William Beety
Military | First Lieutenant | Pilot | 96th Bomb Group
Assigned Oct 1944
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Military
Lady Moe, a Tunisian donkey, was the mascot of the 96th Bombardment Group.
Moe was picked up in an Algerian slum in August 1943 by a B-17 crew taking part in the Regensburg shuttle mission, she accompanied the crew back to England on August 24, 1943 on the return leg of the shuttle mission. On this return trip the crew bombed Bordeaux, France, making Lady Moe the only known donkey ever to fly on a combat mission.
Moe became internationally famous as 'Queen of the Heath' even serving as a mascot at the Army-Navy football game at London's White City Stadium on November 12, 1944. At home at Snetterton she lent her name to the base cinema and ballpark, developed a taste for tobacco, toilet roll and doughnuts and became increasingly irascible.
Moe died on 3 October 1945 when wandered onto a railroad track near the base and was killed by a train. She was buried at the airbase in a simple ceremony. To those who served with her, she will always be remembered as the "Queen of the Heath"
Military | First Lieutenant | Pilot | 96th Bomb Group
Assigned Oct 1944
Group
The 96th Bomb Group flew B-17 Flying Fortresses to targets across occupied Europe from May 1943 to April 1945.
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24 August 1943
The 8th Air Force is intent on dishing out some "pay back" to the Luftwaffe for the toll it took on bombers of the 17-Aug-43 mission to Schweinfurt/Regensburg. So, This mission has three attack elements and a diversion element. The attack elements are...
Military site : airfield
Intended to be an RAF bomber base, construction of Snetterton Heath started in Autumn 1942 but continued until mid-1943, because it was extended after allocation as an Eighth Air Force bomber base. It had eventually three concrete runways, 50...
Event | Location | Date |
---|---|---|
Born | Tunisia | |
Based | Snetterton Heath | 1943 |
Died | 3 October 1945 |
Date | Contributor | Update |
---|---|---|
13 August 2018 14:44:28 | Emily | Changes to nickname, biography, events, place associations and mission associations |
Sources | ||
'Lady Moe, Queen of the Heath' Documentary on Youtube Roger Freeman Collection |