Gabriel Crew – Assigned 754th Squadron – June 25, 1944

Gene Gabriel and crew came to the 458th in the summer of 1944. They were assigned to the 754th Squadron and remained there until they completed their combat tour in February 1945. The crew flew seven missions in July. They had two abortive attempts on July 11th and 19th. On both occasions they were forced to return early with mechanical difficulties and received no mission credit. They only flew three missions in August, and one abortive attempt in September when the radio operator “became sick”. For the majority of September, the group was pulled off of combat operations in order to ferry gasoline to Patton’s army in France. The crews received no mission credit for these highly dangerous flights where each Liberator was packed full of specially fitted bomb bay tanks to carry the gasoline. The group lost one crew that crashed on takeoff from Horsham and another crew that strayed too far into enemy airspace and were shot down near St. Dizier, France. Gabriel flew two of these Truckin’ Missions.

The 458th was back to combat missions in October. Gabriel and crew flew only two missions that month, one of which was aborted because they “could not catch the formation”. During the last two months of 1944, the crew flew a total of 12 missions, all to targets in Germany and all without an abort.

The crew started off the New Year by flying to Koblenz, on a mission intended to bomb the Guls RR Bridge over the Moselle River near Koblenz, Germany. According to the “Aircraft Not Attacking” Report, the group put up 27 aircraft, three of which aborted early. The remaining 24 Liberators, “flying in 3 squadrons, were prepared to drop on the GH lead of the 466th Bomb Group. GH took over Group lead approximately 15 miles west of the IP. As formation was going down the bomb run, two groups cut in front on a heading toward England. Command Pilot [Maj John J. LaRoche] thought this might be a recall and ordered Group to head for home. Of the 24 A/C that failed to bomb, 2 were H2X, and 5 were lead A/C. 5 jettisoned all bombs. Remainder were returned to base. The 3 A/C bombing opportunity targets had left the formation due to mechanical difficulties.” All crews were given mission credit.

Gabriel flew six missions in January, one of which they were forced to abort for unspecified reasons, on January 14th. They completed their combat tour on February 16th with a mission to Osnabruck. Interestingly, none of the crew are shown receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross for the completion of their tour. Most of the final entries in the records show the crew receiving an Oak Leaf Cluster to their Air Medals in January.

Missions