458th Bombardment Group (H)

William R. McCoy and crew arrived at Horsham St. Faith on December 21, 1944 and were assigned to the 753rd Squadron.  Lt Mike Lopez, their bombardier throughout training, was removed from the crew and sent to a B-17 unit.  He trained with the RAF for a period and eventually flew several combat missions, although it is unknown with which group he was assigned. After a period of in theater indoctrination, the crew flew their first combat mission on January 28, 1945.  In 30 day's time they had completed seven missions.

Taking off on their eighth mission on the morning of March 2, 1945, the crew were flying a Liberator they had flow on two previous occasions, B-24J-145-CO 44-40134 J4 R, a nameless ship that had more than 50 missions on her scoreboard.  It was soon discovered that Lt Evans' heated suit was not working properly.  The crew decided to return to base, and in the words of the pilot, "...pick up an electrical suit for the Navigator and return on the mission as soon as possible." The aircraft came in with a full load of bombs and fuel, this extra weight possibly not being taken into account as to when to apply the brakes to bring the ship to a safe stop.  The aircraft rolled through the end of the runway where the nose wheel buckled and the ship came to a rest on her nose.

Undaunted, they were off on a mission the very next day, flying to Nienburg, Germany.  A total of nine mission were flown in March and eight in April (making 23 for McCoy), the last on the 16th just prior to the crew's being sent on rest home leave.  The next day the officers were off to AAF 495, Knightshayes Court, Tiverton, Devonshire; while the enlisted men embarked for AAF 566 at Keythorpe Hall, Tugby, Leicestershire for 10 days of leave before continuing their combat flying.

As it turned out, by the time McCoy and crew returned to Horsham, the Eighth Air Force's shooting war was over.  The last mission had been flown on April 25, 1945 to the marshalling yards at Bad Reichenhall.  Most of the crews who had not completed a full combat tour were assigned to ferry home the Liberators of the 458th, and a few from some neighboring groups.  McCoy was assigned one of the "newer" Liberators in the group, B-24J-65-CF 44-10602 J3 A Ten Gun Dottie to fly back to the States.  They had flown this aircraft on three occasions during their tour on missions over Germany. Most of the "ferry crews" left Horsham by early June 1945, headed back to the States to start the transition into B-29's for assignment in the South Pacific.

STATEMENT

WILLIAM R. MC COY JR, 2d Lt, 0-778526, 753d Bombardment Squadron, 458th Bombardment Group (H), AAF 123, APO 558.

 

Returned to field with bomb load and full load of gas.  Reason was to pick up electric suit for Navigator and return on Mission as soon as possible.  Navigator’s suit became inoperative in flight.  Made approach higher than necessary but made normal landing in the first third of the runway.  Possibly didn’t use brakes soon enough to stop and ran off end of runway.  The nose wheel buckled due to the rather high ridge at the end of the runway.  The weight and load of the ship was not anticipated after landing and speed was not killed soon and fast enough.

 

WILLIAM R. MC COY, JR

2d Lt, Air Corps, Pilot.