruitment for the Luftwaffe at the beginning of the war.

[…]

Historical documentation, archaeological evidence, and anthropological analysis all strongly suggest that the 10 individuals buried with military equipment are soldiers who died as a direct result of combat and airplane crashes. For the individuals buried without military equipment and with a craniotomy, this indicated that the individuals died at the military hospital near the airfield and were afterward buried in the temporary cemetery.

However, the cause of death was difficult to determine because they did not have lethal bone injuries. The practice of craniotomy was already observed in the German army during the First World War, but it was not associated with a specific cause of death (Jankauskas et al., 2014).