398th Bomb Group - Original Combat Crews
The First Combat Crews Assigned to the 398th
It's the American way to want to be number one. Surely those crews assigned to man the 398th Bomb Group (H) for combat must have felt real special to be first. Listed below are the names of the seventy two original B-17 crew members that were to first serve the 398th in combat. They left their training site in Rapid City, SD in early April 1944 bound for the European Theater of Operations. They arrived crew by crew at Station 131, Nuthampstead, England in late April and were soon put to work. They well understood that many other 8th Air Force Bomb Groups were already "in business" flying combat missions, and they were to be the first for the 398th. Colonel Hunter took thirty-six of his crews on the 398th's first combat mission on May 6, 1944. The 398th crews performed well after what was reported to be a somewhat shaky first mission. It was only a few weeks after that before replacement crews were needed and began to arrive. Not many of the "we were the first" crew member names are familiar at our annual reunions, but when you encounter one, he'll be happy to tell you the story.
Wally Blackwell, November 2002
Terms: The term in the charts below "ORG" is an abbreviation for "Original." The "Final Rank" and "Final Position" are those ranks and positions attained at the completion of 398th duty. In some cases, other ranks and positions may have been attained through subsequent duties in the Armed Forces.
Note: '****' in the CREW MBR column denotes regular crew member not listed on official loading list. These men were transported by troop ship in order for key HQ and ground personnel to be immediately flown over to populate Station 131, Nuthampstead.
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Input Requested: Please send any additional information or corrections for this list to the 398th Group Historian.
Last Update: The last update of the data below was March 28, 2005.
