The Jones crew was one of ten crews specially trained in the AZON Project.  They came to the 753rd Squadron as a group in May 1944 and participated in several AZON missions in May and June 1944.

Jones' crew flew 44-40275 "Shack Time" from the States to England.

This crew flew at least three AZON missions in June, one of which was abandoned due to poor weather and did not count as a sortie.  Crew members, in statements made after the war and in recent correspondence claim they were shot down on their sixth mission.  Official records do not record the names of pilots for all AZON sorties, and 753rd Squadron records do not list sorties for any pilots until November 1944.  Formation charts for AZON missions were evidently kept separate from the 458th's regular combat operations and have not yet been acquired.

On July 11, 1944 Jones' crew took off for a mission to Munich with the rest of the 458th.  This was not an AZON missio, none of which actually occurred in July, but 753rd crews were still assigned to fly with the group.  For reasons unknown, Glenn Hargis, bombardier, did not fly on this mission.  His place was taken by 2Lt Otto B. Hammersmith, Jr., an original 753rd bombardier on Crew 25.  Suffering battle damage from flak that severed fuel lines, Jones fell back from the formation and eventually descended through the undercast.  The order to bail out was given, and most of the crew jumped clear - all but Hammersmith and Charles Stenard, nose turret gunner, who had gotten each other's parachutes mixed up, and one of the chutes spilled on the flight deck.  It is possible that Hammersmith jumped, but Stanard's body was found in the burned wreckage of their B-24 which came down near Schoondiyke 2km southeast of Breskens in Holland.  He was buried in the Breskens Community Cemetery.  Nothing certain is known how the three gunners Sgt's Robert Palmer, Clarence Prentice, and Mitchell Kamenski were killed, but somehow Kamenski's dogtags were discovered near the wreckage.  It is possible, since the pilot landed three hundred feet off shore, waist deep in water, that the three gunners landed in the water and drowned.

2Lt Glenn Hargis continued to fly missions with the group, and while it is not known for certain, it is believed that he finished a combat tour.

S/Sgt Jake T. Lucero successfully evaded capture after being the first to bail out through the bomb bay.  With the help of the Dutch underground, he remained hidden until liberated by Allied forces in October 1944.

MACR:  An A/C believed to be #341 [SATAN'S MATE] was seen leaving formation in vicinity of NEUZEN, NETHERLANDS, at 1530 hours, with one engine feathered and another sputtering.  It was below undercast.  At same time, radio message was picked up presumably from same A/C asking for position.

Casualty Interrogation Report of 1Lt John J. Jones, pilot: "Jones stated that Sgt. Charles E. Stenard, Jr., was a member of his crew serving in the capacity of nose gunner on a mission dated 11 July 1944.  Jones further stated that while piloting a B-24 J on the return leg of a mission over Munich, Germany, the aircraft ran out of fuel.  The order to bail out was given by Jones at ten thousand feet.  Jones was the last to leave the aircraft.  At that time the altitude was fifteen hundred feet.  The only person seen by Jones prior to his bailing out was 1st Lt. William R. Joyse [sic], co-pilot, who (it was assumed by Jones) had accounted for the crew.  Jones stated that he does not know how many of the crew were checked by the co-pilot even though it was the co-pilot who called his attention to the low altitude and to the fact that all of the crew were out of the ship.  Jones further stated that he had no view of the nose wheel door, could not see anyone from the catwalk.  He did notice, however, that the bomb bay was open.  After his descent, approximately three hundred feet off-shore and in waist deep water in the North Sea near the Dutch-Belgian border, Jones was taken prisoner by the military and held until released as a result of being liberated by elements of the Russian Army on 2 May 1945.  After leaving his aircraft, Jones did not see Stenard again. Hearsay information offered by Jones is to the effect that his German captors told him that one of the crew was drowned and another killed.  No names were mentioned.  Jones first learned of  Stenard's death upon his return to the United States on 24 July 1945 when so informed by his wife that she had received a letter from Stenard's parents to the effect that their son had been killed in action."

Statement made by 1Lt William R. Joyce, co-pilot:  "On 11 July 1944, target Munich, the mission was as usual until the return, approximately thirty minutes from the English Channel, when number two engine went out.  Pilot feathered and we proceeded a little behind formation.  A short time later, one and four [engines] went out, and the pilot ordered the crew to bail out.  At the time, the aircraft was at sixteen thousand feet.  The pilot and I stayed at the controls keeping the aircraft under control until about fifteen hundred feet, when I left the seat preparatory to bailing out.  As I left the flight deck I looked back to the waist, and up to the nose, and saw none of the crew.  Co-pilot bailed out, followed by the pilot, and both landed in the North Sea, at the border of Holland and Belgium.  Upon reaching shore, both were captured by the Wehrmacht, stationed at invasion lookout posts.  After capture [we] were united with navigator and radio operator.  Later information indicated that engineer evaded successfully.  Pilot, co-pilot, navigator, and radio operator were interned as prisoners of war.  Questioning after cessation of hostilities on the continent, in England, and the United States revealed no further information as to the whereabouts or fate of the other five crewmembers."

Statement of 2Lt Phil Z. Cole, navigator:  "On returning from the target, we were flying at approximately 18,000 feet when Sgt. Charles E. Stenard's oxygen supply went out.  I brought him out of the [nose] turret and put him on an oxygen system in the nose.  Just at that time the alarm bell rang to bail out because we were out of gas.  Sergeant Charles E. Stenard, Jr. then picked up a chute and went onto the flight deck to bail out.  Because of the incident regarding his oxygen, Sgt. Stenard had become highly nervous and almost hysterical.

"About a minute after Sgt. Stenard left I followed him onto the flight deck.  When I got onto the flight deck Sgt. Stenard turned to me and hysterically screamed, "Lieutenant, I've got the wrong chute!"  There are two types of army chutes, one with rings on them and the other with snaps, and the harnesses on these chutes go on a snap harness, or vice versa; inasmuch as Sgt. Stenard had a ring type harness on he could not attach the chute he had picked up).  I told him to go back to the nose and get his own chute and bail out through the nose doors, which I had left open.  These doors were opened by me to throw out all excess equipment in order to lighten the ship.

"I bailed out at approximately 3,200 feet.  I am unable to say what happened to Sgt. Stenard, however, when interned in a Wehrmacht camp about 16 kilometers from the point of capture, a Wehrmacht sergeant told me that one of my comrades, first name Charles, had gone in with the ship.  First Lieutenant John Jacob Jones, Jr., the pilot on my crew told me later that he saw a chute spilled on the flight deck as he bailed out, however, he did not see Sgt. Stenard or any of the other crew members as he bailed out."

Statement of S/Sgt George L. Eifel, Jr., radio operator:  "I do not know whether or not Sergeant Charles E. Stenard, Jr. escaped from our aircraft, a B-24 named "Satan's Mate" when it crashed in Holland on 11 July 1944.  During our bombing mission, Sergeant Stenard flew in the nose turret, but had left his parachute in the flight deck.  When our pilot warned us that our aircraft was running out of gasoline and that it was going to crash, Lieutenant Hammersmith, bombardier, accidentally spilled Sergeant Stenard's parachute.  Shortly after this happened, Stenard came back to the flight deck to get his chute.  I do not know if Stenard found any other chute, but I saw him return to the nose turret section.  This was the last time I saw Sergeant Stenard, for I bailed out about five minutes later and upon landing, was captured by the Germans.  I did not see any parachutes from our aircraft because of an overcast.  The other members of our crew who bailed out and were later captured by the Germans were: First Lieutenant John Jones, pilot; First Lieutenant William Joyce, co-pilot; Second Lieutenant Phil Cole, navigator; and Staff Sergeant Jake Lucero, engineer."

Casualty Interrogation Report of S/Sgt Jake T. Lucero, flight engineer: "Sergeant Lucero states that the bomber on which he was a crew member was battle-damaged and that the occupants were forced to bail out.  He further states that, to the best of his knowledge, he was the first man to leave the ship and that he saw only one other parachute open.  He did not see the ship crash.  He states further that the people who concealed him in Holland informed him that one man had gone down with the ship but they did not know his name.  Sergeant Lucero was of the opinion that it was the pilot until he returned to his old group at which time he was informed that Sergeant Stenard was the man who was killed in the crash."

                                 Compiled from 458th BG formation plans on which pilot's name appears (all missions may not be a credited sortie)

Jones crew flew this aircraft over from the States and on several AZON missions

Photo courtesy: George Reynolds

Crew 25 Bombardier, 2Lt Otto B. Hammersmith

Capt. Richard D. Harland,  2Lt Gordon E. Wyman,  2Lt Otto B. Hammersmith

Photo courtesy: Anne Zimmer

Photo courtesy: Anne Zimmer