Liberator Down- Death in the Desert-Continued....

By 

Scott Schwartz

Toner, at the age of twenty seven, was the eldest member of the crew.  There were striking differences between Toner and his pilot, Hatton.  Whereas Hatton was a relaxed type, whose leadership and flying skills were good, but not outstanding, Toner was the most experienced aviator in the crew.  What was more, was that he was known for his courage and his “get-the-job-done” attitude. 

Coming from a broken home, Toner had always wanted to be a pilot.  The problem was that he was not a great student, and this disqualified him from service with the U.S. Army Air Corps, which he’d tried to join in 1940.  Not one to give up easily, Toner joined the Royal Canadian Air Force.  There, he learned to fly.  Once the U.S. had entered the war, Toner re-applied to the U.S. Army Air Corps- and this time, he was accepted.  The Air Corps made Toner start pilot training from scratch, despite his having over two hundred hours of flight time, at this point.  Still, by the time that he was posted to Hatton’s crew, Toner had roughly seven hundred hours of flight time- which was quite a bit more than Hatton had accumulated. 

Besides being the most experienced aviator in Hatton’s crew, Toner was one of the most religious; he was a devout Catholic who attended Mass and Confession on a regular basis.  Little did he know that his faith would shortly be tested.....