Hebert and his crew arrived at Horsham St. Faith on December 21, 1944 and were assigned to the 753rd Squadron. After a period of in theater indoctrination, the crew flew their first combat mission on January 28, 1945. In 30 day's time they had completed seven missions.



Taking off on their eighth mission on the morning of March 2, 1945, the crew were flying a Liberator they had flow on two previous occasions, B-24J-145-CO 44-40134 J4 R, a nameless ship that had more than 50 missions on her scoreboard. It was soon discovered that Lt Evans' heated suit was not working properly. The crew decided to return to base, and in the words of the pilot, "...pick up an electrical suit for the Navigator and return on the mission as soon as possible." The aircraft came in with a full load of bombs and fuel, this extra weight possibly not being taken into account as to when to apply the brakes to bring the ship to a safe stop. The aircraft rolled through the end of the runway where the nose wheel buckled and the ship came to a rest on her nose.



Undaunted, they were off on a mission the very next day, flying to Nienburg, Germany. A total of nine mission were flown in March and eight in April, with the last on 16 April, prior to the crew's being sent on rest home leave. On leave, Hebert stayed at AAF 566 at Keythorpe Hall, Tugby, Leicestershire for 10 days of leave before returning to Horsham to continuing combat flying.



By the time crew returned to Horsham, the Eighth Air Force's shooting war was over. The last mission had been flown on April 25, 1945 to the marshalling yards at Bad Reichenhall. Most of the crews who had not completed a full combat tour were assigned to ferry home the Liberators of the 458th, and a few from some neighboring groups.



Most of the "ferry crews" left Horsham by early June 1945, headed back to the States to start the transition into B-29's for assignment in the South Pacific.