Richard A. Meech, age 33, from New York, Monroe county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Monday, November 6, 1944
Death details: Killed in action
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Lyle Paxton, age 22, from West Virginia, Roane county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Monday, November 6, 1944
Death details: Killed in action
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Max W. Thurston from Michigan, Genesee county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Monday, November 6, 1944
Death details: Killed in action
Cemetery: Unaccounted For
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Ira I. Harden, age 23, from Virginia, Smyth county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Sunday, November 5, 1944
Death details: Killed in action
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
William H. Heurich, age 36, from Pennsylvania, Fayette county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Sunday, November 5, 1944
Death details: Killed in action
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
William Laverne Simon, age 20, from Middleton, Wisconsin, Dane county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Sunday, November 5, 1944
Death details: Accounted for November 29, 2022. In November 1944, Simon was assigned to Company G, 2nd Battalion, 109th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division. His unit was engaged in battle with German forces near Hürtgen, Germany, in the Hürtgen Forest, when he was reported killed in action on Nov. 5. His remains could not be recovered during the battle. Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in Europe. They conducted several investigations in the Hürtgen area between 1946 and 1950 but were unable to identify Simons’s remains. He was declared nonrecoverable on Dec. 10, 1950. While studying unresolved American losses in the Hürtgen area, a DPAA historian determined that one set of unidentified remains, designated X-5767 Neuville, recovered in a field south of Hürtgen in 1946 possibly belonged to Simon. The remains, which had been buried in Ardennes American Cemetery in 1950, were disinterred in April 2019 and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for identification.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Michael Cuozzo from New York, Kings county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Saturday, November 4, 1944
Death details: Killed in action
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
James I. Trick from Pennsylvania, Lycoming county.
Service era: World War II
Military history: 109 Infantry 28 Division
Date of death: Saturday, November 4, 1944
Death details: On July 8, 2019, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified the remains of Private James I. Trick, missing from World War II. Private Trick entered the U.S. Army from Pennsylvania and served in Company M, 3rd Battalion, 109th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division during the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest. He was mortally wounded by shell fragments on November 4, 1944, while bringing supplies to his unit’s positions near Germeter, Germany. His body was not immediately recovered and he was reported missing. In 1947, an American Graves Registration Service investigator recovered Private Trick’s remains and transferred them to Neuville, Belgium; however, they could not be individually identified at the time, and he was buried as an unknown in the Ardennes American Cemetery in 1949. Based on the recovery location of these remains and the historical record of combat in the northern sector of the Hürtgen Forest, DPAA analysts associated these remains with Private Trick, and his remains were exhumed in June 2018 and taken to the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Eventually, modern forensic tools were able to successfully identify the remains as those of Private Trick.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Walker Hines from North Carolina, Columbus county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Friday, November 3, 1944
Death details: The Battle of the Hürtgen Forest, one of the bloodiest conflicts of World War II, was fought between Allied and German forces from September 1944 to February 1945. As U.S. forces advanced eastward into Germany, the defending Germans manned “Siegfried Line” positions opposite the Belgian border. The battle grew to involve approximately 200,000 troops, with tens of thousands of casualties on both sides. American forces initially entered the area seeking to block German reinforcements from moving north toward the fighting around Aachen, the westernmost city of Germany, near the borders with Belgium and the Netherlands. In the battle’s second phase and as part of the Allied’s larger offense toward the Rhine River, U.S. troops attempted to push through the forest to the banks of Roer River. Aided by bad weather and rough terrain, German forces in the Hürtgen Forest put up unexpectedly strong resistance due to a well-prepared defense. American forces were unable to break through to the Rur before the German Ardennes offensive struck in December 1944, known as the Battle of the Bulge, which halted the eastward Allied advance until February 1945. Private Walker Hines, who joined the U.S. Army from North Carolina, was a member of Company G, 112th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division, during the Battle of Hurtgen Forest. He was reported missing in action on November 3, 1944, while serving near Germeter, Germany, and attempts to locate the private following his disappearance were unsuccessful. Today, Private Hines is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
John J. Sitarz from West Virginia, Hancock county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Thursday, November 2, 1944
Death details: On May 27, 2020, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Private First Class John J. Sitarz, missing from World War II. Private First Class Sitarz entered the U.S. Army from West Virginia and served in Company L, 110th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division. On November 2, 1944, he was wounded when he stepped on a landmine near Germeter, Germany, during the Battle of Hurtgen Forest. Members of his unit were unable to reach him and he was reported missing. He did not survive this action, and his remains were not recovered at the time. Remains reportedly recovered from a minefield near Germeter were exhumed in 2018, and brought to the DPAA Laboratory where scientists used circumstantial evidence and laboratory analysis and determined that the soldier had been killed by multiple gunshot wounds to the head. DPAA eventually identified the remains as those of PFC Sitarz.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency