WASHINGTON — The remains of a Denver soldier killed in battle in 1944 during World War II have been identified, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) said on Thursday.
Army Staff Sgt. Harold A. Schafer was killed while fighting German forces near the town of Dillingen, Germany, on Dec. 10, 1944. Due to the fierce fighting, Schafer's body was unable to be recovered, DPAA said in a news release.
Schafer was 28 years old. He was assigned to Company B, 1st Battalion, 357th Infantry Regiment, 90th Infantry Division.
The DPAA said Schafer's battalion captured wooded high ground north of Dillingen on Dec. 6; however, intense German resistance kept the soldiers from moving farther.
Schafer's battalion took defensive positions on a hill and repelled German counterattacks over several days. On Dec. 10, Schafer was felled by machine gun fire while moving to a different fighting position.
U.S. forces were ordered to withdraw from the area on Dec. 21, leaving Schafer and many others' bodies behind, the DPAA said.
In 2018, a DPAA historian determined Schafer could be linked to a set of remains that had been recovered from the Dillingen area in 1946.
Then in 2021, the Department of Defense and the American Battle Monuments Commission exhumed the remains from Normandy American Cemetery in France. The remains were sent to the DPAA's lab.
Scientists used anthropological analysis, dental records and analyzed mitochondrial DNA to identify Schafer's remains.
Schafer's funeral will be held in Wheat Ridge at a later date.
Schafer’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Lorraine American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in St. Avold, France, along with the others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for, the DPAA said.
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