Capt. Clark Gable
351st Bomb Group, Polebrook • 1943
Hollywood’s biggest star served alongside Burns at the 351st from El Paso through
Polebrook. Gable joined the group at Biggs Field in late December 1942 and flew five
combat missions from Polebrook as an observer-gunner, filming footage for the documentary
Combat America. His last combat mission was the September 1943 raid on Nantes,
where he and Burns manned nose guns together in the sea haze over the Bay of Biscay.
“Gable and I, along with a lot of others, were in the Officers Club making merry.
I was scheduled to fly at midnight to give a bombardier a go at a nighttime target.
I was well into getting up to bombing altitude when I discovered that I had brought
my gas mask along instead of the oxygen mask.”
— Robert W. Burns, on New Year’s Eve 1942 at El Paso
“When we got down into the sea haze, both Gable and I went to the nose and each
of us handled a gun, looking for any stray fighter who might find us.”
— Robert W. Burns, on the Nantes mission, September 1943
Photo: The Illustrated London News, June 1943. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.