Killed in World War II, Army Technician Harold Pittis accounted for

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced recently that U.S. Army Technician Fifth Grade (Tech5) Harold D. Pittis, 21, of Freeport, Ohio, killed during World War II, was accounted for March 20, 2024.

In February 1945, Pittis was assigned to Company G, 2nd Battalion, 318th Infantry Regiment, 80th Infantry Division. His regiment was engaged in fierce fighting near the town of Biesdorf, Germany, when he was reported killed in action by small arms fire on Feb. 8. His body was unable to be recovered due to intense fighting against heavily reinforced German forces on an elevated position. Despite various recovery attempts, Pittis’s remains were not accounted for during or after the war.

Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in Europe. In 1951, remains were recovered from a wooded area southeast of Biesdorf. Remnants of military clothing, an American helmet and ammunition were found, but no identification tags or personal effects were located. The remains were designated X-8517 Neuville and interred at the U.S. Military Cemetery at Tunisia, known today as the North Africa American Cemetery.

In September 2022, Department of Defense and American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) personnel exhumed X-8517 Neuville for forensic analysis and comparison with unresolved soldiers known to have been lost in the Biesdorf area. The remains were sent to the DPAA laboratory for identification.

To identify Pittis’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological and dental analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), Y-chromosome DNA (Y-STR), and Autosomal DNA (auSTR) analysis.

Pittis’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Luxembourg American Cemetery, an ABMC site in Hamm, Luxembourg, 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.

Pittis will be buried in Freeport, Ohio, on a date to be determined.