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Ground crew of the 447th Bomb Group with a B-17 Flying Fortress (serial number 43-37756) nicknamed "Milk Wagon" Handwritten caption on reverse: 'Poppa Jim under cockpit.'
The man in the center of the group is Robert E. Orlosky, the crew chief for Milk Wagon. Judging from the number of milk bottles on the side of the plane, the photo was taken in mid-April, 1945.

IWM catalogue record

This contains information written on the back of the original print and some of it may be inaccurate.

Ground crew of the 447th Bomb Group with a B-17 Flying Fortress (serial number 43-37756) nicknamed "Milk Wagon" Handwritten caption on reverse: 'Poppa Jim under cockpit.'

Connections

Units

  • 447th Bomb Group

    447th Bomb Group

    Group
    The 447th Bomb Group flew B-17 Flying Fortresses on strategic bombardment missions out of Rattlesden, Suffolk. With their first mission coming on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1943, their main focus was hitting sites that would weaken enemy forces...

  • 708th Bomb Squadron

    708th Bomb Squadron

    Squadron

People

  • Robert Orlosky

    Military | Technical Sergeant (2nd Grade) | Crew Chief
    Sgt. Orlosky was crew chief for "Milk Wagon" (43-37756), a B-17 with the 708th squadron, 447th Bomb Group. Milk Wagon completed 129 missions and had the highest number of consecutive missions without an abort for mechanical reason in the 3rd Air...

Aircraft

  • 43-37756 Milk Wagon

    B-17 Flying Fortress
    Delivered Cheyenne 18/5/44; Kearney 27/5/44; Dow Fd 8/6/44; Assigned 708BS/447BG Rattlesden 9/6/44; completed 129 missions with no abort; Returned to the USA Bradley 9/7/45; 4168 Base Unit, South Plains, Texas 13/7/45; Reconstruction Finance...

Edit entry 

Collection name
Roger Freeman Collection
Object number
FRE 1764

Revisions

Date Contributor Update
14 April 2017 18:03:57 timothymotz Changes to caption
Sources

Timothy Motz
Date Contributor Update
13 April 2017 21:42:00 timothymotz Changes to unit associations
Sources

Timothy Motz
Date Contributor Update
13 April 2017 21:41:15 timothymotz Changes to caption
Sources

Timothy Motz
Date Contributor Update
08 September 2014 15:25:07 AAM AAM ingest
Sources

IWM, Roger Freeman Collection

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