For the book (An Aviator’s Dream - The Man From Painted Woods) Mostly photos and articles on my father, Lt Ernest Anders Erickson, I am assembling, have spent a lot of time researching the fate of his last ship.

Erickson flew for his final 15 missions, aboard (44-6085) the "Lili of the Lamplight," from May 31st (his 20th mission) to August 12, 1944, when he completed his 34th mission.)
It was painted on his leather bomber jacket, also mentioned in letters, he wrote during the war, and one specifically scribed on August 4th 1944, (his 22nd birthday)
about the naming of the ship. A framed newspaper article hung in his office at Lockheed’s Skunk Works from Oct 1944 mentioning their ship #’d (44-6085) as the
"Lili of the Lamplight".

Unfortunately the name was never painted on the plane, but plans were underfoot, and then, very sadly the Lily went down on August 25th, 1944, a day before my dad’s final 35th mission on August 26, 1944. The Lilli of the Lamplight (44-6085) was delivered Tulsa 27/4/44; Kearney 7/5/44; Dow Fd 21/5/44; Assigned 335BS/95BG [OE-H] Horham 23/5/44; 334BS [BG-S]; 26m, Missing in Action Rechlin 25/8/44 with Albt Powell, Co-pilot: Bill Connor, Navigator: Don Overdorff, Bombardier: Phil Whalen, Flight engineer/top turret gunner: Eldred Steffens, Radio Operator: Peppe Delio, Waist gunner: Henry Schneider (7 Prisoner of War); Ball turret gunner: Orlin Covel, Tail gunner: Melvin Whilhelm [broke ankle], ph-Berton Briley (3 Killed in Action); flak hit #3 & 4 feathered, on way down losing a wing before disintegrating, crashed Schwabach-Schwankenheim, near Stettin, Ger. Missing Air Crew Report 8279.

Service

Events

Event	Location	Date
Crashed	Schwabach, Germany	25 August 1944 – 25 August 1944
For the book (An Aviator’s Dream - The Man From Painted Woods) Mostly photos and articles on my father, Lt Ernest Anders Erickson, I am assembling, have spent a lot of time researching the fate of his last ship. Erickson flew for his final 15 missions, aboard (44-6085) the "Lili of the Lamplight," from May 31st (his 20th mission) to August 12, 1944, when he completed his 34th mission.) It was painted on his leather bomber jacket, also mentioned in letters, he wrote during the war, and one specifically scribed on August 4th 1944, (his 22nd birthday) about the naming of the ship. A framed newspaper article hung in his office at Lockheed’s Skunk Works from Oct 1944 mentioning their ship #’d (44-6085) as the "Lili of the Lamplight."