Memorial

More information

S/Sgt Jean A. Mahoney was a machinist before he volunteered for the Air Corps in Newark, New Jersey, on 27 October 1942.

The primary target of the 304 bombers were the oil refineries of Poznan, Poland, but due to cloud cover 263 bombers diverted to the secondary target of Rostock.

The plane was last sighted in the vicinity northwest of Rostock, Germany, over Mecklenburg Bay. It had earlier sustained rocket attacks from two JU 88s, which caused the loss of one engine and consequent lagging in the formation. It dropped about 1,000 feet below the formation and was jumped by three enemy aircraft, which set the number 3 engine on fire. The plane was last seen, under control, gliding toward cloud cover with a JU 88 and ME 110 following it. Seven parachutes were sighted. The entire crew of 10 was killed.

Extract from The Putnam County Courier of 6 January 1944:
"Staff Sgt. Jean A. Mahoney, of Bayonne, New Jersey, has been awarded the Air Medal Oak Leaf Cluster for shooting down a German fighter and saving his Flying Fortress." The story of his accomplishment on the Duran bombing mission printed in a Bayonne, N.J., paper, follows: "Dispatches from England today revealed that Staff Sgt. Jean A. Mahoney, of 32 W. 34th Street, right waist gunner of a B-17 Flying Fortress, has been credited with knocking down one of four Focke-Wulf 190s which attacked the Fortress. For this feat, he has been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Previously Mahoney, 20, son of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Mahoney, had won the Air Medal Oak Leaf Cluster. Mahoney was on his seventh bombing mission, in which Duran, in western Germany, was the objective. The Fortress to which he was attached was crippled by a runaway propeller, and the pilot, 2nd Lt Robert M. Taylor, 23, of Houston, Tex., headed back for England. As the bomber limped from the scene of attack, the four Nazi fighters swooped down upon it. In the running battle which followed, Mahoney and S/Sgt Donald Rigg, of Middletown, O., ball-turret gunner, each brought down one of the German planes. The Fortress suffered two cannon shell holes in the tail, another in the radio room and a fourth on a landing tire. Flak riddled the wings. Flames broke out in the aircraft as the pilot brought it to a safe landing. Mahoney, attached to the Eighth Air Force, enlisted October 20, 1942. A former St. Mary's parochial school pupil, he was graduated from Horace Mann School, attended Bayonne Technical High, and was employed by the Electro Dynamic Company. He had two sisters, Marie Mahoney and Mrs. Ethel Staunton. Co-pilot of the Fortress on the Duran raid was 2nd Lt John Lapozynsky, of Carteret, N.J."