James R. Hardin was born on February 11, 1922 in Missouri. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps on September 5, 1942 at Jefferson Barrack's, Missouri. He was noted as being employed as a sheet metal worker and also as Single, without dependents. James served as a Staff Sergeant and Gunner on B-24 "Repulser" (#41-28843), 715th Bomber Squadron, 448th Bomber Group, Heavy, U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. He was Killed In Action when their B-24 was attacked by heavily-armed ME 410 German fighters and crashed.

On the 22nd April 1944, 26 United States Air Force planes took off from Seething airfield to bomb targets in Nazi Germany, but B-24 Liberator 843 “Repulser” was hit as it returned to base and crashed in fields near Kessingland. Part of the 715th Squadron, the men on board were on their third mission after arriving at the south Norfolk air station in the early spring. Hitler’s Luftwaffe took full advantage of its unusually late return to the UK on that fateful night, caused by poor weather before take-off, and sent a force of heavily-armed ME 410 fighters to intercept the bombers.

SSGT Hardin is now buried in the Cambridge American Cemetery, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.abmc.gov