Willard Davison Haskell was born at Deer Isle, Hancock County, Maine on January 17, 1918. He was the youngest of six children of Willard Graves Haskell (20 Aug 1874 – 22 Nov 1920) and Elizabeth Maude 'Lizzie' (Powers) Haskell (25 Apr 1875 – 28 Jun 1954), who were born at Deer Isle, Maine. His parents married at Deer Isle on January 12, 1898. In January 1920 the family lived at 153 Walnut Street, Newton, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. His father, a yachtsman and master mariner, died at Newton, Massachusetts in November 1920. The family moved back to Deer Isle, Maine, but by April 1940 he lived with his mother at Belmont, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.

He completed four years of high school, and registered for the draft at Belmont, Massachusetts on October 16, 1940. He was 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighed 142 pounds, and had brown eyes and black hair. At that time he lived with his mother at 83 Chester Road in Belmont, and was a clerk for Employers' Group insurance company at 110 Milk Street, Boston, Massachusetts. He was single when he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps at Boston, Massachusetts on January 8, 1943. His home of record was Belmont, Massachusetts.

He entered Army Air Forces pilot training in Class 43-J. In October 1943 he completed the final phase, advanced twin-engine training in the Beechcraft AT-10, at Freeman Army Air Field in Seymour, Indiana. He graduated and received his wings and commission at Freeman Field on November 3, 1943. His next stop was the Army Air Base at Camp Kearns near Salt Lake City, Utah, where he was assigned as copilot on the heavy bomber crew of Lt Norman E. Gross. By December 1943 the Gross crew began B-24 crew training at Davis-Monthan Field near Tucson, Arizona. In January 1944 the Gross crew was assigned to the 838th Bomb Squadron of the 487th Bomb Group at Alamogordo Army Air Base, New Mexico. There they completed B-24 crew training, and deployed with the Group to England in March 1944. They flew B-24H 42-52629 'Sweatin' It Out' from Alamogordo, New Mexico to Lavenham, England via the southern Atlantic ferry route—a journey of about 10,000 miles—and arrived in England by mid-April 1944. The 487th Bomb Group was based at Army Air Forces Station 137 near Lavenham, Suffolk, England, and was part of the 8th U.S. Army Air Force in Europe.

In the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, the 487th Bomb Group dispatched two Squadrons on the first of three missions that the Group flew on D-Day. The Gross crew flew B-24H 42-52629 'Sweatin' It Out' on this mission. The 487th Bomb Group was assigned to bomb a choke point—a road junction—in Caen, France, to disrupt German transportation. The Group's assembly in the dark over England took five hours, much longer than planned. Then a complete undercast prevented the crews from bombing the target. On the return, the entire heavy bomber force was routed away from the Allied shipping area, to the west of the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey. Lt Haskell and his nine crew mates went missing in action when their aircraft ran out of fuel and went down in the English Channel. A station at Saffron Walden, England, received a distress call from the crew at 0842, which indicated that the aircraft was about 35 miles northwest of the Cherbourg Peninsula, and all four engines were dead. The aircraft's last reported position was 49°52'N, 02°38'W, some 20 to 25 miles northwest of the Channel Island of Alderney. Other crews almost ran out of fuel before landing at bases near the English coast.

The remains of Flight Officer Levine, the bombardier, were found by the crew of the British ship HSL 192 (High Speed Launch 192) and were buried at sea, in the English Channel, on July 3, 1944. None of the other crew members was ever found.

Lt Haskell and the other officers on the crew are memorialized on the Wall of the Missing at Cambridge American Cemetery. The enlisted men on the crew are memorialized on the Wall of the Missing at Normandy American Cemetery.

Lt Haskell also has a cenotaph at Mount Adams Cemetery in Deer Isle, Maine, where his parents are buried.

B-24H 42-52629 crew:
• Gross, Norman E – 1/Lt – Pilot – MIA
• Haskell, Willard D – 2/Lt – Copilot – MIA
• Moke, Francis E – 2/Lt – Navigator – MIA
• Levine, Milton – F/O – Bombardier – Buried at Sea
• Huebel Jr, Benjamin A – S/Sgt – Engineer – MIA
• Markowitz, Max I – S/Sgt – Radio Operator – MIA
• McWilliams, Charles A – Sgt – Nose Gunner – MIA
• Benson, Stanley J – Sgt – Top Gunner – MIA
• Allensworth, Harold O – Sgt – Ball Gunner – MIA
• Westhoff Jr, Henry B – S/Sgt – Tail Gunner – MIA

Source of information: www.findagrave.com