In the MTO medium bombers like the B-25's had a rule indicating that crews were elegible to be rotated out of combat duty after flying 50 missions.  This was the limit during the first half of 1944.  It had been gradually raised from the initial limit of 25 missions in 1943.
 
In June of 1944 the limit was raised again to 70 missions.
 
Did the British, French or other air corps have similar limits?

--
Daniel Setzer
Son of Sgt. Hymie Setzer, 340th BG 487 BS
http://home.comcast.net/~dhsetzer

Dan,
My dad was sent home after 67 missions. He once commented that they sent him home early because his brother was killed in action. That remark always puzzled me, because my dad's older brother was killed in October 1943. How could thirteen months and 67 combat missions translate into being sent home early? In October of 2001, I asked John J. Sutay, the the 57th Bomb Wing Association Historian, about mission requirements. He told me that in November, 1944, the limit was 65 missions. He was very sure of it. Hope this helps.
V/R
VJ White

http://57thBombWing.com
http://vjwhite.com/JPWhite

Mission limits clearly depended on theater and Air Force. In the case of the 13th AAF in the South and Southwest Pacific, the shift in mission limits did the opposite, as it was 70 during late 1943 and throughout 1944, when the number of crews available was limited. At the beginning of 1945, in January, it dropped to 50 as sufficient replacement had arrived in much larger numbers. My uncle Roy, a B-25 replacement pilot who joined the 100th BS in May 1944, was one of the first to rotate home under this new limit, with 53 missions to his credit, whereas the pilot he flew for as co-pilot, and who had come out to the Pacific with the 100th BS in very early 1944, flew the 70 missions, finishing his tour just a month earlier.

Kevin Anderson

This is very interesting...
 
I am reading about a flyer who arrived in Corsica in the 488th Bomb Squadron in May of 1944.  The mission limit was 50 missions and out.  On June 22 of 1944 Gen. Kopp issued an order stating that the mission limit would be raised to 70 missions.
 
In mid-October this bombardier flew his 60th mission.  In February (I think) he went home.
 
What happened to the 70 mission rule? 
 
The war diaries for the 488th seem to indicate an awful lot of furor about the mission limits.  Did the Wing HQ cave in and change the rules?  Did Group or Squadron HQ make an exception for this and perhaps other flyers?

--
Daniel Setzer
Son of Sgt. Hymie Setzer, 340th BG 487 BS
http://home.comcast.net/~dhsetzer

I flew with the 344th  bomb group. We flew B-26 Marauders and needed 65 missions to go home. I didn't quite make it by wars end so I had to serve 18 months in Army of Occupation duties. Then I went home.

Art Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
9th Air Force ETO
www.coastcomp.com/artkramer