~ B-24J 44-10579 'Pugnacious Princess Pat' History ~

The aircraft, 44-10579, was one of a batch of 50 B-24J-65-CF airframes built by Consolidated at Fort Worth, Texas in 1944. Following completion, it was sent to the Louisville-based Convair modification center where it received final Theatre modifications and Tech Order updates to be ready for delivery to England. At the Convair mod center, it was marked with a small processing number on each side of the nose, '35-45'. '35' was the modification batch number and '45' was the sequencing number, it being the 45th Liberator of that particular batch received/processed at the mod center. The aircraft was delivered to the 566th Bomb Squadron at Hethel in mid July 1944, and to it 1st Lt. Al Dexter and his crew were assigned. The B-24 they had previously flown 4 missions on was shot down when being flown by another crew that shared the same aircraft. Being a new aircraft, Al Dexter was able to name it and named it after his wife, calling it 'Princess Pat' (in Al's words, perhaps the smartest thing he did during the whole war). That night, however, Al's crew chief, John "Pop" Gantus, came back and added the word 'Pugnacious' above it, as he felt that then the aircraft had a real fighting name. Being one never to argue with his crew chief, Al went with it. Al Dexter and his crew twice had the experience of having the required mission number raised. Initially, the required mission count was 25 and then they would be able to go home, however, after Al Dexter's 14th mission, the requirement went up to 30, and on Al's 29th mission, one away from being done with it all, it was raised to 35. Al Dexter's last mission took place on November 2, 1944 and a new crew were assigned to the aircraft. Tragically, only a few weeks later, the aircraft was shot down by flak on a raid to Bieleford/Misburg, Germany, resulting in the deaths of 6 of the 10 crewmen.

During the war at Hethel, Al Dexter and his crew befriended a local boy by the name of David Hastings, who came out to the perimeter fence one day to watch the B-24's return from a mission and happened to be near the revetment where 'Pugnacious Princess Pat' would be parked. There, waiting for the Liberators to return, was crew chief John "Pop" Gantus (25 years of age, but older than the rest of the crew by 2 years), who introduced himself and the rest of the ground crew to David, and as 'Pugnacious Pricess Pat' rolled into its revetment and its engines shut down, told the crew of his meeting the boy. Al Dexter went straight to the fence, introduced himself as the pilot, and lifted David up over the fence. Immediately an MP showed up demanding that the boy would need to leave, so Al Dexter told the MP he had one of three choices - "You can shoot me, which I doubt, get me confined to barracks, which means no more missions, or you can get the hell out of here". The MP quickly left and Al introduced David to his crew and began what would become a ritual of walking David around his B-24 after each mission, arm around his shoulder, counting the bullet holes. With every passing mission David became a sort of good luck charm to the crew of 'Pugnacious Princess Pat', and a needed distraction from the war. When not flying, David was allowed to climb inside the aircraft and play out his childhood fantasies of flying a B-24. Following the completion of the crew's 35th and final mission, David Hastings' family hosted the entire crew at their home for a final farewell.

The name "Gany" on left side of the nose, just above 'Pugnacious', was another of the nicknames of crew chief John "Pop" Gantus. Following the completion of the 35 missions by Al Dexter's crew, John Gantus volunteered to extend his duty and re-mustered to aircrew. Al Dexter, upon hearing this, insisted to Gantus that he stay on the ground where it's safe, and that the war wouldn't last much longer anyway, but Gantus felt he still had a destiny to fulfill in the air. John Gantus was killed in action on March 23, 1945 on a raid to Munster, Germany, where he was serving as an engineer/top turret gunner on the B-24 "Yankee Doodle Dandy".

Years after the war, David Hastings became a multi-engine rated pilot and would serve as chairman and vice-chairman of the 2nd Air Division Memorial Trust in Norwich for 28 years. Making a number of attempts to track down Al Dexter, David was finally successful in 1990, receiving a phone call from Al after he had read about David's inquiry in an edition of the 2nd Air Division Journal. At the 2nd Air Division reunion held at Norwich that year, David and Al reunited for the first time in 46 years. Then, in 1992, David and the 2nd Air Division Memorial arranged to pay for a B-24 to fly across the Atlantic and participate in that year's 2nd Air Division reunion in Norwich and other events in the UK commemorating the 50th anniversary of the US flyers coming to England. The Collings Foundation initially accepted but then declined the prospect due to the nature of the Atlantic crossing. The Confederate Air Force, however, agreed and their B-24 "Diamond Lil" was flown over to England that summer of 1992, with David Hastings as co-pilot (within the CAF, this has become known as "Diamond Lil's Greatest Flight"). Both David and Al Dexter flew together on 'Diamond Lil' and Al was able to take the controls of a Liberator once again - in David's words, "He hadn't lost his skill".


The first crew of "Pugnacious Princess Pat" included:

Al Dexter - Pilot
John Foster - Co-Pilot
Warren Denny - Radio Operator
Harry McGowen - Engineer/Top Turret (according to Al Dexter, there were other Engineers that also flew with him during a time when McGowen fell ill)
Carl Ganapini - Navigator
Emmet Hall - Navigator
John Joyce - Bombardier
Harold Morris - Right Waist
Francis Van Hine - Left Waist
Carrol Smith - Nose Turret
Jaffrey Taibi - Tail Turret


The second crew of "Pugnacious Princess Pat", on the day it was shot down, consisted of:

Robert Hicks (POW)  - Pilot
Harry Alexander (KIA) - Co-Pilot
Kenneth Wylie (KIA) - Radio Operator
Eugene Lanze (KIA) - Engineer/Top Turret
Wayne Buhrmann (POW) - Navigator
Alfred Fromm (POW) - Right Waist
John Fithen (POW) - Left Waist
Henry McCormack (KIA) - Nose Turret
Richard Sagers (KIA) - Tail Gunner
Paul Garrett (KIA) - Command Pilot/Observer


This is the complete mission roster for each of the 35 missions flown by Al Dexter's crew, from July 11, 1944 to November 2, 1944, as recored by Al. The worst missions he recalled were those where he was sent to Hamburg, Germany, due largely to the amount and concentration of anti-aircraft guns/flak.

7/11  - Munich, Germany
7/12  - Munich, Germany
7/16  - Saarbrücken, Germany
7/17  - Belfort, France
7/20  - Freidburg, Germany
7/23  - La-Couronne, France
7/24  - Saint Lo, France
7/25  - Saint Lo, France
7/28  - Paris, France
7/29  - Bremen, Germany
8/1   - Nogent-sur-Marne, France
8/2   - Nogent-sur-Marne, France
8/6   - Harburg, Germany
8/9   - Saarbrücken, Germany
8/11  - Strasbourg, Germany
8/13  - Saint Malo, France
8/15  - Zwischenahn, Germany
8/18  - Metz, Germany
8/24  - Brunswick, Germany
8/25  - Wismar, Germany
8/26  - Emmerich, Germany
9/8   - Karlsruhe, Germany
9/10  - Ulm, Germany
9/26  - Hamm, Germany
9/27  - Kassel, Germany
9/30  - Hamm, Germany
10/3  - Speyer, Germany
10/6  - Hamburg, Germany
10/7  - Kassel, Germany
10/12 - Osnabrück, Germany
10/19 - Mainz, Germany
10/22 - Hamm, Germany
10/26 - Münster, Germany
10/30 - Hamburg, Germany
11/2  - Bielefeld, Germany