For a long time I thought all four squadrons in the 492nd had the same policies in everything they did, but then found out that they didn't. There were many things which Col Snavely left up to each Squadron Commander to decide. One of these things was the assignment of bombardiers on missions.

Major Heaton, CO of the 857th, left it up to his pilots as to whether or not they would take their bombardiers along on Pathfinder-led and area bombing missions. On these types of missions, the regular crews would drop their bombs as soon as they saw the Lead plane drop theirs, so bombardiers weren't considered necessary, as the nose gunner would toggle the bombs.

While the original 857th crews kept their bombardiers as part of their crew, the bombardiers on the incoming replacement crews were cut from their crews as soon as they were assigned to the squadron. They were put into a bombardiers pool and used as needed. Some were given desk jobs in the command staff. Others became Pilotage Navigators and were reassigned to Lead and Deputy Lead crews.

Perhaps the biggest advantage to this policy was that each crew took along only those absolutely necessary, thus risking fewer lives. Another advantage was that it gave the command staff additional manpower and everything ran more smoothly than before.

However, the 859th CO, Lt Col Mahoney, did not do this. He felt every crew should be loaded for bear on every mission, just in case. This worked out especially well when a primary target was scrubbed and each plane would then have to find themselves a target of opportunity. Hard to do without a bombardier on board.

Who had the better policy? That's a tough question question, I really can't say.

I don't know what the commanders of 856th and 858th Bomb Squadrons did. If anyone knows something on this matter, please tell me.

Paul Arnett 492ndBombGroup.com historian