James L. Ryan, Jr. entered the military service in California. He was the Navigator on B24-H #42-7540 aircraft during World War II. He was Killed in Action on November 13, 1943 and is now buried in the Netherlands American Cemetery, Margraten, Netherlands.

MISSION CREW LOSS CIRCUMSTANCES: Pilot Harris was flying the aircrew of a pilot Roper for this mission. In 1945 after war's end, Flight Engineer Freshner was contacted regarding the details of this crew's mission, and the loss of the Navigator, 2/Lt. Ryan. A summation of this de-briefing stated that a heavy overcast of clouds hampered the formation join-up of this aircrew with the 392nd ships. Clouds extended from around 4,000 to 20,000 feet clear inland from the Dutch coast. The ship became separated from the Group formation en-route to target and elected to return to home base from over Holland. On letting down to visual conditions, the plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire which knocked out the two engines on the right wing. The abandon ship order was given at about 8,000 feet with the aircraft crashing then about (26) miles south of Rotterdam, Holland. No sightings of this aircraft and aircrew were made by any eye-witness accounts by the mission 392nd crews upon return.

INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTS OF CREWMEN FATES: On 1 November 1945, then Captain Harris, the Pilot, submitted a written account to military officials on his recollections, and to the effect: That the Navigator, Lt. Ryan, was dead to the best of his knowledge. He noted that Lt. Ryan was last seen on the flight deck just after the ship was hit by flak, and then returned to the nose position to retrieve his parachute and that was the last he saw of the Navigator. He and the Co-Pilot did not try egress until they were assured all other crewmen had bailed out. Later, Pilot Harris was informed by the Germans when he was captured that one of the crew members had been killed and Lt. Ryan was unaccounted for by the other members. The men had been fired upon by small arms fire during their parachute descents and possibly Lt. Ryan had suffered fatal wounds. The Flight Engineer's report was more specific from his interview about Lt. Ryan's fate in that he stated that the Bombardier, Lt. Kerns, later noted that Lt. Ryan was last seen by him at the bomb bay doors ready to jump, but perhaps felt there was not enough altitude left to do so. This report went on to state that the German captors had informed them later that a crushed body had been found under the ship's remains - and this casualty was Lt. Ryan. As a concluding and clarifying point, the Co-Pilot's account, that of Lt. Kearns, noted that there was insufficient altitude for him and the Pilot, Lt. Harris, to bail out safely after the abandon ship order was given beginning around 8,000 feet. He also last saw Lt. Ryan, the Navigator, on the bomb bay catwalk with chute on and preparing to bail out. In view of the very low altitude by then, the Pilot and Co-Pilot settled back into their crew positions and successfully crash-landed the airplane. The Co-Pilot as well felt that Lt. Ryan may have been hit by small arms fire somehow in that the ship was under heavy enemy fire from around 3,000 feet down to 1,500 feet. The surviving crew was only free for a very few minutes before capture and were taken to the German guard house in Rotterdam before being transported by rail the next morning to Amsterdam where the captors confirmed Lt. Ryan's death. The on-scene German report, Ku All, noted this ship down on the mission date at 1007 hours, southeast of Fuettershock, Holland, and Lt. Ryan identified as deceased. The names and dog tag details on all the remaining and captured crew members were noted on this same report.

His name is commemorated on a monument at Oud-Beijerland, The Netherlands but his death is dated November 16, 1946.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com
Picture from: https://www.fieldsofhonor-database.com