B-17 Flying Fortress
B-17E 41-24400 "Little Bill"
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.
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...
Squadron
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...
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...
Not yet known
| 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 |
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| Date | Contributor | Update |
| 27 September 2014 18:40:02 | AAM | AAM ingest |
| Sources | ||
Dave Osborne, B-17 Fortress Master Log |
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