diff --git a/RELEASE_NOTES.txt b/RELEASE_NOTES.txt
index e668349b2..a331d2549 100644
--- a/RELEASE_NOTES.txt
+++ b/RELEASE_NOTES.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 Changes since 4.1 ALPHA2
 -------------------
 
+* [HTTPCLIENT-989] DefaultHttpRequestRetryHandler no longer retries non-idempotent http methods 
+  if NoHttpResponseException is thrown.
+  Contributed by Oleg Kalnichevski <olegk at apache.org>
+
 * [HTTPCLIENT-978] Ehcache based HTTP cache implementation
   Contributed by Michajlo Matijkiw <michajlo_matijkiw at comcast.com>
 
diff --git a/httpclient/src/main/java/org/apache/http/impl/client/DefaultHttpRequestRetryHandler.java b/httpclient/src/main/java/org/apache/http/impl/client/DefaultHttpRequestRetryHandler.java
index 791d3a021..6a214a815 100644
--- a/httpclient/src/main/java/org/apache/http/impl/client/DefaultHttpRequestRetryHandler.java
+++ b/httpclient/src/main/java/org/apache/http/impl/client/DefaultHttpRequestRetryHandler.java
@@ -91,10 +91,6 @@ public class DefaultHttpRequestRetryHandler implements HttpRequestRetryHandler {
             // Do not retry if over max retry count
             return false;
         }
-        if (exception instanceof NoHttpResponseException) {
-            // Retry if the server dropped connection on us
-            return true;
-        }
         if (exception instanceof InterruptedIOException) {
             // Timeout
             return false;