R. Brown Crew – Assigned 753rd Squadron – January 23, 1945

Robert Brown and crew arrived at the 458th on January 23, 1945. They flew their first mission not quite a month later on February 19th to the foundry and casting plant at Meschade, Germany. From then on missions to Bielefeld, Berlin, Magdeburg, and Osnabruck are but a few that the crew participated in during February and March 1945.

On March 14, 1945, while preparing for a mission, Sgt William Clark and two other crew members were readying their plane when a careless gunner on another aircraft accidentally fired rounds into their plane. An incendiary caught fire and the men were unable to suppress the flames and abandoned the aircraft. All efforts failed to bring the fire under control and the area was evacuated. The aircraft exploded, causing damage to nine other aircraft in the vicinity.

The crew flew four missions after this incident to round out March and flew ten missions in April, including an abandoned effort to the airfield at Tirstrop in Denmark. On April 25, 1945 the 458th flew what would be the last combat mission that the 8th Air Force would fly in Europe. The Brown crew participated in this mission, their 21st and last.

The explosion as seen from across the field

(Photo: Mike Bailey)

William K. Clark relates an incident that happened before one of their missions
The day started quite normally, this Wednesday morning at Horsham St. Faith, March 14, 1945.  We had been awakened early for the mission, had breakfast and attended the briefing.  This was to be our ninth mission and our target was the marshaling yards at Holzwickede, Germany.  Our pilot, Lt. Robert Brown, and the other officers of our crew went to their briefings while the rest of us went to our plane [a B-24J named We’ll Get By] to install the guns and to carry out other pre-flight tasks.  Three of us were in the waist section of the plane when, suddenly, the sound of shots rang out.  Because there was a distinctive hissing sound coming from our bomb bay, my immediate thought was that an incendiary bomb has been hit.  We had, as I recall, a 5000lb. bomb load in addition to a full complement of gasoline.

The three of us immediately evacuated the airplane through the floor hatch in the waist.  We started to run, stopping to look backward all the while to see if the plane was on fire.  I remember seeing smoke coming from the plane and a flare, indicating an emergency, being shot off – probably by a member of another crew.  We watched as a fire truck arrived at the scene and the men aboard immediately began spraying our airplane with fire repellant.  We retreated further from the area and then, surprisingly, saw the fire fighting personnel hastily leaving the area.  We then heard a tremendous explosion and knew that the plane had blown up.  We intercepted our officers who were about to leave for the hardstand and notified them it was our plane that exploded.

No personnel sustained injuries, but six planes in the area were severely damaged.  We heard later that a gunner in a nearby airplane had accidentally discharged his gun into our aircraft.

Remains of Clark’s Liberator We’ll Get By

(Photo: Alan Griffith)

753rd Squadron Records
The Report of Aircraft accident (WD, AAF Form No. 14) filed on this accident contains the following summary:
“…a waist gunner of A/C 42-50565 carelessly failed to check closely for ammunition in his gun before pulling the trigger. Several rounds went off which ricocheted into the bomb bay and left wing tank of a nearby airplane, igniting an incendiary bomb and gas tanks, which set the airplane afire, exploding the bomb load, which completely destroyed the airplane [B24-J-145-CO 44-40118 J4 S We’ll Get By] and caused various degrees of damage to nine other aircraft. When smoke and fire appeared from the airplane, the fire truck proceeded immediately to the scene and attempted to extinguish the fire for about two minutes, whereupon the bomb dispersal officer stated that the time limit had expired and that all personnel should abandon the area because of danger of the bombs exploding.”

Ferry Crew – B-24JSH-15-FO 42-51936 J3 I