Memorial Captain George Rarey Villers-Bocage

"In Memoriam
Captain George Rarey,
Pilot of the 362nd Fighter Group
of the 9th U.S. Air Force,
fell near here on June 27, 1944,
in the service of freedom"

When George Rarey was drafted in 1942, he was living in Manhattan. He had an undeniable talent for drawing and worked as an artist-cartoonist.At the end of 1941 he worked as a commercial cartoonist and drew advertisements, among other things.
In early 1942, he joined the Army Air Corps as soon as the United States entered the war. After completing his ground training, he went to flight school with the Aviation Cadets at the Primary Flying School in Ocala, Florida.
In November 1943, this 24-year-old fighter pilot from the 362nd Fighter Group of the 379th Fighter Squadron boarded the Queen Elizabeth and set sail for Great Britain. After six days' passage he reached Scotland and was transferred to Wormingford RAF station, where he perfected his flying skills in the P-47.
In April 1944 the group was transferred to headquarters in London to be closer to the landing beaches, as the big day that had been prepared by the armed forces for weeks was approaching.

In June 1944, his group carried out many missions, reconnaissance, escorts, bombings...
On June 27, George prepared for his 67th mission, a reconnaissance of Granville.
It was 5 p.m. when anti-aircraft guns exploded near his plane. His P-47 aircraft was hit over the municipality of Villers-Bocage, and crashed 800 meters west of the city at the town of Le Moulin. George did not have time to evacuate and died.
Mistaking him for an English pilot, the Germans wrapped his body in his parachute and buried him in a ditch a few meters from the plane's wreckage.
They put up a sign that said, "Here is an English aviator."
Rarey was later buried in the Normandy American Cemetery.

In his spare time between missions, George drew hundreds of sketches every day about life around him, pilots, planes, barracks, scenes of airfield life...
He was a popular pilot who painted cartoons on up to 30 different aircraft of the squadron.
His son Damon, whom he never knew, later published a book full of his father's war sketches and cartoons entitled 'Laughter and Tears'.

A memorial has been erected at the place where George Rarey died in Villers-Bocage. On a lawn near the intersection there is an oval stone marker on cobblestones with a plaque in memory of this American aviator.

Do you have more information about this location? Inform us!

Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Koos Winkelman