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On August 18, 1944, Flight Officer Higgins was flying a P-38 Lightning when he took off on a reconnaissance mission over Lisieux France. “Spotting a target of opportunity, he dove to strafe a German truck, but clipped a tree and tore his horizontal stabilizer, causing him to crash into the ground at 08:30 AM.”  Ben’s P-38 crashed on the Deschamps family farm (near Piencourt France). The Deschamps retrieved his body from the wreckage, and Ben was buried in the church cemetery in the village of Piencourt.  After the war, a monument was built in the cemetery, with a marble plaque listing Ben’s name (along with six other pilots who were killed a week later).

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Ben is also memorialized at Plot B Row 21 Grave 23, Normandy American Cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer, France. This is an American Battle Monuments Commission location. Ben’s family honored him with a marble cenotaph in the Siloam Baptist Church Cemetery in his hometown of Dahlonega, Georgia.