I came across this story and great website about the 458th Bombardment Group flying bombing missions out of Horsham Air Base in St. Faith Norwich England during WWII. I had heard stories, but thanks to this gentleman whose father was part of the group, I learned the fate of my great uncle, who was a co-pilot with a crew shot down just over the Dutch border on the edge of the English Channel. I will visit his grave at the American Cemetery in the Netherlands first chance I have. We had always assumed the plane and crew went into the English Channel.
The history and the references on the website are worth reading for anyone interested, and also the video interview of Captain Lawrence Fick (ret.) who would have been on the fateful September 1944 mission, but was separated from his crew after they were reassigned from bombing missions to “gas haul” or “trucking” missions as they were called – hauling gas to Patton’s rapidly advancing army on the continent.
Capt. Fick also wrote about the day-to-day life of his crew both before they left the states and when they arrived in England.