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Personal info

Full name
MEAGHER, James
Date of birth
30 May 1916
Age
27
Place of birth
Elgin, Kane County, Illinois
Hometown
Elgin, Kane County, Illinois

Military service

Service number
O-732303
Rank
First Lieutenant
Function
Pilot
Unit
328th Fighter Squadron,
352nd Fighter Group
Awards
Distinguished Flying Cross,
Air Medal with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters

Death

Status
Killed in Action
Date of death
8 February 1944
Place of death
Burelles, France

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Ardennes
Tablets of the Missing
* This soldier has been accounted for. A rosette has been placed next to his name.

Immediate family

Members
Richard Meagher (brother)
Pat Meagher (daughter)

Plane data

Serial number
42-8556
Data
Type: P-47D
Destination: Waxweiler, Germany
Mission: Bomber escort and ramrod
MACR: 2154

More information

Lt Meagher was one of several P-47s of 328th Red flight who were escorting a crippled B-17 when they were attacked by five enemy aircraft. Lts James Meagher, John Walker, and Harold Nussman were shot down during this attack, and two other P-47s were badly damaged but could stagger back to base.

The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) received information in June 2006 from a French citizen who had researched the 1944 crash. A team went to France that September and spoke with an 82-year-old man who said his father had recovered remains from the crash site.

By August of 2008, a team went to excavate and recover what they could from the area. Dental records combined with serial numbers on machine guns and identifying parts of the aircraft debris confirmed by July 2009 that the remains were, in fact, Meagher's.

1st Lt Meagher is now buried in the Saint Mary's Cemetery in Gilberts, Kane County, Illinois.

Source of information: Raf Dyckmans, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.findagrave.com, www.fold3.com

Photo source: FOHF, www.findagrave.com, www.ancestry.com - Elgin High School yearbook 1932, Daily Herald