Pollard Crew – Assigned 754th Squadron – November 17, 1944

On November 17, 1944 three combat crews were assigned to the 458th.  One crew, pilot 2Lt Hilburn F. Richards went to the 753rd Squadron; and two crews, those of 2Lt Raymond L. Hendrix and 2Lt Wallace M. Pollard came to the 754th.  None of these crews would be at Horsham for long.  On November 19th all three were transferred to the 406th Bombardment Squadron (Provisional) at AAF 113 near Cheddington.  From here these crews would be flying night operations, dropping leaflets on Germany.

On January 3, 1945 Sgt Blythe R. Smyth was flying in place of Sgt Charles A. McClain with the Hendrix crew on an operational mission,  when their aircraft crashed near Aston Clinton.  All ten men on board were killed in action.

Thanks to the excellent work of Mr. Thomas L. Ensminger and his website, The Carpetbagger Photographic Archives & Historical Research Center we have a brief glimpse into the activities of Pollard in this unit. Available interrogation forms show that Pollard’s crew flew at least 12 night, and 2 daytime leaflet operations between March 16th to May 31, 1945.  Each of the nighttime missions were to multiple cities inside Germany, while the two daytime operations were to an area around Bad Neuheim.  The Station Log for this group has Pollard flying five additional missions during this same period, but no details are given.

The tables below show “Target” (or city location), Load (type of leaflet carried), Drop Time, Altitude at time of drop, Route out and back, and times for take off and landing.  It looks like Pollard was assigned the same A/C, B-24 42-51492 for the majority of his trips over the Continent