850th/857th BS

Sandberg Crew

The crew is shown above at Mountain Home AAF, Idaho in the spring of 1944.  The negative on file at NARA has been flawed and is covered with fingerprints, deteriorating greatly the quality of the picture.  The men above have been identified by John Carey as:

Back Row, L-R:
Leroy D. Neely        - Tail Gunner
Bernard A. Sandberg   - Pilot
Elmer B. Hall         - Copilot       Reassigned before POM, replaced by Ralph Markworth.
Ralph P. White        - Bombardier
John L. Carey         - Navigator
Floyd E. Blansfield   - Gunner        (Orphaned) Returned to Eye, 849th BS

Front Row, L-R:
Michael E. Nederostek    - Gunner     (Orphaned) Returned to Eye, 849th BS
Phillip H. Brader        - Gunner
Arthur F. Redel          - Radio Operator
Eugene L. Johnson        - Engineer

One of the lucky crews from the 850th, completing their tour in a little over three months and without any casualties.  The eight-man picture courtesy of the 801st/492nd BG.

Ralph "Bob" White, third from the left, back row, is the all time winner for donations to the web site of a material nature.  His personal collection resulted in several hundred scans which greatly illuminated the experience at Harrington, the cross-Atlantic trip on the Southern Route, and travels on leave around the UK in the summer of 1944.  Additionally, he contributed his entire collection of combat maps, which have been scanned by John Rado and are online on the FTP Site.

 

 

Combat Period: May-Sep 1944

The crew does not seem to have favored any particular plane, and at any rate no amount of superstition or different equipment could improve their record for August 1944, shown below. French targets in red, Belgian targets in green.  The four-man drop of MR# 1565 was part of the OSS Percy Pink Operational Group.

MR#	Drop	Fail	Joes	Cntnrs	Nkls	Pkgs	Day	DZ	Aircraft	Location
1375	1		0	12	10	6	3	Wrestler 3	42-50600	Unknown
1447	1		0	12	0	7	5	Francis 2C	42-40746	Unknown
1467	1		0	12	0	4	7	Osric 2B	41-29607	50d 11' N 04d 22' E
1505	1		0	12	6	7	9	Marksman 14	41-29607	45d 58' N 05d 30' E
1547	1		0	12	8	8	10	Hugh 8	41-29607	Unknown
1565	1		4	12	0	5	12	Digger 67	42-50600	Unknown
1615	1		1	12	10	6	14	Fireman 15B	42-50669	Unknown
1626	1		0	12	4	7	15	Ventriloquist 39B	42-95172	Unknown
1777	1		0	12	10	7	28	Bob 277	42-95172	Unknown

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