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Military
James R Korecky.
Personnel of the of the 2017th Engineer Fire Fighting Platoon attend to the burning wreck of a P-51 Mustang (P-51D 44-14034 5Y-U) that crashed on take-off, colliding with B-17G 42-107226, at Honington on 30th July 1944. The pilot of the aircraft, Lieutenant James R Korecky, of the 384th Fighter Squadron, 364th Fighter Group, was killed. This P-51 was assigned to Major Robert E Lacy and was named "Jackie".
James R Korecky served as a pilot with the 364th Fighter Group.
On a local training flight from Goxhill on 13 March 1944, Korecky was flying P-38J #42-67686, which landed long, blew a tire and ran off the runway. Korecky returned to service (RTD).
On 30 July 1944, when assigned to the 364th Fighter Group, James Korecky died when his P-51D stalled and collided with a parked B-17G #42-107226 on take-off at Honington.
Group
The 364th Fighter Group flew 342 missions in P-38 Lightnings and P-51 Mustangs from Honington, Suffolk. The missions ranged from escorting bombers and dive-bombing and strafing targets to area patrol missions across a swathe of land that took in France...
Group
Activated as 496th Fighter Training Group on 11 December 1943 at Greencastle by VIII Composite Command.
...
Squadron
Squadron
B-17 Flying Fortress
Delivered Tulsa 28/3/44; Kearney 13/4/44; Dow Fd 21/4/44; Assigned 385BG RAF Great Ashfield 22/4/44; While parked in revetment was hit on take off by P-51D-5-NA 44-14034 (Pilot: 1Lt James R Korecky) at RAF Honington 30 July 1944 wounding mechanics Sgt...
P-51 Mustang
Military site : airfield
Goxhill opened in June 1941 as an RAF Bomber Command airfield, before being handed over to RAF Fighter Command in December. The Eighth Air Force took ownership in August 1942, and used the airfield, which they quickly dubbed 'Goat Hill' for operational...
Military site : airfield
Honington was in use by Eighth Air Force units for a longer period than any other air base in England. The air base, built in the mid 1930s as part of the RAF's expansion programme had seen plenty of action as an RAF base before it was handed over to...
| Event | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Born | Illinois, USA | 1922 |
| Lived in | 1905 Wenonah Avenue, Berwyn, IL 60402, USA | 1940 |
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Exact dates not yet known. |
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| Enlisted | Peoria, IL, USA | 28 May 1942 |
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2 years of college, civilian occupation listed as 'actor', single. |
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| Commissioned as Second Lieutenant | 7 February 1944 | |
| Promoted from Second to First Lieutenant | 2 June 1944 | |
| Died | Honington, Bury Saint Edmunds, Suffolk IP31, UK | 30 July 1944 |
| Buried | Woodlawn Cemetery, 7750 Cermak Road, Forest Park, IL 60130, USA | August 1948 |
| Date | Contributor | Update |
|---|---|---|
| 09 June 2015 12:14:31 | Lucy May | Changes to biography |
| Sources | ||
For more details of the long landing at Goxhill, see Bomber County Aviation Resource website: http://www.bcar.org.uk/1944-incident-logs |
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| Date | Contributor | Update |
| 09 June 2015 12:02:39 | Lucy May | Changes to service number, highest rank, biography, events, unit associations, place associations, aircraft associations and media associations |
| Sources | ||
Combined two entries for James R Korecky into a single entry. This entry now includes information from the following sources: Other sources used: Findagrave record: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=korecky&GSbyrel=al... |
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| Date | Contributor | Update |
| 27 September 2014 18:14:52 | AAM | AAM ingest |
| Sources | ||
Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / Losses of the 8th & 9th Air Forces |
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