Aircraft

[xoxoxoBruce]

Thousands didn't get one...

[Carruthers]

Jerry Lashin served with the 447th Bombardment Group USAAF, based at RAF Rattlesden in Suffolk.
It would appear that he completed another five missions after the award for the twenty-five flown above.




Jerry Lashin's mission listing, flown over the summer of 1944:

June 4 - over Versailles, France
June 6 - D-Day, Normandy, France
June 7 - Nantes, France
June 11 - Le Touquet, France
June 14 - Florennce, Belgium
June 15 - Hanover, Germany
July 12 - Munich, Germany
July 14 - near Vichy, France
July 18 - Cuxhaven, Germany
July 21 - Regensburg, Germany
July 24 - near St Lo, France
July 25 - St Lo, France
August 2 - Paris, France
August 9 - Nuremberg, Germany
August 11 - Belfort, France
August 13 - Rouen, France
August 15 - Germany
August 16 - Altenberg, Germany
August 24 - Brax?
August 25 - Richlin, Germany
August 30 - Bremen, Germany
September 1 - Mainz, Germany
September 5 - Brest, France
September 9 - St Laurent, France
September 17 - Arnhem, Netherlands
September 25 - Ludwigshaven, Germany
September 26 - Bremen and on to Bremerhaven, Germany
September 28 - Merseburg, Germany
October 2 - Kassel, Germany
October 3 - Gibelstadt, Germany

The original handwritten lists of his missions, among other items, can be found at the American Air Museum in Britain website.

You can only speculate on how much of a toll on a crewman's mental wellbeing was taken as each mission was flown.
As the number of survived missions increased, so would his chances of not returning from the next one.