My Father was in the 492nd B.G. (1st Organization, the "Hard Luck" Group) there at North Pickenham. He was in one of only about....6?.....original crews, out of the original 70 or so that came to England with the Group in April 1944, that managed to finish their 30 mission tour all with the 492nd before it was disbanded due to heavy losses in early August 1944.. Actually finishing a full tour with the 492nd was a hard thing to do. He told me many replacement crews came and were lost on their first mission. It's interesting to note that when the 491st was assigned to the 14th Combat Wing, to fill the vacancy left by the 492nd they were ordered to paint their vertical tails in the colors and markings of the 492nd - black on silver - a diagonal black bar on the silver tail- but they steadfastly refused to do it until higher crunched down on them and made them do it but by then it was on over in 1945, and the Luftwaffe was about played out.....I understand totally.

Thank you Men!

My dad flew 27 missions from North Pickenham (August 26, 1944--December 27th, 1944)

My Uncle SSGT Maurice Finnegan 491 bomb group,left wing gunner,Dan Means crew.KIA OCT 2 1347 hours