Meyer, Melvin B.
Army 1st Lieutenant

Melvin B. Meyer from Missouri, Saint Louis county.

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Monday, May 29, 1944
Death details: On September 9, 2022, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of First Lieutenant Melvin Bernard Meyer, missing from World War II. First Lieutenant Meyer entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Missouri and served in the 569th Bombardment Squadron, 390th Bombardment Group. On May 29, 1944, he was the bombardier on a B-17 Flying Fortress (serial number 42-39953) with a crew of ten that took part in a bombing mission against enemy targets near Leipzig, Germany. During the mission, the plane was damaged by enemy fighters, caught fire, and fell out of formation. Six men succeeded in parachuting from the stricken bomber before it crashed near Horst, Brandenburg, Germany. They later returned to U.S. custody. Witnesses saw one crew member attempt to bail out from low altitude, but his parachute did not deploy, and the man was killed. His remains were buried in a civilian cemetery and later recovered. 1LT Meyer was one of three crew members whose remains were not recovered at the time. In July 2012, an investigation team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, a DPAA predecessor organization, found the crash site and recovered evidence of a B-17 crash. In 2019, the DPAA contracted History Flight, Inc. to excavate this crash site. The team recovered material evidence and traces of human remains. These materials were then transferred to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. The laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established an association between these remains and the three unaccounted-for fliers from the aircraft, including 1LT Meyer.

Source: National Archives