350th Sqdn. Crew, as above, joined 100th Group on 7/9/44

No Navigator or Bombardier. On crew List of 30/9/44 this is shown as crew #34 with some changes: A Lt. W. W. Pinson (from crew of H. E. Holladay) is the NAV, A S/Sgt J. Russell (From Lt Kassebaum Crew) is named as TOG/NG (flew 8 missions with Baker Crew and CPT) and Sgt. R. G. Schultz is not on crew.

Letter from C. O. Daniels of 28 Sept. 1984 says that Sgt. Robert "Dutch" Schultz flew with him but had insufficient missons on 5/3/45 & was assigned to another crew to finish. SGT. WILLIAM KILPATRICK, JR , WG ON LT C. O. DANIELS CREW WAS REMOVED TO REDUCE TO 9 MAN CREW AND REASSIGNED TO CREW OF C. K. BAKER AND WAS WOUNDED IN ACTION 30 NOV 44 ON 18TH MISSION.

"Ward did come on later. "Dutch" Schultz was radio operator that flew over seas with us then he went on the Daniels crew. The last plane we flew on 12/31/44 "Bachlor's Heaven", 44-8284 LN-H, we crash landed at Tibenham, a B-24 base, about 20 miles from the 100 BG. We blew #2 Eng. On take off and flew 7 minutes before crash landing. Crew all got out and was o. k. and flew a mission on 1/3/45.

C. Baker had a navigator, Gould Cline, assigned to him when we went over seas. Gould is from the NW, Idaho. He said, "Idaho had the prettiest girls in the world. " I flew my last five missions with Arthur Larsen. My last mission was 3/22/45. On the 3/31/45 his crew went down and there was only one survivor. "

…. . Charles L. Edmondson, CP on Lt Baker Crew

MISSIONS OF1ST LT CHARLES L. EDMONDSON 0-819070

Thought you guys might find this interesting. I heard from William J. Russell. He says:

"I don't believe I can be of very much help to you, and I am sorry about that. Also I do not have a computer. I was the right waist gunner on Les Kassebaum's crew. We started our combat missions in June 1944, and after 15 combat missions, was taken off my crew and made a spare gunner, as were the 10th man on every crew were of every B-17 in England. The reason being that the machine gun pointing to the tail of the plane wasn't of much use. This was the radio man's gun. So in case of an attack by German fighter planes the radio man would go to the right waist position and man that gun. So the B17s which had a crew of ten were reduced to a crew of nine. All spare gunners only had a chance to fly with another crew, if they happened to be short a man or men because of death or serious injury to anyone or more during combat missions, or drunkenness or any other cause of not being able to fly with their crew.

My crew and all crews at that time had to fly 35 combat missions to be able to leave and come home. Spare gunners could go home after 25 missions because of the infrequency that we flew. I had 15 combat missions with Les Kassebaums crew when I was taken off and made a spare gunner and flew two missions with two different crews whom I can't remember. Then I, as many others were trained as toggliers. We did the bombardiers job of dropping bombs etc. we did everything a bombardier did, except use the Norden Bomb Sight. The bombardier in the lead plane used the Bomb sight and also dropped a smoke bomb, which we dropped on. I now had 15 missions completed with my crew, and two as a spare gunner for a total of 17, at which time I was assigned to Baker's Crew as a toggler, and completed my last 8 missions and came home after 25 missions. I flew four different positions on a B17. Tail gunner, right waist gunner, top turret gunner and togglier.