At this time in Jan 1944 at Gowen Field in Boise, Idaho, right after marriage, Dad was a navigation instructor for the navigators in his squadron. A few weeks later, one of the B24 training bombers, in which Dad was a passenger, crash landed in a swamp 2 miles from the airport. Dad hiked 2 miles out of the swamp to the barracks, and was very unhappy about the airplane loss in the swamp.

In Feb 1944, Warren received orders for reassignment to Tunis, Tunisia in North Africa. On the trip to Tunisia, Dad flew in a brand new B24 from Pocatello, Idaho on to Lincoln Nebraska, where he was weathered in for almost a month due to inclement winter conditions. Mother took a train to Lincoln and stayed with Dad during that time. They played canasta (cards) with other crew members. After Dad left for overseas, Mother returned back to her school teaching job at the Sockanosset Reform School for boys in Cranston, Rhode Island.

When the weather cleared, Dad started on his trip overseas. First he flew from Lincoln, Nebraska to Roanoke Virginia, and then to Florida. Then to the Island of Trinidad, to Belem, Brazil (29 Feb 1944); to Dakar, West Africa; to Marrakech, Morocco; and then on to Tunis, Tunisia. The crew spent a month for practice missions in Tunisia, where it was rainy and muddy. This was March, 1944. In April, 1944, the group relocated to Italy (Cerignola, near Foggia, Italy). The first mission that the 464th Bomber Group (of 36 airplanes) flew was on 30 April, 1944. A bomber squadron consisted of 6 planes in formation flight, with 6 squadrons in a group (36 bombers), and 4 groups in a wing (144 bombers). Dad served as lead navigator in the 464th Bomber Group, 778th Squadron, during the period from January, 1944 to September, 1944 (9 months).

The next 3 missions that Dad flew were 02 May 1944, to Parma Italy to bomb rail yards, 05 May 1944 to Podgorica, Yugoslavia to bomb rail yards, and 06 May 1944 to Craiova, Romania to bomb rail yards. The 4th mission to Wiener Neustadt, Austria, was to bomb a Messerschmidt 109 factory. During that mission, the group navigator became shell shocked due to the effects of antiaircraft fire. So Dad (who was serving as a nose turret operator and spare navigator) did the navigation to take the remaining planes back. An antiaircraft shell knocked out the #2 engine, and there was 100 octane aircraft fuel leaking from the punctured #2 tank, and the fuel was spraying into the bomb bay section. Dad went through the bomb bay to the flight deck, and was sprayed and soaked with gasoline. Captain Poff was smart to turn off the entire electrical system to prevent an explosion. In his gas soaked clothes, dad plotted the return coarse to get the planes back to Tunisia. He did this, when he noticed the airplane was headed in the wrong direction (headed west, instead of south). Dad's airplane was the lead airplane for the entire group (of 36 bombers), but the group navigator, who was supposed to be navigating was in a state of shock (unknown to Dad at the time). But Dad knew he wasn't navigating, because the airplane was headed in the wrong direction westward, away from Home. Dad took the initiative, left the nose turret, crawled through the bomb bay spraying with gas, and took over the navigation duties.

Cruise speed for a B24 is 180 MPH, up to 210 to 220 MPH, at an altitude of 20,000 feet. This was the mission where Dad's plane took 135 holes from antiaircraft shrapnel.

Warren Henry Taylor & Amelia Grace Wargoski Courtship and Wedding