Greene, James Malcolm, born on 15-09-1924 in Paducah, Kentucky, to Verbal and James Roscoe Greene. James was their only son. His family worked in Paducah on the railroad and ran a small farm on the outskirts of the city. James Malcolm Greene attended Tilghman High School in Paducah
until joining the U.S. Army Air Force
in 1942. Before leaving the US for Italy, he married Emma Catherine Collier in October of 1942. In April of 1944 their son, who James M. Greene never saw, was born. As a gunner, Greene belonged to the 460th Bomb Group
under command of Lieutenant Colonel Bertram Cowgill Harrison
of the 15th US Air Force
under command of Major General Nathan Farragut Twining
From left General Twining, General Acheson, Col Harrison and Colonel Price Martin.
LC Harrison survived the war and died 17-12-2009 (age 92) in Fairfax County, Virginia, USA. The unit, based in Spinazzola near Foggia, Italy flew from the spring of 1944 to military targets in Italy, France, the Balkans and the German Reich. Greene was a member of First Lieutenant Bill DeWitt Rhodabarger’s crew.
His comrades were Henry V. Hendrickson, LT Lloyd W. Kelly,
Roy Quentin Morris, John Olmo, Arthur Nathaniel Pecharsky, Richard Clyde Travers, Robert Earl Reese,
Winford R. Russell, William V. Tobin, Gerald R. Walter and Robert Louis Zahradnik.The young men came from all regions of the USA, some of their parents had immigrated to the USA not long ago. Their goal was to complete fifty sorties or “missions”, then they could return to the USA. However, the crew of the B-24 Liberator, B-24J, Serial Number 42-99763 nicknamed “Flying Junior”
would never reach this goal. Their last flights was on 19-07-1944, when the “Flying Junior” attacked the BMW Factory in Munich Allach. July 19, 1944 is a Wednesday – the day before the Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg
assassination attempt. On this day, many people die in Munich and Pullach. 350 US bombers fly attacks on the BMW factory in Allach, where engines for fighter planes are manufactured.


Death and burial ground of Greene, James Malcolm.



On the approach to Munich, Staff Sergeant James Malcom Greene with the crew of the “Flying Junior” was shot down by German anti-aircraft fire midday of 19-07-1944. James age 19, and three of his comrades jumped out of their burning airplane with their parachutes. After landing in a small forest between Pullach and Solln, Greene surrendered to three Nazi officers from Pullach, who, according to testimonies, immediately shot the defenseless prisoner. His body was plundered and mutilated. The Nazi Group Leader then took Greene’s dog tags as a trophy for himself. The murder of another crew member of the “Flying Junior”, the radio operator Richard C. Travers, who had landed only a few streets further away, was prevented by the medical student Walter Grein. The injured aerial photographer Gerald R. Walter owed his salvation to an unknown farmer, who hid him from the Nazi task force who was searching for him until the police took Walter as a prisoner of war.
James Malcolm Greene is buried at the Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial Saint-Avold, Departement de la Moselle, Lorraine, France. Section, Block J, Row, 38, Grave 17. Rue de Fayetteville Avenue de, 57500 Saint-Avold.


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