Hometown: Durand, IL
Branch: U.S. Army (Air Forces)
Unit: 427th Bombardment Squadron, 303rd Bombardment Group (Heavy), 8th Air Force
Military Honors: [pending]
Date of Sacrifice: February 9, 1945 - KIA near Eisenberg, Germany 
Age: 23
Conflict: World War II, 1939-1945

Shirl Paul Best and his five siblings grew up on his parents’ farm near Durand, Illinois. From Oscar and Esther Best’s farmhouse on Pecatonica Road, Shirl, with his brothers and sisters rode to a one-room schoolhouse in a buggy drawn by the family’s pony.

While Shirl was attending Durand Community High School, he wrote—in what was likely an autobiography assignment, “When I was about 5½ years old my brother showed me how to milk. I thought it was fun, but don’t anymore.” He graduated with 18 other students in the class of 1939.

For the next three years, Shirl worked in the factory at the American Cabinet Company in nearby Rockford, Illinois.

World at war

For the second time in the first half of the 20th century, the world was at war. In the early 1940s, the United States was fighting Imperial Japan throughout the Asia-Pacific region, and against Nazi Germany and its allies in Europe and North Africa. Shirl Best left the farm and factory to join the U.S. Army Air Forces in October of 1942.

First training as a mechanic, Best was sent to Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to begin training as an Air Cadet. Two of his brothers also served in the military: PFC Nevin Best in France, and PFC Lowell Best in the Philippines.

After Cadet training, Shirl was sent to pre-flight training school at Santa Ana Army Air Base in California. From there, he continued to advanced navigation school at San Marcos Army Air Field in Texas.

On July 1, 1944, Shirl married Mary Van Etten in the chapel at San Marcos Army Air Field. He received his silver wings and was commissioned as a Flight Officer 30 days later, on July 31, 1944.

Flight Officer Best completed air combat training at Avon Park Army Air Field in Florida, and was assigned to the 427th Bombardment Squadron, 303rd Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force. Inspired by a 1930 film, his 303rd bomber group took on the nickname, “Hell’s Angels.”

Joining the fight

With his training behind him and the war in Europe intensifying, Best was now the navigator on a B-17G “Flying Fortress” heavy bomber (tail #43-39149). He and his crew were stationed at the Royal Air Force’s Molesworth Air Base, 75 miles north of London, England.

Flight Officer Best and his crew flew dangerous bombing missions across the English Channel, taking out targets that were strategically important to Adolph Hitler’s Nazi domination of the continent.

As Allied forces began to gain ground across Europe, F/O Best and his B-17 crew took part in a mission to bomb a facility near Lutzkendorf, Germany, on February 9, 1945. Lutzkendorf was a high priority target for the Allies, because it housed a synthetic oil plant—crucial for Germany’s fuel supply.

120 miles north of their target, Best’s bomber group came under anti-aircraft artillery fire over the small German town of Eisenberg. Another B-17 in the formation, the “Poque Ma Hone” lost an engine when it was hit by flak. At 24,000 feet, the Pogue Ma Hone careened into Best’s B-17. The collision tore off the rear part of the fuselage of Best’s aircraft.

Saving a village

F/O Best’s aircraft, with its bombs still aboard and armed, was going down. As the wounded plane flew toward the center of Eisenberg, piloted by 2d Lt Robert J. Barrat, he and the crew managed to level the B-17 and drop their bombs in a field just outside the village. Moments later, the aircraft broke in two, crashed, and exploded in a wooded area.

F/O Shirl P. Best had been in England less than four months. Lost at age 23, he was five months shy of celebrating his first wedding anniversary with Mary.

Eight of the nine crewmembers were killed in the crash. Only the tail gunner, Sgt. George H. Emerson Jr., managed to parachute out of the falling plane. He survived and was taken prisoner by the Germans, then sent to a camp near the town of Wetzlar, Germany.

The crash took place far behind enemy lines and the lost crew’s remains were not recovered until long after the war ended. They were listed as Missing in Action until September 1945, when “evidence considered sufficient to establish the fact of death was received by the Secretary of War.”

Coming home

Decades later, in 1991, a local history enthusiast reported that he’d found a World War II era B-17 crash site near Eisenberg. Among the items he found was a wedding band engraved with the initials of Shirl Paul Best and his wife Mary, and the year 1944.

On September 7, 1995, the townspeople of Eisenberg erected a memorial honoring F/O Best and his fellow crew members for saving their village.

For decades, Best’s family worked with authorities to find his remains and bring him home. Finally, in December 2024, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency confirmed the positive identification of F/O Best’s remains from the Eisenberg crash site, through forensic analysis and DNA testing.

Eight decades after giving the “last full measure of devotion” to his country, Flight Officer Best’s remains were brought back to his hometown of Durand to be reburied with full military honors on November 8, 2025.

In one of his last letters home, according to his nephew, “he expresses confidence in his Christian faith, knowing that something could happen to him, but confident that he was prepared. And finally, he expresses the hope that the War will soon be over.”

Sources
Details and card photo submitted by Mr. Jerry Hatton, F/O Best’s nephew
Durand Gazette, May 23, 1946: Widow of Shirl Best Receives Information on Husband’s Death
The Freeport Journal-Standard, Mar. 1, 1945: Shirl P. Best, Durand, Flight Officer, Reported Missing Over Germany
Warhawk Air Museum: Profiles In Courage: George H. Emerson
WREX: WWII Veteran Shirl P. Best Returns Home to Durand After 80 Years
Illinois General Assembly: House Resolution HR0566
Obituary: McCorkle Funeral Home: Shirl P. Best
The Stars and Stripes, Oct. 19, 1991: Memories unearthed with remnants of B-17 (copy provided by the family)
Burial Site: Find a Grave