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To look at the documentation while reading these
narratives please click here
The Search
for Stanley Black
On June 12, 1944 15
Paratroopers and one RAAF man was executed by the 17th
SS in the town of la Metairie just west of le Mesnil
Angot. A number of the 16 men were buried as
unknowns, including X-94 and X-97 who are the focus
of this narrative.
James M. Naff and Stanley K.
Black were 2 of the 16 men who were executed on June
12, 1944 at la Metairie coordinates 422:752 on 29 GE
Map 31-16 NE St. Jean-de-Daye 1-25000. They were
brought to Blosville for burial on July 24, 1944 as
Unknown 94 and Unknown 97. Graves Registration Form
#1 was filled out for Unknown 94 (Pfc Naff)
correctly and the Inventory of Effects were filled
out correctly and signed by Captain Francis A.
Greulich of the 3041st Graves
Registration Company for both Unknown 94 and Unknown
97.
The next step on that day was
to fill out their Label’s of the Personal Effects
Bags (The label was cloth not unlike the tag on ones
shirt). Pfc Abraham Slyby from the 3041st
Graves Registration Company labeled Unknown 97 under
both Names for their Personal Effects. Their
Effects were the sealed and shipped to the Army
Effects Bureau, Kansas City Quartermaster Depot.
They sat there as they were both Unknowns at that
time.
At a latter time the bottom of
the label it had the correct Plot Numbers for both
Unknowns though. T-07-132 (Naff) had X-97 and
T-07-140 (Black) had X-97. So the Name with X-97
stayed, as the Graves Registration Form #1 was not
with their Effects at the Army Effects Bureau,
Kansas City Quartermaster Depot. If T-07-132 had
the correct name at the top X-94 the rest of the
story would not have happened.
Pfc Naff was identified in
November of 1944 and when they pulled down the box
with his effects they realized that X-97 was on both
Labels Personal Effects Bags. Even at this point
the error could have been prevented but it was not
to be. At first they changed the name of T-07-140
from X-97 to X-96. They quickly realized that X-96
who had not been identified at this time and was not
associated with X-97.
Even then they just had to
change Naff Label from X-97 to X-94 and the error
would have been corrected. They had no way of
knowing that though as the Graves Registration Form
1 was not at Army Effects Bureau, Kansas City
Quartermaster Depot. Someone at the Depot in Kansas
City then decided to combine Naff’s Effects with
X-97 thinking since they were both X-97 this had to
be Naff’s Personal Effects as well. It was much
later that T-07-132 and the T-07-140 were attached
to the respective Labels. By then the Effects had
been sent to the former Mrs. Naff.
Mrs. Treba received the Effects
for James Naff and Stanley Blacks Effects in March
of 1946 in two separate Parcels. The Army Effects
Bureau did not realize that Mrs. Treba Naff had
remarried in December 1945 and became Mrs. Treba
Coker. Those effects should have been sent to Jack
Naff the father of James Naff.
So now the search is on in
2014 to find the family members of Treba Coker and
if they still have the Effects for Naff that the
actual Naff Effects be sent to the Naff family and
the other Effects be sent to Elissa in Australia.
The Coker family probable
doesn’t even know anything about the mix-ups and
since Naff did not have a child, sending the Effects
to the correct families should be fine as long as
they still have them. The Coker family might have
thrown them out when Treba died in 2004 or she might
have sent them ahead in the 40’s to her former
Father-In-Law Jack Naff in Eastrop, LA.
The other question is did the
40.00 dollars go to Black’s father or did it go to
either Mrs. Coker or Jack Naff or did it stay with
the U.S. Government?
The search continues.
Brian Siddall
July 9, 2014
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