Her crew had picked up Roger the Lodger at Topeka, Kansas, where it had just arrived fresh off of the assembly line from the Willow Run plant. They then ferried the plane on an adventure across the north Atlantic, with stops at Goose Bay Labrador, and Rekjavik Iceland. Inbound to Rekjavik they encountered false navigation signals beamed from a Nazi U-Boat that would have led them past Iceland and further out to sea. Their navigator was not deceived however, and they made it safely into Rekjavik. A B-17 travelling on the route that day was not so lucky. They held over in England for Christmas 1944, awaiting orders to either jump into the Battle of the Bulge or head on to Italy. When the fog lifted the orders came to again head over the Atlantic, southbound to Marrakesh Morocco, then Tunisia, and finally to their new base in Cerignola Italy. Ironically, Roger the Lodger was the one aircraft from the 455th lost on April 25th, 1945, on mission 253, the last mission of the 455th bomb group.

Roger the Lodger may be aircraft #42 455018 which is reported to have crashed near Gmunden in Upper Austria.