Missing World War II soldier killed in action identified

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Thursday U.S. Army Pvt. 1st Class Harry H. Hosfelt Jr., 20, of Connellsville, missing in action during World War II, was accounted for Sept. 28, 2023. In February 1944, Hosfelt was assigned to the Company A, 30th Infantry Regiment, 3d Infantry Division.
 

On Feb. 9, Hosfelt was killed in action when his unit was engaged by German Forces near the town of Cisterna di Latina, Italy.

His body was not recovered, and the Germans never reported him a prisoner of war. The War Department issued a finding of death on Feb. 3, 1945.

Following the war, the American Graves Registration Command, Army Quartermaster Corps, was the organization tasked with recovering missing American personnel in the European Theater.

In March 1945, AGRC investigators recovered a set of remains designated as X-745, near the small hamlet of Ponte Rotto thought to be associated with Hosfelt.

The investigators didn’t have enough identifying data to positively ID the remains and they were interred at USMC Nettuno, which is now Sicily-Rome American Cemetery.

He was declared non-recoverable in 1948.

While studying unresolved American losses in the Anzio battlefield, a DPAA historian determined that one set of unidentified remains designated X-745 recovered near Ponte Rotto possibly belonged to Hosfelt.

The remains which had been buried at Sicily-Rome American Cemetery, Nettuna, Italy in 1948, were disinterred in September 2021 and sent to the DPAA laboratory for identification.

To identify Hosfelt remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), analysis.

Hosfelt’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Sicily-Rome American Cemetery an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Nettuno, Italy, along with others still missing from World War II.

A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Hosfelt will be buried in Connellsville on June 29, 2024.

According to a story that appeared in The Daily Courier in March 1944, Hosfelt was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Hosfelt of the Narrows.

The story said the last letter written by their son was Jan. 19 in which he stated he had received a promotion and had been made an automatic rifleman.