Crew 76 took their third phase training with the 755th Squadron at Tonopah, Nevada in the winter of 1943.  The crew arrived at Horsham St. Faith in February 1944 and began preparing for combat missions.  Sgt James Mitchell, ball turret gunner, was replaced at that position by S/Sgt Frederick R. Robinson prior to the crew flying combat.  Robinson completed his tour with Crew 76 and was awarded the DFC in July 1944.

Crew 76 participated in some of the toughest missions that the 458th flew during the group's early combat days.  On the crew's first four missions in March 1944, two trips to Berlin flanked two missions to Friedrichshafen, Germany in the space of a two week period.  In April a mission to Brunswick or "Braunschweig" was followed the next day by a flight through very bad weather to Tutow, Germany.  The 458th flew through a heavy cloud bank over Keil Bay and ME109's were waiting on the other side.  Four Liberators from the group went down due to fierce enemy fighter attacks.  Also in April, the crew flew missions to Oschersleben, Brandenburg, and Mannheim.  In May they saw Brunswick twice more; Osnabruck, St. Trond Belgium, Bohlen and Tutow again on the 13th (although the weather was much better this time, it was still a long haul into Germany), and Mulhouse, France on May 25th.  Most of the crew completed their 30-mission combat tour on or around D-Day.  Co-pilot Bert Betts' mission log indicates that he flew his 29th and 30th missions on June 6th - one in the morning to drop bombs on the invasion beaches prior to the landings, and his last in the afternoon to Avranches, France. The 755th Squadron records show that pilot Nelson Stewart flew his last mission on June 8, 1944.

Their combat tour complete, Crew 76 was broken up as were most of the crews who had the good fortune to come out of air war over Europe in one piece.  The officers were sent to the 12th Replacement Control Depot at AAF 591 in Chorley (Lancashire) in July, and most of the enlisted men went either to Chorley or to AAF 594 Stone (Staffordshire) for further assignment.

Painting by Robert Peters