Missing in Action (MIA) 14 July 1943 in B-17 #42-3330 to October 1943. Evaded across Pyrenees. No Missing Air Crew Report for this loss has been located in the National Archives.

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by Heather Thies, Mighty Eighth Museum





Working here at the Mighty Eighth has allowed me to meet many Eighth AF veterans. Meeting them to hear their stories is one of the things I enjoy most about my job. I would like to honor a long time volunteer and WWII 8thAF veteran's birthday. Colonel James Munday turned 100 years young in October with a celebration at the museum.



James Munday was born and raised in southern Illinois. He always had a fascination with airplanes and learned to fly when he was young so he joined the Army Air Force in January 1942 to begin AF pilot training. After flight school, in 1943 his crew was sent to England to the 384th BG Grafton Underwood where they flew a B-17 named "Paradise Lost" by the co-pilot who had been a Yale student. Their seventh mission on Bastille Day, July 14, 1943 would prove to be unforgettable. The mission: a city outside Paris. "Paradise Lost" was assigned their position in the formation flying low rear often known as "Tail-end Charlie or the Purple Heart Corner." After reaching the target successfully, on the return to base Jim's plane was forced to slow down and leave the formation due to being shot up twice during Luftwaffe fighter attacks. Being vulnerable on their own in the Nazi controlled skies, Jim knew his plane was doomed. He tried his best to keep it airborne despite an incoming swarm of attacking FW-190's. "Paradise Lost" and its crew were being torn apart. With Jim injured and the plane severely damaged he ordered the bail out. An eventful parachuting experience with Luftwaffe fighter pilots marking the place where he landed with a shower of bullets, led to Jim being stuck in a tree with a shrapnel damaged leg and a back that was severely cut by a branch. A French boy helped him out of the tree and left with the parachute to make it harder for the Germans to pinpoint Jim's location. Jim hid in the forest for several days eating blackberries from a bush and drinking from a nearby stream as the Germans searched for him. He eventually found help from a nearby farm house couple. They tended his painful wounds and got him help from the French Resistance. Jim was now officially an Escape and Evader. They sneaked him down to Paris where he stayed for several months in a Resistance worker's large apartment recovering from his wounds. After his recuperation he was given forged documents and sent by train to Southern France. There he met up with his Basque guide and fellow group of evaders to secretly make their way over the Pyrenees to Spain. Unfortunately, his knee wound reopened and the guide was forced to leave him behind to make his way on his own. Eventually, he made it to Spain and the British Consulate. Jim's family received a telegram stating he was missing in action after his plane crash but did not receive word about his whereabouts until after he reached Spain. Jim returned to his family in America on Christmas Eve 1943. He was later reinstated to flying status and trained on the B-29 to fly missions in the Pacific but the war ended. Jim stayed in the Air Force and retired a Colonel. Jim and his wife Grace retired to her native home of Savannah. He has been a volunteer since the museum opened.