350th Sqdn. . Crew, as above, listed on Combat Crew Roster of 8 May 1944; on the MERSEBURG mission of 28 Jul 44 the crew flew as a pathfinder with the following crew component:

CREW
DATE: 28 July 1944, 350th Sqdn, A/C#42-97555
MISSION: Merseburg -- MACR#7880, Micro-fiche#2890

Of the above, Noble, Cruz, Ellis, Roberts, McNally, and Swartz appear to be from the original Noble crew. Lipps was from the M. C. Rumley crew. Kaufman from the R. A. Wegrzyneck crew. Barry from the H. E. Bethea crew. Mason had joined the 100th with his own crew on 28/11/43 and may have been on his 2nd tour.

Eyewitness Report: " At 0850 hours near 5043N-0802E, A/C #555 nosed down twice and the group followed. Then the wheels were lowered and fire was seen in the radio room. Looked as if it might be a flare fire. The A/C peeled off to the right. A small explosion was seen in the right wing between #3 engine and the fuselage. Ono man bailed out before the A/C left the formation. The others followed. Nine chutes were seen to open and the tenth had not opened when the man disappeared into the undercast. The fire in the A/C appeared to be out when it plunged into the undercast flying steadily under AFCE control. "

SUBJECT: Casualty Information of Crew Members
Activities before leaving aircraft: - Captain Mason was the first crew member to leave the A/C via a front exit. He departed with his harness on, but not fastened, and his parachute in his left hand, approximately 2 1/2 minutes after the explosion. Sgt. Roberts, who was the engineer and top turret gunner and not the right waist gunner (as shown on questionnaire), had not left at time of my departure; however, according to information as given to me by the bombardier, at a subsequent date, there was no one left in front end of the ship when he left. It can be therefore assumed that Sgt. Roberts succeeded in bailing out. Sgt. McNally, being a waist gunner, would bail out via the rear exits. All communication with the back of the ship had gone dead at the time of the explosion. I have no way of stating whether this crewmember ever left the ship from personal knowledge. However, from information received from Capt. E. J. Kaufman, Radar Navigator, McNally bailed out at about the same time as he did.