“Maulin Mallard”
A silver, shark-toothed Liberator, Maulin' Mallard was taken on by crew chief Pop Hastings after his previous ship, The Duchess, failed to return from a mission. The aircraft ran up 21 perfect missions before finally aborting on its 22nd.
On a strike against a Rhine industrial target, bombs hung up in the bomb bay; bombardier Joseph Nichols and flight engineer Donald Harper worked them loose one at a time. The falling bombs struck a river freighter, two barges, and another vessel, a feat caught on squadron cameras but never formally recognized, since it did not fit existing award regulations. Carrying a rotation of crews, including Lieutenant Fred Strombom and Captain Charley Noble Brown, Maulin' Mallard flew 115 missions without incident from mid-1944 to war's end. After the surrender, Strombom flew it home to the United States, drawing a crowd of press photographers at a refueling stop in Goose Bay, Labrador.