Crew 45 was an original crew, trained at Tonopah, NV and deployed with the group to England in January 1944.  The photo caption from the 458th records contains the names of personnel listed above, but the Combat Roster for the 754th Squadron lists 1Lt Ernest T. Herndon as co-pilot, and 2Lt Charles C. Noblitt as navigator.  It is assumed that Herndon and Noblit are not pictured with this crew, rather they are pictured with their original Crew 40, pilot Harry Pierce.  It is not known on what date these two were transferred to Crew 45.  Nothing can be found on 2Lt Howard C. Bodine or 2Lt Cohen, the men they replaced.  Herndon went down on the March 6, 1944 raid to Berlin while flying with Crew 48, pilot Thayer Hopkins.  Barton is not listed as flying on March 6th.  It is believed that Barton flew as either lead or deputy lead on most of his missions, so it is possible that he received no replacement co-pilot, that seat instead being occupied by a command pilot.

The 754th Squadron records are incomplete for March 1944 and April 1944 is missing entirely, so it is not known how many missions Barton's crew flew.  They did fly on the April 22, 1944 mission to Hamm, Germany [documented in Night of the Intruders, by Ian McLachlan]. Barton lead the second 458th Bomb Group section and was able to bomb the marshalling yards at Hamm, while the first section had poor visibility and proceeded to the secondary target of Koblenz.

On May 23, 1944 the 458th Bomb Group set out for the Luftwaffe Airfield at Bourges, France.  Newly assigned co-pilot, 2Lt William J. Fuqua (assigned to 2Lt Robert W. Hanson's crew) flew with Barton that day.  During assembly, the 458th formation encountered a B-17 formation flying at right angles to one another.  Due to poor visibility, the two groups of heavy bombers could not avoid each other and the two combat wings flew through one another.  A B-17 of the 351st Bomb Group, piloted by 1Lt Peter E. Crowe crashed into the B-24 in which Barton and Crew 45 were flying.  Both ships broke up and crashed near Eye, Suffolk.  Three crewmembers of the B-17 managed to parachute to safety, but all of Barton's crew perished.

                                                                                                          Mission list compiled from 458th records

1Lt Allen C. Hilborn, co-pilot Crew 74: “We were flying #159 [42-95159] off the left wing of Barton during assembly.  The group was northeast of Horsham St. Faith in an area over The Wash.  Since I was flying at the time, my eyes were glued to the wing of Barton’s ship, which was about thirty feet ahead and slightly to the right of our ship.  I was monitoring the group radio frequency while Curt [Vogel, the pilot] was on the intercom.  I heard a lot of radio chatter about a group of B-17’s approaching from nine o’clock.  A few moments later Curt yelled, “DOWN!!” at which point I dropped the nose sharply while Curt cut the throttles.  Still looking at Barton’s ship, I saw a B-17 [42-97325, piloted by Lt. Peter E. Crowe, 351BG] hit their nose section with the right wing.  The wing of the B-17 broke off, and flames appeared from the burst fuel tanks.  Barton’s ship broke apart at the waist, spilling men and all sorts of material.  Another B-17 passed directly over us.  When we landed after the mission, we found out how close that B-17 came to hitting us -- the antenna wire that ran from the fuselage to the right rudder had been cut neatly in two. This was my worst mission.”

1Lt Samuel D. Scorza's Navigation Log: