Their First Mission Together

Plane #42-95464 crashed upon return from the mission.

All their training had led to this moment. For one year they had drilled, studied, and prepared as a crew—now it was time to fly into combat for the very first time.

On a cold February morning in 1945, general briefings were held before dawn, and by 8:00 a.m., the roar of B-24 Liberators filled the skies above Wendling. The mission ahead was a strike on the northernmost bridge across the Rhine at Wesel. A fuel storage depot at Dülmen was designated as a secondary target.

As so often happened, the weather had its say. Heavy cloud cover obscured the primary, forcing the lead squadron to redirect to a target of opportunity. The others released on the secondary, though results were difficult to judge. In total, 190 one-thousand-pound bombs left the bomb bays that day.

Enemy fighters did not appear, and flak was light and inaccurate. The greater danger came on the return. Poor visibility made landings difficult, and one 576th Squadron Liberator, piloted by 2nd Lt. John B. Kelly, was forced to divert to RAF Foulsham. Attempting to land in snow and low clouds, the aircraft overshot the runway and collapsed its nose gear. Miraculously, no one was injured.

For the Hummel crew, the mission lasted five hours and fifty minutes—five hours and fifty minutes that transformed them from trainees into combat airmen. Their first mission together was complete. The long months of preparation were behind them; the war in Europe lay ahead.

This true story is one of many that inspired my historical novel, Shielding the Fall — a World War II tale of faith, survival, and love, drawn from the experiences of real airmen like the Hummel crew. If you’d like to step deeper into their world, you can explore the novel coming out this fall.