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The 461st “Liberaiders” Bombardment Group was made up of the 764th, 765th, 766th, and
767th squadrons. Prior to leaving the U.S., Moss’ aircraft was given
its unofficial nickname of “Invictus” and had its nose art painted, a name
that is noted as having been picked by his wife. The name Marguerite
Moss chose for her husband’s B-24 was possibly just the Latin word for “unconquered”
or, perhaps more likely, was a reference to the famous poem of the same name by William Ernest Henley. It may have been a newlywed wife’s hope that her husband might find inspiration in its words and be carried through the war by its iconic lines of stoic determination such as: “I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.”
In January of 1944, Moss and his bomb group departed California and headed for the European Theater via South America and North Africa, arriving not long after at their final destination of Torretta Field in southeastern Italy. The crews would need to complete 50 mission points to be sent home, with the 15th Air Force considering some heavily defended targets to be two points, while standard targets were one. The group was meant to take part in their first mission on 1 April 1944, but the mission was scrubbed due to bad weather. The 461st first official mission took place the next day, the target being the Bihac marshaling yards in Yugoslavia, where they lost two B-24s over the target area due to a collision. Moss and his crew would fly six more missions in the month of April, two of which were “double points” missions over the Bucharest marshaling yards, because the 15th Air Force considered them particularly heavily defended targets. The 765th lost two aircraft during the month and shot down nine enemy fighters.
The month of May saw the squadron fly a total of 20 missions, with Moss, “Invictus”, and her crew involved in 12 of them, four of which were “double points” missions. The mission on 10 May was to hit the Weiner Neustadt aircraft factories in Austria, a “double points” mission. Notes regarding the mission indicate the heavy presence of enemy fighters and intense flak, as well as that at least seven B-24s from the group returned with at least one of their four engines disabled, and that one aircraft from the group crashed on the runway and caught fire. Another
of the “double points” missions fell on the final day of the
month and was Moss’ first mission over the Ploesti oil fields and refineries of Romania, which provided approximately 60% of the crude oil supporting the Third Reich’s war effort. The site was notoriously heavily defended, with potentially more than 60 batteries of 88 mm flak guns, a plethora of smaller anti-aircraft batteries, as many as 200 Luftwaffe aircraft, and many Wurzburg type radar stations. The 765th lost one aircraft on the mission, “Leading Lady”, which was last seen shortly after passing over the target. During the month of May, the squadron lost three aircraft in combat while another exploded on the ground. They shot down four enemy aircraft.
In June, Moss and the crew of “Invictus” flew 11 missions,
six of which were considered “double points” by the 15th
Air Force. On 6 June, the same day Allied troops were landing in Normandy, the target was again the Ploesti oil fields and refineries, and once again the enemy flak was noted as extremely heavy and accurate. Moss’ aircraft suffered damage and lost function of one of the engine’s superchargers over the target, and it is noted that they
“had to draw 30 to 60 inches of mercury to keep up with
the formation.” Once past the target, Moss decided to
pull “Invictus” out of formation and attempt to make it to Yugoslavia, having the crew throw out all of the aircraft’s defensive armament and flak suits to reduce weight. Once they had made it to Yugoslavia, the decision was made to attempt to push on and make it back to Italy. They remained in contact with that radio station in Foggia and ended up landing there “with a cup full of gasoline”, before refueling and returning to their home base. For “extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight while serving as a pilot in the 765th Bombardment Squadron” on this day, Moss was recommended for and awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, one of only 20,354 awarded during the war. The month of June ended with three “double points” missions on the 23rd, 26th, and 28th. The squadron miraculously lost no aircraft during the month and were credited with destroying one enemy aircraft, with another probable.
The start of July saw Moss and his crew narrowing in on their goal of 50 mission points, with 42 points, they had
just eight more to go. The month opened with two “double points” missions against the Budapest marshaling yard and Bucharest oil storage on the 2nd and 3rd respectively. Those missions were followed by a fairly straight forward mission against the Aviano oil storage in Italy on the 6th, leaving Moss on 47 mission points.