Memorial

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2nd Lt Henry D. Mitchell attended 2 years of college and was a mechanic and repairman before he joined the Regular Army in Little Rock, Arkansas on 10 September 1942.

Lt. Donald E. Wimmer witnessed what happened:
I was leading Green Flight, on a fighter sweep to Vienna, Lt. Mitchell was flying my wing, or the No. 2 position. About 10 miles northeast of Vienna, at 23,000 feet at approximately 1105, my No. 3 man called a left break. We broke in place, Lt. Mitchell followed through on the turn as I glanced up in the mirror and saw him about one plane length behind me. Observing enemy aircraft attacking from the rear, I called a right break and while engaging the e/a I noticed that Lt. Mitchell was nowhere within my view. The No. 3 and 4 men of my flight did not hear my command to break right and continued to chase the e/a. I did not see Lt. Mitchell after the right break and neither did the pilots flying No. 3 and 4 positions. I do not know what happened to him, but I am sure he was not shot up in the engagement which just ended.

He was officially declared death one year and one day after he reported missing and was presumed death.

Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in Europe. However, Mitchell’s circumstances of loss behind enemy lines precluded any possibility of recovery at the time. Search opportunities in the area did not improve after the war, when Austria was divided into four occupation zones. Eastern Austria, which included the area surrounding Vienna, was in the Soviet Zone of Occupation.

Although the AGRC did not have access to the area, they did conduct research into the captured German records detailing known shoot-downs of American aircraft. German records reported the crash of a P-38 Lightning near Waldegg, Austria, on 8 July 1944, and indicated the fate of the pilot as unknown. Mitchell was declared non-recoverable on 11 December 1953.

In the summer of 2013, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), a predecessor of DPAA, sent an investigation mission to the reported crash site near Waldegg. The investigation found evidence that possibly linked the site with Mitchell’s P-38. It took several years before DPAA was given permission to excavate the site. In spring of 2021, a recovery team found possible evidence which was subsequently sent to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for scientific analysis.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced that 2nd Lt. Henry D. Mitchellwas accounted for on 3 August 2021.

Funeral arrangments are pending (August 2021).