First Lieutenant Harry Coronios (O-790632) was born in 1921 to George J. and Theodora Coronios. His father was a barber and both his parents immigrated from Greece. Harry had two older sisters and one older brother. They lived in Lowell, Middlesex, Massachusetts.

Harry had four years of High School and was single when he enlisted in the U.S. Army on December 31, 1939. He later earned his wings as a P-47 fighter pilot and received his commission as a Second Lieutenant. He was assigned to the 62nd Fighter Squadron, 56th Fighter Group, Eighth Air Force and was sent overseas to Army Air Field AAF-365 in England. He had one aircraft accident before going overseas. It was a Category 3 taxiing accident on October 19, 1942 while he was piloting P-47C No. 41-6083 at Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP), New York.

RAF Halesworth (Horton) (AAF-365), being only eight miles from the Suffolk, England, coast, was ideally located for escort fighter operations, where range was an important factor. For this reason, the 56th Fighter Group (61st, 62nd, 63rd Fighter Squadrons) of the Eighth Air Force was moved there. Flying Republic P-47 Thunderbolts, the group flew numerous missions over France, the Low Countries, and Germany, to escort bombers attacking industrial establishments, V-weapon sites, submarine pens, and other targets on the Continent. In addition, the 56th strafed and dive-bombed airfields, troops, and supply points; attacked the enemy communications; and flew counter-air patrols. The 56th FG occupied AAF-365 from July 9, 1943 to April 19, 1944.

1 Lt. Coronios flew 52 missions, most of which were bomber withdrawal escort missions to Germany. On October 19, 1942, he shot down one enemy Fw-190 and damaged another Fw-190 over Bremen, Germany, on the same day. For this action, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. On these missions, he flew his assigned aircraft P-47-5RE No. 42-7866, LM-G, which he named “Greek” which was painted as nose art on the cowling of his plane.

On November 17, 1943, 1 Lt. Coronios, flying Captain Ray Dauphin’s P-47D-5RE No. 42-8614 “Saucy Shirley II,” departed AAF-365 on a training exercise with three other P-47s to “The Wash”, an arm of the North Sea, 70 miles northeast of AAF-365. The weather was poor with total overcast and potential icing. During the exercise 1 Lt. Coronios went into the clouds at 22,000 feet in a shallow dive and was never seen again. The other pilots reported that they had run into icing at 16,000 feet and had to begin flying on instruments because their canopies were covered with ice.

A thorough search was performed by three P-47s from 1400 to 1600 hours. The search covered the entire coastline of Norfolkshire and Suffolk from the beach to 10 miles offshore. No sign was found of the pilot or plane.

1 Lt. Coronios was killed on November 17, 1943 at 1300 hours offshore from Happinburgh, Norfolk, England. He was 22 years old.

He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Purple Heart.

1 Lt. Coronios is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing in the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial, Coton, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom. The cemetery sits on a quiet hillside outside the ancient university town of Cambridge. This is the only military cemetery in the United Kingdom that commemorates American servicemembers and civilian volunteers who died in World War II. It contains the graves of more than 3,800 war dead, and nearly 5,130 names on the Walls of the Missing.

This story is part of the

Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a

national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 421,000+ of the US

WWII fallen saved on Together We Served and Fold3. Can you help write these

stories? These stories will be accessible via smartphone app at any war

memorial or cemetery.

SBTSProject/Massachusetts

If you noticed anything

erroneous in this profile or have additional information to contribute to it,

please contact me at roktscientist@hotmail.com.

Sources:

1. 1930, 1940 Federal Census

2. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56288773/harry-coronios

3. https://www.armyaircorpsmuseum.org/missing-aircrew-reports/macr-01279-42-8614.cfm

4. https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/person/harry-coronios

5. https://www.greeks-in-foreign-cockpits.com/pilots-crews/fighter-pilots/harry-coronios/

6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/56th_Operations_Group

7. https://militaryhallofhonor.com/honoree-record.php?id=55631

8. https://www.abmc.gov/decedent-search/coronios%3Dharry

9. https://www.ancestry.com

10. https://www.armyaircorpsmuseum.org/56th_Fighter_Group.cfm

11. http://www.56thfightergroup.co.uk/

12. http://www.56thfightergroup.co.uk/personnel.htm

13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/61st_Fighter_Squadron

14. https://www.luke.af.mil/Portals/58/61%20Fighter%20Squadron%20as%20of%2020220225_1.pdf

15. https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/unit/61st-fighter-squadron

16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_P-47_Thunderbolt

17. Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1982) [1969]. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-405-12194-6. LCCN 70605402. OCLC 72556.

“Zemke’s Wolfpack: A Photographic Odyssey of the 56th Fighter Group during World War II,” Peter Randall and Nigel Julian, Fighting High Limited, 2015.