RWB Archive

351st Bomb Group — RAF Polebrook

8th Air Force · England, 1943–1945

The two years Col. Robert W. Burns spent with the Eighth Air Force fighting the war in Europe were, by his own account, the defining experience of his career — and his life. Arriving at RAF Polebrook in April 1943 as the 351st Bomb Group (H) flew its first missions, he rose from deputy group commander to group commander, leading B-17 Flying Fortresses on 25 combat missions over occupied Europe and Germany. This section brings together every source in the archive bearing on that period: missions, film, photographs, press coverage, flight records, and Bob’s own voice.

311 group missions
25 Bob’s combat missions
20,778 tons of bombs dropped
303 enemy aircraft destroyed
Apr 1943–Mar 1945 at Polebrook
✈ Combat Missions Every mission vs. his Form 5 — with the Schweinfurt mission room 🎥 Personal Film 16mm film, April 1943–May 1945 🎞 Combat America Clark Gable’s 1945 documentary 📷 Photographs 16 photographs from Polebrook 📄 Flight Records Form 5 data, 1942–1945 📖 Morning Reports First-person stories from the war

Historical Context

RAF Polebrook (AAF Station 110, APO 634) sits in Northamptonshire, England, roughly 80 miles north of London. From April 1943 through the end of the war in Europe, it was home to the 351st Bombardment Group (Heavy), part of the 1st Air Division, 8th Army Air Force — “The Mighty Eighth.” The 351st’s distinctive aircraft marking was the triangle-J insignia on the tail of every B-17.

Bob arrived at Polebrook on the group’s first deployment. Over the following two years he flew as crew, then as air executive and deputy group commander under Col. William A. Hatcher Jr. and Col. Eugene A. Romig. On October 12, 1944, Romig moved up to command the 94th Bomb Wing and Bob assumed command of the 351st BG, serving until March 30, 1945 — just weeks before VE Day.

FormationNovember 1942, Geiger Field, Washington
8th Army Air ForceHQ High Wycombe, UK
↳ 1st Air DivisionHQ Brampton Grange, Cambridgeshire
↳↳ 94th Bomb WingHQ RAF PolebrookBrig. Gen. Julius K. Lacey
↳↳↳ 351st BG (H)RAF PolebrookCol. Robert W. Burns (Oct 1944–Mar 1945)
Bomb Squadrons508th, 509th, 510th, 511th

By war’s end the 351st had flown 311 combat missions, dropped 20,778 tons of bombs, and destroyed 303 enemy aircraft. It had also suffered grievous losses — the cost of strategic daylight bombing against defended targets deep in Europe.

In Bob’s Own Words

Asked in 1979 about the high point of his career:

“Certainly nothing will ever compare with the 2 years with the Eighth Air Force fighting the war. That has to be a salient feature, not one that I ever care to repeat, of course, but recollections of that time I’ll never forget.”

— USAF Oral History Program, K239.0512-1117. Interview of Maj. Gen. Robert W. Burns by Lt. Col. Arthur W. McCants Jr., March 12–13, 1979, Panama City, FL.

Elsewhere in the same interview, on an episode that became his primary illustration of military integrity — when HQ 8th Air Force ordered formal aircraft recognition training time for all units:

“We were at war. We were flying around the clock. My solution: tack silhouette sheets in every latrine on the base, calculate average bathroom time per man per day, multiply by personnel count, and report that total as aircraft recognition training time.”

He acknowledged this was “fraudulent to some degree” but argued it protected his people from a useless maneuver — and used it as a case study in when and whether a commander acts as “God” by overriding a superior’s directive.

— USAF Oral History Program, K239.0512-1117.

Clark Gable at Polebrook

Clark Gable and Bob Burns after the Nantes mission, September 23, 1943
Capt. Clark Gable (left) and Lt. Col. Robert W. Burns after the Nantes mission, September 23, 1943 — beside B-17 “The Duchess.”

Hollywood legend Clark Gable — then 42 years old, a year after the death of his wife Carole Lombard — came to Polebrook in 1943 as a Captain assigned to the 508th Bomb Squadron under Lt. Col. James T. Stewart. His mission: film aerial gunnery footage for the USAAF training documentary that would become Combat America (1945).

Gable flew five combat missions with the 351st BG, including the September 23, 1943 Nantes raid that earned Bob his Silver Star. Bob describes the moment in his own account of the Nantes mission:

“Clark Gable was along with me and this was his last mission to fly. 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. I did it because I had never had a shot at a fighter and I looked forward to it. After about 20 minutes, out of the murk came about twenty or so fighters in formation headed directly at us. The closing speed was so great that neither I nor Gable had time to fire a shot, and the fighter force was in the same boat.”

— Morning Report: “Polebrook, the 351st, and a Movie Star”
“Lt. Col. Robert W. Burns of San Antonio is shown after alighting from the Fortress ‘The Duchess’ in which he led a successful bombing mission to Nantes, France, on Sept. 23. With him, at left, is Capt. Clark Gable, who flew as aerial observer. For this raid, Burns has been awarded the Silver Star.”
The News (San Antonio, TX), January 12, 1944
“CAPT. CLARK GABLE (L.), LIEUT. COL. R. W. BURNS — Ex-screen idol was observer in San Antonian’s bomber.”
San Antonio Light, January 16, 1944

The Combat America documentary Gable produced from this footage is a primary record of life at RAF Polebrook during the war. It is in the public domain and is presented on its own page in this archive.

Photographs

Flying School & Early Career

4 photos

Polebrook, 1943–1945

16 photos

Morning Reports

First-person stories from Bob’s wartime service, drawn from oral history, letters, and family memory. Stories are ordered roughly chronologically.

Formation & Deployment
1936The Thomason Act: Becoming a Regular 1941Pearl Harbor at Howard Field 1942Galapagos Patrols: Navigation by Whitecaps 1942The Perfect Navigation 1943New Year’s Eve at Biggs Field 1943The Runway Measurer
Combat Missions
1943First Mission: Emden 1943Tail End Charlie 1943The Shirts in the Hatch 1943Ice Cream at 18,000 Feet 1943Flight Officer Comfort: 8 Hours Hand-Flying 1944Three Engines Over a Lake 1944D-Day from a Hospital Bed 1944Norway: Seeing Neutral Sweden 1945The Last Mission: Berlin
England — People & Life
1943Seeing the Vision: Meeting Ruth 1943The Piper Cub to Wales 1943Meeting Willie Hatcher 1943Rom Puryear: The Co-Boss 1943Polebrook, the 351st, and a Movie Star 1944Irving Berlin in London 1945Paris Reunion 1945Thornton Wilder at the Cadillac Hotel
Photographs from the Burns family personal collection (600 DPI flatbed, cadet-polebrook batch). Group statistics from The Daily Register (Red Bank, NJ), January 25, 1945, 351st BG 2nd anniversary article. Oral history: USAF K239.0512-1117, March 1979.