For more than 80 years, a Savannah, Georgia, family believed their uncle, 2nd Lt. Marion “Don” Zipperer, was killed in Italy during World War II. But thanks to a French historian’s research, they’ve learned the truth — his plane actually went down in France.

Zipperer’s grave lies in Savannah’s Greenwich Cemetery, but the family now feels a deep connection to a countryside nearly 5,000 miles away, where his P-47 Thunderbolt crashed just days after his 20th birthday.

“I was born 10 years after my uncle passed away. We never got to meet him — just pictures and a few stories. Nothing else. Now we know,” said Steven Shealy, Zipperer’s nephew.

The discovery came after French historian and World War II reenactor Sylvain Ducrot contacted the family. Ducrot had been researching American troops w

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