Corporal Richard T. McGuire, born 23 Dec 1925, was the son of William C. and Helen McGuire of Waterbury, New Haven County, Connecticut. Waterbury is 22 miles north northwest of New Haven.

In the 1930 census 4-year-old Richard is living with his parents and sister Ellen 1, at 265 Fulton street in New Haven. His father is a house painter.

In the 1940 census 14-year-old Richard is living with his parents and sister Ellen 11 at 349 Willow street in Waterbury. Both his parents are salespeople at Sears.

Richard enlisted in the Air Corps 20 Jan 1944 at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. He’d had 3 years of high school and was single without dependents.

Mission #151 for the 461st Bomb Group on 17 Dec 1944 was to the Odertal Oil Refinery near Blechammer, Poland. Near Muglitz, just south of the initial point, the Group was attacked by upward of fifty ME-109s and FW-190s. The attack lasted approximately fifteen minutes during which the enemy used both rockets and 20mm cannon. Passes were made mostly in pairs from 5 to 7 o'clock low with break-aways also low. The bombers which returned to the base claimed twenty-four of the attacking fighters destroyed and five probably destroyed. Despite the fact that the ball turrets had the advantage of computing sights and the most favorable position against low attacks, they fired the fewest number of rounds and claimed the fewest enemy airplanes of any position on the bombers. Of a total of 12,260 rounds of ammunition expended, the ball turrets expended but 1365 rounds. As a result of the fighter attack, nine planes in the formation were shot down and a tenth one was lost to ditching while in the traffic pattern near the Island of Vis. In all, ten planes were lost, five others were damaged, three individuals were killed, two were wound and ninety-three were missing in action.

The NARA WWII casualty listings by state and county for Connecticut show McGuire, Richard, Cpl from New Haven County as FOD (Finding of Death). An FOD was determined one year and one day after a soldier, sailor or airman went missing in action. His body must have been recovered later.

Source: FB American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) contributor Brian Kueker

This story became part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

Richard McGuire