DURAND, Ill. (WIFR) – Nearly 80 years after Flight Officer Shirl P. Best was killed in action during World War II has finally returned home to Durand to be laid to rest.
Best was serving as a navigator with the 8th Air Force, 303rd Bomber Group, 427th Bomb Squadron known as the “Hell’s Angels.” On February 9, 1945, his B-17 aircraft was shot down during a mission over Eisenburg, Germany. Before crashing, the crew managed to level the plane and release its bomb load over a nearby field.
The crash killed all crew members aboard. In 1991, investigators located the crash site, uncovering aircraft fragments, human remains and two wedding rings that helped identify Best and another airman, Pilot 2nd Lt. Robert J. Barrat. A memorial honoring the crew was later put together in Eisenburg in 1995…