Transferred to 467th BG, 788th BS•17 Feb 45: Lost with the 467th, 788th BS, MACR 12431

Note from Ernie Haar -

     While most of our missions were flown in UMBRIAGO, we were assigned to a brand new B-24H sometime after arriving at Rackheath. The UMBRIAGO, a B-24J, was a difficult machine to fly, primarily due to an unusually slow response to controls at altitude. A number of pilots, when assigned to UMBRIAGO, aborted because they thought the aircraft was malfunctioning. During the time I was assigned to it, engineering could not solve the mystery. In flying UMBRIAGO at altitude you could suddenly find yourself a quarter mile behind the formation or ahead of it! Another characteristic of the craft was that it would not get up "on the step" until we had at least 185 MPH air speed.  Given all this, you know we had a lot of fun in the lead element position.