461st plaque

461st Bombardment Group (H)

764th Crews 765th Crews 766th Crews 767th Crews

Ahlberg - #42 Barcus - #123 Barnes - #53 Barnhart - #59 Bauman - #44 Baumann - #46 Bigelow - #54 Bontempo - #1/26 Boyd - #44R Bridges - #5/5 Brothers - #41 Chester - #9/1 Coates - #96- Coleman - #58- Conner - #4/7 Courtney - #50R Curtis - #152 DeSpain - #57-0 Donovan - #45 Dunn - #54-1 Edwards - #40 Ehrlich - #45R Falkner - #8/29 Farnham - #42R Fawcett - #50 Fernsten - #49R Fink - #9/22 Friedersdorf - #8/28 Garner - #50-1 Guyton - #10/8 Hall - #6232 Hatem - #4/16-9 Hesser - #56 Holmes - #47 Hooper - #12/12 Hoskins - #124 Hutchison - #102 Jehli - #42-1 Kassian - #57R1 Kuhlman - 52R LaRock - #1/30 Ledendecker - #4/6 MacDougall - #41 Mahlum - #1/6 Malvin McKee - #154 Merkouris - #49-7 Miller - #10/23 Misius - #56R Moses - #7/25-1 Mowery - #49 Nixon - #42 O'Neal - #10/31 Pearce - #55R Philips - #8/22 Ray - #58-0 Ridenour - #3/3 Roberts - #52R Robertson - #48 Seeman - #43 Settle - #55 Shaw - #43-1 Sidovar - #10/16-1 Simon - #53 Sobieski - #8/22 Sterret - #7/12 Tebbens - #3/12 Thomas - #46R Townsley - #58-2 Trier - #55-1 Vahldieck - #1/30 Vanderhoeven - #50-1 Ward - #53-2 Webb - #6781 Webb - #8/28 Wiemann - #6413 Wilson - #44-1 Wilson - #52 Wood - #51 Wren - #7/23 Wright - #52-1 Yetter - #56R Zive - #59-0

Ward - #53-2

MACR #10494

Ward crew #53-2 

Standing L-R: Reaney, George 'Pops' (BG); McVicars, Andrew (B); Ward, Lee P. Jr. (P); Wilson, George J. (N)

Kneeling L-R: Moore, Melvin J. (TG); Yates, Thomas L. (E/TT); Dumdei, Mervin A. (WG/Photo); Glover, William E. (NG); Centanni, Anthony J. (RO/WG)

Major Rider, Squadron leader, led a large formation against a far distant and heavily defended target, the synthetic oil refinery at Brux, CZ.  The formation flew from Torretta, Italy between two decks of clouds over the Adriatic, but experienced fairly good weather over the Alps.  Over the target the tops of the solid undercast were up to 20,000 feet.  Taking advantage of the high solid undercast, Major Rider was able to almost completely avoid the intense flack.  The Boise Belle, flown by 1st Lt. Lee P. Ward, Jr., with most of the crew from ship #48 (2nd Lt. Thomas Merkouris, F/O Kenneth Merry, 2nd Lt. Charles E. Mundy, Cpl. Thomas MacDonald, Cpl. Paul Haggerty, Cpl. Thomas Byers, Cpl. Melvin Ten Haken, T/Sgt. Jesse Palmer, Cpl. R. C. Wakefield, T/Sgt. Harry Dunham) was shot down after clearing the Alps near Trieste, Italy.  Lt. Ward was lost.