Fatur, Stephen J.
Army Staff sergeant
Stephen J. Fatur, age 19, from Westmoreland County Slickville, Pennsylvania .
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Thursday, March 22, 1945
Death details: On July 9, 2025, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified the remains of U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Stephen J. Fatur, missing from World War II. Fatur entered the U.S. Army Air Forces in Pennsylvania and served with the 429th Bombardment Squadron, 2nd Bombardment Group. On March 22, 1945, he was the tail gunner aboard a B-17G Flying Fortress aircraft, serial number 44-8191, with ten crew members which took part in a bombing mission on oil refineries in Ruhland, Germany. During its run, the B-17G sustained damage, which prompted the pilot to fly the aircraft toward a friendly airstrip in Russia for an emergency landing. While over Poland, the bomber was engaged by several German fighter aircraft and was critically damaged, forcing the crew to bail out. Survivor reports indicate that the enemy fighters fired on the crew as they parachuted to the ground. Of the ten crew members, eight were lost due to injuries sustained at some point, Fatur among them. Two survivors were captured by German troops and later returned to U.S. custody. The B-17G was reported to have crashed north of Breslau, Poland. Following the war, the American Graves Registration Command searched for and disinterred the remains of U.S. servicemen in Europe as part of the global effort to identify and recover fallen servicemen. However, the American Graves Registration Command investigations in the Soviet occupied zone of Europe, including Poland, were severely limited. Between 2019 and 2024, DPAA partnered with Alta Archaeological Consulting to plan and conduct five excavations at the site where Fatur’s aircraft crashed. During the excavations, teams led by Alta recovered possible remains, which were transferred to a DPAA Laboratory for further analysis. The laboratory analysis and total circumstantial evidence identified the remains as those of Fatur.
Source: Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Pittsburgh Press (1945)