“Blondes Away”

Blondes Away arrived at Hardwick in May 1943, one of the newer factory-built Liberators fitted with nose and belly turrets. Piloted by William D. Nading, a former RCAF transfer from Flat Rock, Indiana, the crew had stopped at Langford Lodge in Northern Ireland for radio modifications, then - by co-pilot Horace Christensen's account - helped themselves to gasoline from an idle fuel truck to make Hardwick before dark. The combat veterans who greeted them were candid about losses and made clear the newcomers were replacements, then put them through low-level formation and navigation training whose purpose baffled the new crew. Two weeks after joining the Circus roster, Blondes Away and her crew - the shortest-tenured on the books - were transferred to the untested 389th Bomb Group at Hethel, where they were introduced as seasoned veterans.