OHIO, USA — Twenty-two-year-old Ohio native James Marrah flew in one of the deadliest missions during World War II, dubbed “Operation Tidal Wave.”
On Aug. 1, 1943, a crew of 10 took their positions inside their B-24 Liberator bomber plane and headed to the Romanian city of Ploiești. The goal was to attack a fuel depot in Romania known as Hitler’s gas station.
Marrah, a second lieutenant, flew in the back of a large flying formation of 77 B-24s from Benghazi, Libya.
As they began to approach, they were flying 200 feet off the ground as they dropped their payload of bombs.
The bombs hit their targets, but flying at such a low altitude, they also became an easy target for German gunmen on the ground.
The plane that Marrah was in fell to the ground and burst into flames. The low altitude allowed three of his crew members to parachute out of the plane and survive.
“That's what he wanted to do his whole life is fly,” said Marrah's nephew James Swyers.
On Aug. 3, 2023, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency called Swyers with news he never thought would come.
“We found your uncle. We've got his remains,” recalled Swyers.
The family had long known Marrah was dead, but his mother wrote letters constantly to the government and Ohio lawmakers in Washington asking them to find her son’s remains and bring them home.
They wrote back with no answers for her.
“I asked her I said, 'You know he's dead why do you keep up hope?' She said he may walk in the door tomorrow,” said Swyers.
Nearly 81 years after Marrah lost his life, the family is now celebrating the news that they can finally have a funeral for this hometown hero.
“He wasn't even supposed to fly that day. Someone got sick or something and he took their place,” said Swyers.
Marrah's plane wasn’t the only one to crash during this mission. Fifty-three other aircraft were downed, making it one of the deadliest air raids of the war for the U.S.
From the crew of 10, there were only three survivors.
“They believed that mission was so important they had to do it,” said Marrah's nephew Douglas Marrah.
“The plane was on fire when it crashed and they found the bodies under the plane. I thought there was no way they could identify them anyway,” said Swyers.
Thanks to DNA evidence, the military was able to match the remains including leg bones and a jaw bone with DNA from living relatives.
It was a match they never thought they’d live to see.
“It really surprised me,” said Swyers.
As grateful as the family is to know that they will soon be able to bury their loved one, there is also a bit of sadness.
“I am feeling a little sad about it. I'm just sorry that none of his siblings and my grandmother are not alive today to see this because they all worked for years to find out if he was dead and where the remains were,” said Swyers.
At the corner of South Walnut Street and East 1st Street in London sits a tarnished plaque with 33 names.
They are the names of soldiers who never came home from the war.
Among them is James Marrah.
For eight decades the family has waited to write the last chapter of his life. This Memorial Day, he will be buried with full military honors in London.
The military posthumously awarded the family his Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross.
The family hopes that sharing their story will encourage other military families not to give up.
“Never give up hope,” says Swyers.