Soldier Killed in WWII to be Buried 63 Years after his Death

Intact AoP prayer card, which survived the bombing, found with him.

By Wamego Times staff - Wamego, Kansas

Wamego, KS - After more than six decades, Harold Fechter has come home. 

The remains of Sgt. Fechter will be buried June 22, in a private ceremony in St. Bernard Catholic Cemetery - 63 years after he was killed in action atop Italy's Mount Battaglia during World War II.

Larry Fechter thought it was a hoax when, more than 18 months ago, he received a phone call from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command Central Identification Laboratory at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii.  The caller said they may have the remains of his older brother and asked if Fechter would provide a DNA sample for positive identification.

It was no hoax.  In the ensuing months, a Salina nurse who does contract work for the government arrived at Wamego for a blood sample which was shipped to CIL and resulted in a "definite match."...

Sgt. Harold Fechter was 21 years old when, on October 3, 1944, an enemy artillery shell exploded in his foxhole on Mt. Battaglia in Italy.  He was a member of Company B of the 2nd Battalion of the 350th Infantry Regiment which had been ordered to advance up the Italian peninsula and secure the high ground of Mount Carnivale and Mount Battaglia on the eastern shore of the Santerno River. 

"From 27 September until being relieved by the British 1st Division on 5 October, the 2nd Battalion of the 350th secured and held Mount Battaglia in the face of fierce enemy counterattacks," the JPAC-CIL report stated. 

By 1951, American Graves Registration units had located the remains of all but six US servicemen - including Sgt. Fechter - killed in the vicinity of Mount Battaglia.  "Their remains subsequently were declared to be non-recoverable," the report stated.

"The fact of the matter is, we had always been told that they searched the area three different times and never found anything," said Larry Fechter, who was 11 years old when his brother was killed.  "I think he was just totally buried (by the explosion from the artillery shell)."

A funeral service was held in St. Bernard Catholic Church four or five months after Fechter's death, but there were no remains for burial. 

In 2005-06, the US Army Memorial Affairs Activity - Europe received four bone samples and four tooth samples discovered in the late 1980s by Italian nationals atop Mount Battaglia.  The samples were turned over to CIL for DNA analysis.  Also recovered were a possible campaign ribbon, a watch band buckle, boot fragments, a field ration can and lid, a can opening twist key, a herringbone twill fabric, and a wallet insert of the Madonna from the "Apostleship of Prayer"...

"The most amazing thing was that prayer card.  It's something he had in his billfold and it's the only thing that survived, " said Larry Fechter.

The Apostleship of Prayer, a Catholic association founded in 1844, still exists with more than 25 million members worldwide.  The Fechter family contacted the association and received a new card similar to the one which survived an enemy artillery shell more than 60 years ago. 

The new card will be buried with Sgt. Harold Fechter June 22.