Francis Norman O'HARA

Source : JP Gentil (Air Crew Remenbered)

7 October 1918 Perth Amboy

county Middlesex NEW JERSEY

Parents : Martin John sr & Elisabeth Colette WOODS O'HARA

Frère et Soeur : Martin John jr & Elisabeth Colette

Source : Frogman

P-47 Thunderbolt - type D-22-RE - s/n 42-25680

Macr : 6648
Mission : Chartres (28) - Technique du "dive-bombing"
Décollage station 419 Woodchurch, Kent UK - Crash observed by Capt Downing - Note that the MACR indicates 42-25686
Shot by flak
Plane evacuated by parachute around 3 pm

COMMUNAL CEMETERY of Elbeuf then

CEMETERY TEMPORARY of  St André N°3572

Story of Cemetery Temporary 

Map of Normandy American Cemetery

Francis N O'HARA lived in 1940 in Edison Township, he was enlisted in Newark (New Jersey)

On 8 July 1944, four Tunderbolts took off from the aerodrome at 149 Kent station (England).

The lieutenant was squadron #4

The Flight Leader’s Post Mission Statement, Captain Harry L DOWNING Jr. stated that: 

At about 14:15 near Elbeuf, my squadron was under fire from the DCA at about 4 foot miles, I glanced behind me and observed a parachute below P 47 n°4 that of Lieutenant O'HARA, the plane was on its back and crashed on the ground,although I didn’t see a shot hit his plane.  I guess that’s why he jumped having probably been hit, but we couldn’t stay to watch him land.

Another report states that the plane was shot down at 14:58, the pilot landed in the woods of the Lande in St Nicolas, he would have been wounded in the thigh by an SS shot that belonged to a unit stationed at the Chateau de Callouel in Bosc-Roger en Roumois, the circumstances of this shooting are unknown.

However a report from the Dulag Luft Wetzlur noted that the pilot was a fugitive, he would have been transported in charette to St Pierre D'Elbeuf without medical care, the Germans had just healed his wound. 

The circumstances of his death remain suspect, dead from his wounds or excecuted.

Buried in the cemetery of Elbeuf in July 1946, he was reinhumated in the American cemetery of St André near Evreux and will join the American cemetery of Colleville sur Mer.

Please note:

Dulag Luft ( Durchgangslager Lufwaffe) was an air force transit camp for prisoner airmen, the objective was to engage airmen to collect intelligence.

One of the camps was Wetzlur ( Land of Hesse) 96 Kms from Frankfurt.

Source : JP Gentil (Air Crew Remenbered)

Source : Frogman

P-47D of the 373rd Fighter Group, 411st Squadron, code U9+K

Source :    Worldwarphotos.info