Leathers Crew
Crew #2836
A Brief History of the Crew
On February 1, 1944, the 18th Replacement Wing near Salt Lake City, Utah, issued an order forming Crew #2836. This order brought together ten young men from across the country to form a B-24 crew to fight in the air battles in Europe. This order would affect their whole lives and result in relationships between them which would last over half a century.
Together they traveled to Davis-Monthan Field in Tucson for two months of operational training. After picking up their brand-new, shiny Liberator in Topeka, Kansas, they embarked on a 13-day trip through the Caribbean to Brazil, across the Atlantic to Dakar, through Marakesh and Tunis, and finally, across the Mediterranean to the home base of the 456th Bomb Group near the little Italian town of Stornara.
From April to December in 1944 they lived together, worked together and fought together in one of the greatest air campaigns ever undertaken.
This is their story.
