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The 492nd Bomb Group flew B-24 Liberators out of their base at North Pickenham, England, into Germany and Nazi-occupied countries in Europe from April through August of 1944.
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| The O'Sullivan Crew 713 |
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After 89 days of combat the 492nd received the unwanted distinction of being the first and only group in American history to be disbanded due to high casualties. Yet throughout some of the toughest luck to befall any bomb group, the O'Sullivan Crew 713 managed to find enough of the Luck of the Irish to complete their 30-mission tour.
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They named their assigned Liberator Irishman's Shanty and felt fortunate to have flown her on half of their missions. But, those missions were fraught with several harrowing, near-death experiences.
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On 29 May 44 Crew 713 was hit hard by the Luftwaffe while attacking the heavily defended oil refineries at Politz on one of the toughest bombing raids of WWII. Other crews saw them drop out of formation and assumed that they'd had it.
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Their oxygen lines were severed and crewmen began to black out. The navigator bailed out and was taken POW. The waist gunners quickly began feeding oxygen to the pilots and the rest in the nose section with walk-around bottles. The nose gunner, top turret gunner and the tail gunner each shot down a German fighter. O'Sullivan took his plane down to an altitude where they wouldn't need the oxygen bottles and managed to nurse the crippled plane back to England without his navigator. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
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Crew 713 escaped another near-death experience on 7 Jul 44 while on a bombing run targeting an aircraft manufacturing plant at Bernburg. As the Group was approaching the target they crossed paths with another Bomb Group returning from their target. The lead ship for the other Group was hit by flak and began flying out of control right towards Crew 713. O'Sullivan put his ship into a dive just in time to avoid a mid-air collision. His wingman, Lt Cary, wasn't so lucky. The runaway plane crashed into him killing everyone in Cary's crew except for their bombardier.
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Everyone with the 492nd was on pins and needles when the O'Sullivan Crew 713 took off on their 30th mission, hoping that this mission would end the jinx that seemed to plague the Group. Crew 713, still flying in their Irishman's Shanty, almost didn't make it. They survived some bad flak damage but then encountered something that they had never seen before: German jet fighters! A pair of jets approached their aircraft from the rear and buzzed past them at an amazing speed. But for reasons unknown, the two jets did not attack.
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Additional information regarding Crew 713 and their missions can be found on the 492nd Bomb Group website. Some direct links are provided here.
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