2Lt Donald K. Williams crew was originally assigned to the 753rd Squadron.  Their first mission was to Koblenz on January 1, 1945.  On February 10, 1945 the crew was transferred to the 755th Squadron to be a lead crew.  Since the nose turret would now be occupied by a pilotage navigator, Sgt. Leonard "Billy" Wood, the nose turret gunner, was transferred to 1Lt Russell Bechtel's crew and remained in the753rd Squadron.  It was a fateful move.  Not two weeks later, on February 23, 1945, while approaching the base on return from a mission over Germany, Bechtel's B-24 collided with another 458th Liberator flown by 2Lt Daniel F. Hunt, Jr. crew of the 754th Squadron.  Both aircraft broke apart in the clouds and crashed about ten miles north of Horsham St, Faith.  Leonard Wood and the rest of Bechtel's crew were killed and only three men out of nine were able to bail out of Hunt's aircraft.

Williams crew flew their first mission in the 755th the next day, February 24, 1945 to Bielefeld marshalling yards.  They flew 19 missions altogether, including the last flown by the 458th on April 25, 1945 before combat operations ceased.

Bottom right are items recovered from wreckage.

IN MEMORY OF
SGT. LEONARD E. “BILL” WOOD
SON OF E.M. AND OMA LEE WOOD
BORN NOV. 10, 1925
LOST HIS LIFE ON A MISSION
RETURNING FROM GERMANY FEB. 23, 1945