Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Lynn W. Hadfield, 26, Of Salt Lake City Was Shot Down In March, 1945

Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Lynn W. Hadfield, 26, of Salt Lake City, who was killed during World War II, was buried in his home state 74 years to the day after being shot down over Germany.

Lt. Hadfield was accounted for on Dec. 13, 2018, according to the DPAA. On March 21, 1945, Hadfield was a member of the 642nd Bombardment Squadron, 409th Bombardment Group, 9th Bombardment Division, 9th Air Force, piloting an A-26B, when his aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire and went missing during a combat mission from Couvron, France to Dülmen, Germany. Hadfield, and his two crewmen, Sgt. Vernon Hamilton and Sgt. John Kalausich, had been participating in the interdiction campaign to obstruct German troop movements in preparation for the Allied crossing of the Rhine River on March 23, 1945.

After the war, the American Graves Registration Command extensively searched the area where the aircraft was believed to have crashed, however no crash sites could be positively matched with Hadfield’s aircraft.

In June 2016, a German researcher, Adolph Hagedorn, who had previously collaborated with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, JPAC (a predecessor to DPAA,) contacted DPAA historians regarding a crash site he had found in Hülsten-Reken, Germany, that could possibly be linked to Hadfield’s aircraft. In September 2016, Hagedorn led DPAA to the crash site in a horse paddock, where the aircraft matched the description of Hadfield’s.

In November and December 2016, under a partnership, History Flight, Inc., a nongovernmental organization, excavated the crash site, recovering aircraft material, life support equipment, personal effects and possible osseous material.

To identify Hadfield’s remains, scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis, anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence.

Hamilton and Kalausich were also identified on Dec. 13, 2018.

DPAA is grateful to Mr. Adolph Hagedorn, the government of Germany, and History Flight, Inc., for their partnership in this mission.

Hadfield was buried March 21, 2019, in Bluffdale, Utah.

(Source: DPAA news release. Image provided)

FMI: www.dpaa.mil