Memorial

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Maj George Oxrider graduated from Fairview High School and attended the University of Virginia for two years and then completed a pre-medical course at the University of Cincinnati.

He enlisted in the Air Corps of the Army of the United States on 16 July 1941 after his first year of medical school.

This was a very long mission in distance and time, so fuel was a major concern. The group flew the same route to and from the target. The group was attacked on the way back from the target. Fighters attacked from every angle, about 12 FW-190's, over Laaland, Denmark at 1502 hours. Both inboard engines of the Iron Bird were on fire and the plane dove, trying to extinguish the flames. It pulled out of the dive, but crashed in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Laaland. The entire crew was killed.

All the men except Oxrider, Ridge and Hudson are commemorated on the Walls of the Missing at Cambridge Cemetery, England. Oxrider's body was recovered at Gedser on 6 June 1944. Ridge's body washed up on shore near Romo/Odense on 23 June 1944 and was buried initially in Svino on 28 June 1944. Both were later reinterred at Ardennes Cemetery. Hudson's body was recovered on 8 August 1944 near Punitz. Although there is no record to indicate it, he may have been buried there and later reinterred at Ardennes. He is now buried at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, Erie County, New York.

The story with the picture where he is greated by his mother is as follows: He was sent home on leave after seven months of combat and had arrived at the Municipal Airport in Dayton on 14 May 1943. He was known for bringing safely home his crippled ship, Werewolf, after ordering his crew to bail out. With two engines knocked out before he could release his bombs on the primary target, he set out for the secondary target. While dropping his bombs, a third engine was hit. When his plane at last limped in over English land on its remaining engine, he ordered his crew to bail out. They jumped only after he had promied to follow them. He did not abandon the ship, however. Instead he landed the plane on a tiny plot, completely surrounded by trees, so skillfully that it could be repaired and put back into service.

His leave was a complete surprise to his family. He didn't know he would be leaving England until monday himself.