Ralph Joseph Cunningham was born on July 11, 1913, in Winthrop, Suffolk County, Massachusetts. He was the son of Daniel Terrance Cunningham and Alice J. McGillicuddy Cunningham. He served in the 307th Engineer Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division, as a Private during World War II, and was stationed in Burbage before the D-Day landing.

Pvt Cunningham parachuted into France on June 6, 1944, in the early hours of D-Day as part of a 16-man stick that landed approximately eight miles from its intended drop zone near Sainte-Mère-Église due to pilot error. Shortly after landing, he and two fellow paratroopers were captured and held for several hours at a monastery in Saint-Sauveur, France. They were later marched along a nearby road and executed, each killed by a gunshot to the head. The nature of their wounds led to an investigation, during which a German prisoner of war stated that he had witnessed the execution.

Pvt Cunningham is now buried in the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, Colleville-sur-Mer, Département du Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, weremember.abmc.gov, winthropmemorials.org