John Moench
No Photo Available | General John Moench
After gaining his wings in 1943, John Moench was checked out on the B-26 Marauder, and arrived in England in early 1944 joining the 323rd Bomb Group, based at Earls Coln. His first combat mission was on May 7th, and by the end of the month he had racked up 13 missions. The following month he was made flight leader of a six ship formation, and by the wars end he had flown lead aircraft on 17 of his 62 B-26 Marauder missions. John Moenchs last mission with the 323rd was to bomb Erding Aerodrome, near Munich on April 25th, 1945. In spite of a determined attack by Me262s every aircraft got home without a single man lost or wounded - a testimony to the level of skill of the B-26 pilots by the wars end, and to the quality of the Marauder as a fine medium range combat aircraft. |