Holyoke, July 28 Previously reported missing in action, Capt Ignatius Maternowski, 32, parachute infantry chaplain who landed In Normandy with his unit on D-day, is now reported “Killed In Action" by the war department. The date is set at June 13. His parents are Mr. and Mrs. Valentine Maternowski, 13 Prospect street, this city.
   Word has since been received by Rev Leonard Pakulski, pastor of The Mater Dolorosa church, that, two other chaplains had since located the grave of Capt Maternowski In Normandy and had said mass over it.
  There will be a solemn hihh mass of requiem at 9 Tuesday morning at the Mater Dolorosa church In memory of Father Maternowski. Very Rev. Lawrence M. Cyman of Chicopee provincial of the Order of Minor Conventuals of which Capt Maternowski was a member, will be celebrant.

[Springfield Republican (Springfield, MA - July 29, 1944]

Father Maternowski, who held the rank of Army captain, was killed by a German sniper after volunteering to parachute into France with members of the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division. He landed safely and immediately began searching for a building that could serve as a field hospital, Father McCurry recalled.

As he started his search, Father Maternowski removed his helmet and displayed a chaplain insignia and Red Cross armband. Father McCurry said he crossed enemy lines to seek out a German counterpart with the hope of establishing a joint hospital where the wounded of both armies could be treated with dignity. Father Maternowski was shot in the back while walking back to his regiment, he said.

Father Maternowski's body remained on the ground for three days before Allied forces were able to advance into the area near Guetteville. He was buried near Utah Beach one of the key invasion points in Normandy. In 1948, his remains were returned to the U.S. and buried at the Franciscans' Mater Dolorosa Cemetery in South Hadley, Mass.

[source unattributed, submitted by family member Mark Kromkowski]

In the early morning hours of D-Day, June 6, 1944, Father Ignatius Maternowski, a Conventual Franciscan priest-friar of St. Anthony Province (now Our lady of the Angeles province), based in Ellicott City, MD, parachuted with a large number of troops of the 82nd Airborne Division into occupied territory in the town of Picauville in Normandy. An American glider had crashed nearby, and there were many casualties. Fr. Maternowski began ministering to the wounded and dead paratroopers and glider victims. Realizing that a suitable field hospital would be needed, he attempted negotiations with his German counterpart, in the hope of combining their wounded in one common hospital. Walking between enemy lines unarmed and wearing his chaplain’s insignia and a Red Cross armband, he went to meet with the leading German medic. As he returned through the no-man zone to the American side, he was shot in the back by an enemy sniper. He was just 32 years old.

Fr. Ignatius Maternowski was born in Holyoke, MA. on March 28, 1912. After graduating from Mater Dolorosa Parochial School in 1927, he attended St. Francis High School in Athol Springs, NY, where he was a member of that school’s first graduating class in 1931. He entered the Conventual Franciscan Friars in 1932. After pursuing further studies, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Thomas O’Leary of Springfield on July 3, 1938, in the chapel of Saint Hyacinth College and Seminary in Granby. After the outbreak of World War II, Fr. Maternowski and several Franciscans of St. Anthony Province responded to the need for service as military chaplains. In July 1942, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and later volunteered to become a member of the 508th Parachute Infantry Regimen of the 82nd Airborne Division. After rigorous training with fellow troops, he attained the rank of captain, and served for 23 months before his death. On June 9, 1944, U.S. soldiers from the 90th Infantry Division recovered Fr. Maternowski's body, which had been left on the road for three days, and removed it for burial near Utah Beach in France. In 1948, his remains were returned to Holyoke for a Requiem Mass in Mater Dolorosa Church, and interment in the Franciscan Friars plot at Mater Dolorosa Cemetery in South Hadley, MA. Even though Fr. Maternowski was previously listed as having been killed on June 13, 1944, Fr. James McCurry, Minister Provincial of St. Anthony Province (now Our Lady of the Angels Province) said through the help of U.S. Rep. Richard Neal's office, they were able to confirm that Fr. Maternowski was the only U.S. chaplain killed on the actual D-Day, June 6, 1944.

It is worth noting that another of Fr. Ignatius’ confreres of St. Anthony Province, Fr. Joseph Andrzejewski (1912-1956) also parachuted into Normandy on D-Day while serving as an Army chaplain. He survived the war only to die in a tragic car accident on November 5, 1956. He was buried with full military honors in St. Adalbert's Cemetery, Baltimore , MD.

[source unattributed, submitted by family member Mark Kromkowski]