Captain Georges Guynemer was confirmed missing in action by his squadron commander Major Brocard; it was officially announced in Paris by the French War Department on 25 September 1917. Unofficial confirmation came from a captured German pilot who was shot down behind Canadian lines the evening of 29 September. A German sergeant from the 413th Regiment swore he had witnessed the crash and identified Guynemer's corpse; he also certified that the French hero had died from a bullet through the head, with other injuries including a broken leg and a finger shot away. The German party retrieving the body was driven away by Allied artillery fire before they could bury or remove the body. The 25 September details released by the French War Department were unclassified and became public knowledge as described by one of his flying comrades (name withheld due to security reasons):