Missing Planes Groups of the 452nd Bomb Group
Edward Hinrichs was born May 23, 1922. He was the fourth child of a family of nine children. His parents were of German descent. His father was a blacksmith who took great pride in the fact that, during the great depression; he was able to provide his family with food and shelter without any outside assistance. Ed Hinrichs enlisted in the Army Air Force on August 26, 1942. He was 20 years old at the time. Ed was trained at the Army Air Force School in Amarillo, Texas as a Flight Engineer for a B-17. He was then assigned to a crew at Ardmore, Oklahoma after a few months of training. His crew flew a B-17 to England. Ed was then assigned to the 8th Air Force, 45th Combat Wing, 452nd bomb group and 728th Squadron. Ed flew 30 combat missions, 17 missions of these in a lead plane over Europe. Ed received the Air Medal and 4 Oak Leave Clusters, the Presidential Citation that was awarded to the 452nd Bomb Group for the April 7 mission. Ed also received three battle stars. He returned to the United States in July 1945. Ed was discharged from the service October 19, 1945. On a more personal note, Ed met his wife-to-be in the spring of 1941. They decided to wait for a wedding until after the war. Ed was sent to England. His future bride was sent to the South Pacific, as 2nd Lieutenant nurse, on the hospital ship USS Hope. Their mission was to return the wounded and sick back to the United States. She was discharged in May of 1946. The two were married on June 8, 1946. They had four daughters. He was in commercial construction as a superintendent most of his working life. Ed retired in October, 1980. It was at this time he started to write the book MISSING PLANES. His wife was his typist, proofreader, spelling and grammar checker. After a long illness she died in April 1997, at the age of 74. During his research, Ed was very fortunate to link up with Mr. John A. hey from Holland. Mr.