Assigned to the 55th Fighter Group/338th Fighter Squadron, P-51D Mustang Serial 44-13784 was Lt William P. Gebhardt's assigned plane.

It was probably on this plane that Lt Gebhardt was flying on the 19 September 1944 escort mission for 3rd Bomb Division bombers, when he destroyed an Me109 in air combat over the Düsseldorf area, Germany.

On a practice mission on 1 November 1944, the tail of this Mustang, 44-13784, suddenly ripped off in a dive exercise. Lt Gebhardt bailed out and landed in the North Sea not far off shore. Squadron mate 2nd Lt (later promoted to 1st Lt) Richard C. Herbst who was flying behind him that day, relates : “Luckily, he landed near a convoy which was passing by at the time. One of the escorting destroyers swung over and picked him out of the water. This accident happened in November and the water was plenty cold. As usual, the dinghy snapped free when his chute opened, and to make matters worse his Mae West failed to inflate. Consequently he had to swim to keep himself afloat. Geb later told us that with all his heavy flying clothes on, it was all he could do to keep his head above water.” Lt Gebhardt was picked up by a naval destroyer 4 miles South of Orford Ness on the Suffolk coast, about 50 miles East of their base at Wormingford. His Mustang dived to the bottom of the sea. There is no Missing Air Crew report (MACR) for this incident.