#newly promoted-Crosby had as many as 8 captain navigators under him at once

[thatsrightice]

Harry Crosby’s 32 Missions

LEGEND:

Green Square: 100th BG arrives at Thorpe Abbotts

Yellow Squares: Crosby’s Official Missions

Note: the date of Mission 30 is not known

Gray Squares: 100th BG’s first and last combat missions

Note: Crosby did not fly on these missions

Red Lines: Periods when grounded

Blue Line: Russian Shuttle Mission

Blue Square: Promoted to Major

Green Star: End of war in the ETO

**see below for descriptions of key events**

June 9, 1943: Arrival at Thorpe Abbotts

June 25, 1943: First mission of the 100th BG

July 26 to August 17, 1943: Blakely and Swartout crews, along with two lead crews from every other bomb group involved, were grounded by General LeMay in lead up to Schweinfurt–Regensburg Mission to prevent them from being shot down and spilling information to the Germans.

Note: Col. Harding did not know why they were grounded, only Jack Kidd did. Harding was not happy two of his lead crews were grounded and went against LeMay’s orders, hence Crosby and Blakely’s crew flying on August 12.

October 8, 1943: Mission to Bremen in which his crew in Just-a-Snappin’ were presumed dead and crash landed into a tree at a dummy airfield in England. This is the last mission for the Just-a-Snappin’ crew as a majority of the crew were seriously injured and one dead. Sometime after this mission was when Crosby was promoted to Group Navigator.

February 14, 1944: He was grounded after his 22nd mission to prevent him from completing all 25 missions of his tour. He eventually convinced 100th’s new CO, Col. Jeffrey, to let him fly on the Russian Shuttle mission because he would not yet reach his increased requirement of 28 missions.

Note: Crosby is quoted saying that he was grounded after his 22nd mission, not his 24th like you might presume. I’m assuming he only flew on those two specific missions (his 23rd and 24th) because the 100th was leading the 13th AF and also leading the entire 3rd Air Division on both.

June 21, 1944: Start of the Russian Shuttle mission. He convinced the Colonel to let him go on the grounds that this wouldn’t bring him even close to the new quota (28 needed for Crosby). An unscheduled mission was added on July 5, bringing him up to 28 missions.

July 5, 1944: Crosby’s 28th mission, signaling the completion of his mission requirements (and the end of the Russian Shuttle Mission). He was promoted to Major while he was flying back to Thorpe Abbotts, meaning he had to either complete another tour or take a ground role somewhere in the ETO.

April 20, 1945: Last combat mission for the 100th BG

May 8, 1845: VE-Day