Personnel

CREW



2ND LT WADE D. PRATT  P IIC 12 MAY 45  CRASHED DISS - ATTLEBORO RD.

2ND LT HAROLD L. RINTOUL  CP IIC 12 MAY 45  CRASHED DISS - ATTLEBORO RD.

2ND LT JOHN CROTTY   NAV FEH

2ND LT WILLIAM G. WOODRUFF BOM FEH

   CPL ERNEST T. DAMATO  ROG FEH

   CPL ANTHONY SZOTT  TTE IIC 12 MAY 45  CRASHED DISS - ATTLEBORO RD.

   CPL ROBERT G. GUIDI  BTG IIC 12 MAY 45  CRASHED DISS - ATTLEBORO RD.

   CPL HANSEL H. ADKINS  TG FEH

   CPL WILLIAM M. LUCAS  WG FEH



418th Sqdn.. Crew joined 100th on 21 Jan 1945

Crew flew A/C 43-38821 LD-O "Girdle Girty" call sign "Rubber Oboe"  and also "Lay or Bust" 



On 12 may 45 Pratt, Rintoul, Szott, Guidi, S/Sgt VINCENT FERRANICE and 2nd Lt James T. Brand took off from Thorpe Abbotts in A/C #44-6790 on a night transition flight in the local area. Weather worsened, while the tower tried for 1 hour and twenty minutes before contacting the crew. When contact was established Pratt was advised to attempt a landing, the aircraft struck a tree and crashed about five miles W/NW of the base on the Diss - Attleboro Road.



Brand was KIC and all the others IIC.  The aircraft was destroyed.

--Records from Norton AFB 17 May 85....James R. Brown, Historian to pw (June 1991)



Missions of 2nd Lt Wade D. Pratt (mpf)



 1. 17/02/45 Frankfurt

 2. 19/02/45 Munster 

 3. 20/02/45 Nurnburg(crash landed Lay or Bust in Belgium due to flak damage)

 4. 23/02/45 Treuchtlingen

 5. 24/02/45 Bremen

 6. 28/02/45 Kassel

 7. 02/03/45 Dresden

 8. 03/03/45 Brunswick

 9. 07/03/45 Seigen

10. 08/03/45 Giessen

11. 09/03/45 Frankfurt

12. 14/03/45 Hanover

13. 17/03/45 Ruhland

14. 18/03/45 BERLIN (attacked by ME 262)

15. 19/03/45 Jena

16. 22/03/45 Alhorn

17. 23/03/45 Ziegenhain AF

18. 28/03/45 Hanover

19. 30/03/45 Hamburg

20. 31/03/45 Zeitz

21. 03/04/45 Kiel

22. 04/04/45 Kiel

23. 05/04/45 Nurnburg

24. 07/04/45 Buchen

25. 14/04/45 Royan 

26. 15/04/45 Royan

27. 17/04/45 Aussig

28. 18/04/45 Straubing

 - No MACR.