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41-24400

B-17 Flying Fortress

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Assigned 92BG Bangor 13/7/42; transferred 414BS/97BG Polebrook 24/8/42; Maison Blanche 13/11/42; Tafaraoui 22/11/42; damaged 21/10/42; Salvaged. LITTLE BILL.

This aircraft assigned to 97BG/414BS participated in the 21-Oct-42 mission to bomb the U-Boat pens at Lorient, France. It returned to its station at Polebrook, but sustained so much battle damage that it was declared a Category E (Damaged beyond repair) loss and the wreck was transferred to Burtonwood for use of salvaging spare parts. No information was found regarding the crew of this aircraft as of this writing 29-Oct-2014.

Service

Units

  • 97th Bomb Group

    97th Bomb Group

    Group
    The 97th Bomb Group flew the Eighth Air Force's first heavy bomber mission from the UK when they bombed a marshalling yard at Rouen on 17 August 1942. Just a month later though the Group were reassigned to the Twelfth Air Force and left England for the...

  • 414th Bomb Squadron

    414th Bomb Squadron

    Squadron

Missions

  • VIII Bomber Command 15

    21 October 1942
    German U-Boat pens are Lorient, France are the Primary (P) targets for this mission along with the German airfield at Cherbourg, France. 93BG despatches 24-B-24s to Lorient, but cloud cover prevents them from bombing. The main attack force to Lorient...

Places

  • Polebrook

    Military site : airfield
    Polebrook was laid down for RAF Bomber Command use in 1940-1941. Built by George Wimpey and Co. Ltd, it had short runways which were lengthened for USAAF heavy bomber use. The RAF used the base for operational trials - including of B-17 Flying...

Events

Not yet known

Nicknames
Little Bill
Production block number
B-17F-10-BO
Manufacturer
Boeing
Markings and paint scheme/livery
Not yet known

Revisions

Date Contributor Update
26 August 2016 11:38:29 Lucy May Changes to production block number, manufacturer, nicknames, description, unit associations, place associations and mission associations
Sources

Brought in information from duplicate record. Sources
Lee Cunningham 29-Oct-2014. Description based on "The B-17 Flying Fortress Story" Roger A. Freeman & Dave Osborne, "Losses of the 8th & 9th AIr Forces" Stan Bishop & John A. Hey MBE.:
Date Contributor Update
27 September 2014 18:40:02 AAM AAM ingest
Sources

Dave Osborne, B-17 Fortress Master Log

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