“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.
Sortie Log
A sortie is a single combat mission flown by an aircraft and its crew. The entries below document known sorties associated with this airman, drawn from flight logs, mission records, and archival sources. This list represents verified flights but may not be complete; gaps may reflect missing documentation, transferred assignments, or records lost to time.