The B-24H (Liberator bomber), serial number 41-29177, that we flew 26
August 1944, was delivered to the US Army Air Corps on 8 September 1943 at a cost of $306,592.00.

2nd Lieutenant Colby A Waugh of Solon, Maine and his B-24 crew was
assigned to ferry the new aircraft to England and he and his crew then
went to the 392nd Bomb Group, 578th Bomb Squadron. Ginger, at one time, had special airborne radar equipment that only a few had in WW II

Ginger, after many missions was reassigned to our 706th Bomb Squadron in the summer of 1944. Before Colby's ferry flight to England, his wife Doris gave birth (August 1943) to a daughter that they named "Ginger". The crew (verified by Henry Wilk - see my Guestbook entry on April 2, 2001) had the name "Ginger" painted on the B-24 and is the only aircraft ever to sport the name.

We survivors, and/or family have been in touch and visited Colby's daughter Ginger in California. She was unable to make the Monument
Dedication in August 1998.

The Colby aircrew never again saw or flew Ginger again after they delivered it to the Air Depot at Burtonwood, England. Colby died 4 January 1944 returning from a mission to Kiel, Germany. The formation encountered heavy flak and German fighter aircraft and the B-24 was forced into a dive badly shot up and low on fuel because of ruptured fuel tanks. They prepared to ditch in the North Sea knowing survival was slim in the cold water. They then saw the English coast and thought they could make land even with the missing and fuel starved engines.
The engines stopped just as they were about to belly in making control
very difficult or very near impossible. The planes wing hit a tree and Waugh and three others died instantly and four days later the 5th expired.

Colby was buried in Arlington National Cemetery."Ginger" was on it's 150th mission to a chemical plant at Manhiem/Lugwigshafen on 26 August 1944 and it was the first and only time we ever flew this B-24 and in the dark (early morning) - I never noticed the name on the aircraft. She handled beautifully with no malfunctions. However, we encountered heavy flak at bomb release and I saw a burst directly on our course at about 1000 yards - then one at about 500 yards and gauging the distance to our location - surely we would be hit. We could not evade without hitting other planes in the formation and maybe Jack Staton saw the flak bursts too. We did take a hit under the right wing that sheared off one engine and damaged two others. We went into a semi spin and Wyatt and I worked on restarting engines and got one running for a short time. I looked up and we were in a very bad angle and Shaffer was unable to stop our oscillation. I grabbed the controls and utilizing brute strength - we leveled "Ginger" (probably popping many rivets) - it took both of us to do it and amazingly the plane held together
to parachute out.

We all bailed out at Saarbrucken and Ginger came to rest over the border at Schoeneck, France - were the monument stands. Lang, Phillips and I were captured and ended up in a POW Camp. I'm not sure about Lochinger and Shaffer's remains were never found. However, his dog tags showed up in Russia - probably found by a Russian soldier. The remainder of the crew, including Jack Staton, are listed as "killed in action". Lochinger died in 1987 at Reno, Nevada. Herb Rubin - our bombardier - did not fly with us on the fatal mission, however, he flew the same mission with another crew and was killed on a crash landing - I believe in Denmark after also having great plane damage. August 26, 1944 will always be remembered by we three survivors and by the families of our other deceased crew members.