Memorial Sign for James M. Greene,
Rungestraße

James Malcolm Greene grew up in the small town of Paducah, Kentucky. Immediately after high school, James M. Greene joined the U.S. Air Force in 1942. He married Emma Cathrine Collier. Their son was born in April 1944, but James M. Greene never got to meet him.

As a gunner in the U.S. Air Force, he was supposed to bomb the BMW factory in Munich-Allach in July 1944, which produced engines for fighter planes of the German Luftwaffe. But as he approached Munich, his plane was shot down. Four members of the crew were able to escape from the burning aircraft with their parachutes, including James M. Greene. He landed safely with his parachute in a small wooded area on Rungestraße. Although he surrendered immediately, Nazi officials shot him dead on the spot and mutilated his body. The Pullach NSDAP local group leader kept his dog tag as a trophy.

Only two of the four crew members who could land survived the hunt that Nazi raiding parties conducted for soldiers from downed aircraft: radio operator Richard C. Travers, whose murder was prevented by medical student Walter Grein, and injured aerial photographer Gerald A. Walter, who was hidden by an unknown farmer and later handed over to the police.