458th Bombardment Group (H)

F/O Chesleigh D. “Tex” Wilburn and crew arrived at Horsham on November 9, 1944 and were assigned to the 753rd Squadron.  F/O James Allison, the crew’s bombardier in training was not assigned with the crew.  The crew’s first mission came a little over one month later on December 11, 1944 when they flew a B-24J named “Silver Chief” to the marshaling yards in Hanau, Germany.

The crew was able to get in 25 missions before the air war in Europe ended.  All of these missions were flown to targets in Germany, and included two trips to Magedeburg, and one mission to Berlin on March 18, 1945.  There is an unexplained two-week gap early on in the crew’s combat tour between January 14th to 29th.  While the crew had only flown six missions by the 14th, it seems a bit early for them to have gone on a leave of some sort.

They finally did get a rest home leave on April 10, 1945 after flying their 25th (and what would turn out to be their final) combat mission.  On April 25, 1945, the Eighth Air Force ceased operations in Europe and the war ended twelve days later.

Twelve of their 25 missions, were flown in a B-24J named Arise My Love and Come With Me.  This Liberator would become a familiar aircraft to many Liberator and World War II enthusiasts after the war due to a set of color Public Relations photographs taken of Captain Howard Slaton’s crew of the 755th Squadron in the summer of 1944.  At least one version of this photo has appeared in numerous publications on the Eighth Air Force since the war.  The most recognizable version appears on this website's home page.

The crew was assigned to ferry this aircraft back to the States in June 1945.  Lt John Kowalczuk, the bombardier from Lt Ralph Dooley’s crew, flew back with them and took several photos of the trip.