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Lt Harry W. Eck joined the Air Corps of the U.S. Army Reserve in Minneapolis, Minnesota on 5 August 1942. He was sent overseas in July 1944.

Lt Eck was promoted to first lieutenant only a short time before his death. He had completed 20 or more bombing missions before the fatal mission.

The airplane feathered one engine and left the formation about halfway between the target and Frankfurt, shortly after the formation was attacked by fighters. The pilot looked for a suitable place for an emergency landing, but the aircraft lost altitude very rapidly, hit a chimney on a house, and crashed at 1245 hrs at the railway line on point 184,8.

Only one crew member had time to jump before the crash. One crew member was taken prisoner, and eight were killed. They were all buried at the cemetery of Neustädt-Werra.

According to the report of an investigation in January 1950, the remains of all the crew members were recovered by the 3046th QM Unit from this cemetery on 3 and 4 June 1945 and transferred to Margraten. At that time, the remains of only one crewmember were interred by name. A new investigation at Neustädt could not be conducted due to the political situation in the area since this town lay in the Russian-occupied zone of Germany.

In 1991, a German citizen, who was digging a grave in the cemetery of Neustädt, discovered a metal U.S. military identification tag and notified officials. The U.S. Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command was not able to gain access to the site until 2007 and, in 2008, excavated the area within the cemetery, recovered human remains, and additional metal identification tags from three of the crewmembers. After forensic and circumstantial evidence research, the remains could be identified as those of John J. Bono, John E. Hogan, and Emil T. Wasilewski.

1st Lt Eck is now buried at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

See www.minotdailynews.com for additional biographical information.