858th BS
Phillips Crew
In the picture below, Phillips is dead-center front row,other faces have not been matched to names. This picture was taken at Bradley Field,CT on the return to the USA. More of a homecoming picture than a crew picture, the twenty men in this photo returned to the Zone of the Interior aboard the plane favored most by the pilot and named after his beautiful blond wife, Mary Francis. Mary was a vivacious woman who was an American Red Cross worker at Harrington when they met. They were married at Northampton in February of 1945. Joining the Canadian Air Force prior to America's entry into the war, Peyton's first plane solo was a Tiger Moth. He was allowed to be discharged and returned to the states following Pearl Harbor. In 1943 he was flying with an Anti-Submarine Warfare crew on the eastern seaboard. He is pictured with the Van Zyle crew at that time (standing far-right). While preparing the squadrons first planes at Tempsford and Alconbury he flew with Boone's crew.
Though an original ASW crew
member, Peyton had been plagued by health problems throughout most
of 1944 and got in only seven missions before the drawdown of September
1944. By the spring of 1945 he had a crew, but the 858th was flying only bomb
runs and spoof missions with occasional Carpetbagger drops by then.
He does not appear to have been the pilot during the period.
Volunteering for training on a Wellington, Peyton was slightly
injured in the spring of 1945 during a non-operational flight but
recovered in time to pilot the Blonde Bomber on the return to the
ZI. Men known to be in the picture are:
John C. Gleeson - Engineer
ASN
19063517
Joseph R. Ricco - R.O.
ASN
32793332
Edward P. Kolacki - Navigator
ASN 02065214
Peyton F. Phillips - Pilot
ASN 0736560
Lucien G. Petit - Bombardier
ASN T-128665
Grover P. Perry,Jr. -
Gunner ASN
35902396
Kenneth A. Francis - Copilot
ASN T-128556
ASNs so-colored for EMs link to their NARA Enlistment Record.
The men departed Harrington on 9Jul45 in B24 42-28789 at 1448hrs, stopping at the Azores for a gas-up before going to the U.S. The runway at the base in the Azores is shown below on the morning of 10 July 1945.
Additional Data
Sources:
Phillips ZI Crew Personnel Files
Group-Related Downloads:
AAFRH-21 "AAF Aid to
European Resistance"
Allied Leaflets Index
"Carpetbaggers" by Parnell
"They Flew by Night" editor Robert Fish
Serial Number Index of B24s
Station 179 Operations Log (handwritten
Apr44-Jul45)
Station 179 Operations
Log (transcribed
Sep44-Jul45)
Available on Request:
Group Mission Reports Jan-Sep44 (On
disk $12ea - $10ea via Paypal)
"Chronology of SOE
Operations with the Resistance In France During WWII" by
Foot & Boxhall
"Spies,Supplies & Moonlit
Skies Vols 1&2" by Ensminger (On
disk $12ea - $10ea via Paypal)
