B-17 Flying Fortress
42-102937 'Ready Freddie' 412th BS, 95th BG, 8AF USAAF.
Page 19 of the Duxford Diary. Many of the 8th Air Force Groups produced an unofficial unit history in the months after the war ended in Europe but before they were redeployed out of the ETO (‘European Theater of Operations’). The Duxford Diary was the book created by and for the service personnel who were based at Duxford at the end of the war in Europe, as a memento of their time at the airfield. Resembling a college yearbook, unit histories were an unofficial – and often tongue-in-cheek – record of the unit’s time in the UK. They include photo montages showing different aspects of base life. Often the servicemen in the photos are unnamed. The American Air Museum hopes that by adding unit histories to the website as individual pages, the men in the photos will be identified and associated to their person entries.
A bomber crew of the 95th Bomb Group and their B-17 Flying Fortress ( serial number 42-102937) nicknamed "Ready Freddie"
B-17 42-102937 'Ready Freddie', 412BS, 95BG with Jimmy Sasser crew. L-R: Unkn, Unkn, Howard Taylor, Unkn, Unkn, Unkn, Unkn, Unkn, Floyd Hendershot, Victor Mintz, Jimmy Sasser.
Delivered Cheyenne 20/4/44; Kearney 16/5/44; Grenier 27/5/44; Assigned to the 412th Bomb Squadron/95th Bomb Group as [QW-E]. Based at Horham 30/5/44; non-operation crash, pilot given permission to land at Duxford airfield, UK 19/7/44, to pick up others. When pilot buzzed tower but clipped a warning beacon, it rolled over on its back and hit an 83rd Fighter Squadron barrack; with Jim Sasser, Co-pilot: Vic Mintz, Flight engineer/top turret gunner: Francis Bradburn, Radio Operator: Jim Heil; the rest were 78th Fighter Group personnel; Lt Martin Smith, Lt John Putnam, ncos-Wilbur Edwards, Don French, John Gorman, John Hamilton, Tony Loguidice, Ellsworth Seecz, Frank Wojicki, Ernie Taylor (total 14 men Killed in Service); ncos-Ray Robertson, Oscar Severson (2 Wounded In Service); Salvaged 21/7/44. READY FREDDIE.
Account of the July accident: http://blogs.iwm.org.uk/historic-duxford/
Further information on the crash: http://www.ulongbeach.com/B17_Crash_Sasser.html
Group
The 95th Bomb Group was the only Eighth Air Force Group to be awarded three Distinguished Unit Citations. The first, shared by all four Bomb Wing Groups, was for the bombing of an aircraft factory under intense enemy fire at Regensburg on 17 August...
Squadron
Military | Technical Sergeant | Top Turret Gunner | 95th Bomb Group
Assigned to 412BS, 95BG, 8AF USAAF. Non operational flight to Duxford in B-17 42-102937 'Ready Freddie'; pilot clipped control tower beacon, lost control and crashed into barracks building. Died non Battle (DNB)
Awards: AM (2OLC), PH.
Military | Private First Class (6th Grade) | PS | 79th Service Group
Assigned to 84th Service Squadron, 79th Service Group, 8AF USAAF. Non operational flight to Duxford in B-17 42-102937 'Ready Freddie'; pilot clipped control tower beacon, lost control and crashed into barracks building. Died non Battle (DNB)
...
Military | Staff Sergeant | PS | 79th Service Group
Assigned to 84th Service Squadron, 79th Service Group, 8AF USAAF. Plane crashed at Duxford airfield. Killed in Service (KIS)
Awards: PH.
Military | Other | Tec5
Assigned to 1671st Ordnance Supply & Maintenance Company, 66FW, 8AF USAAF.
...
Military | Corporal | PS
Assigned to 23rd Station Complement Squadron, 66FW, 8AF USAAF. Non operational flight to Duxford in B-17 42-102937 'Ready Freddie'; pilot clipped control tower beacon, lost control and crashed into barracks building. Died non Battle (DNB)
Awards: PH.
Military | Technical Sergeant | Radio Operator | 95th Bomb Group
Assigned to 412BS, 95BG, 8AF USAAF. Non operational flight to Duxford in B-17 42-102937 'Ready Freddie'; pilot clipped control tower beacon, lost control and crashed into barracks building. Died non Battle (DNB)
Awards: AM (2OLC), PH.
Military | Corporal | Transportation Section | 84th Service Group
Assigned to 84th Service Group, 8AF USAAF. Non operational flight from Duxford in B-17 42-102937 'Ready Freddie'; pilot clipped control tower beacon, lost control and crashed into barracks building. Killed in Service (KIS).
...
Military | First Lieutenant | Co-Pilot | 95th Bomb Group
Assigned to 412BS, 95BG, 8AF USAAF. Non operational flight to Duxford in B-17 42-102937 'Ready Freddie'; pilot clipped control tower beacon, lost control and crashed into barracks building. Died non Battle (DNB)
Awards: AM (2OLC), PH.
Military | Second Lieutenant | Pilot | 78th Fighter Group
Assigned to 84FS, 78BG, 8AF USAAF. Non operational flight to Duxford in B-17 42-102937 'Ready Freddie'; pilot clipped control tower beacon, lost control and crashed into barracks building. Died non Battle (DNB).
Awards: PH.
Military | First Lieutenant | Pilot | 95th Bomb Group
Assigned to 412BS, 95BG, 8AF USAAF. Non operational flight to Duxford in B-17 42-102937 'Ready Freddie'; clipped control tower beacon, lost control and crashed into barracks building. Died non Battle (DNB)
Awards: AM (2OLC), PH.
Military site : airfield
RAF Duxford, now a museum and still a working airfield, was operated by the USAAF from 1943 to 1945. The base was briefly the home of the 350th Fighter Group in late 1942, but it was not until April 1943 that it became a fully American station when the...
Military site : airfield
Horham airfield was planned and built for RAF use, but handed over to the Eighth Air Force and used initially by the 47th Bomb Group. When they joined the Twelfth Air Force in January 1943, it became home to the B-26 Marauders of the 323rd Bomb Group....
| Event | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Crashed | Location of destroyed barracks | 19 July 1944 |
|
non-operation crash, pilot given permission to land at Duxford airfield 19/7/44, to pick up others. When pilot buzzed tower but clipped a warning beacon, it rolled over on its back and hit an 83rd Fighter Squadron barrack. |
||
| Salvaged | Duxford, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB22, UK | 21 July 1944 |
|
Salvaged 21/7/44. |
||
| Date | Contributor | Update |
|---|---|---|
| 20 December 2015 13:09:21 | Al_Skiff | Changes to production block number, manufacturer, nicknames, markings, description, events and unit associations |
| Sources | ||
AAM DB Entry. |
||
| Date | Contributor | Update |
| 02 October 2014 11:01:11 | Carl | Changes to nicknames, unit associations and place associations |
| Sources | ||
Location of crash source - Duxford Diary, 1944 |
||
| Date | Contributor | Update |
| 02 October 2014 10:55:24 | Carl | Changes to person associations |
| Sources | ||
List of men killed in the crash - source: Records of 78th Fighter Group USAAF at Duxford, 1943 - 1945 (IWM Documents.10395 - http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1030010237 ) |
||
| Date | Contributor | Update |
| 01 October 2014 16:28:42 | Carl | Changes to description |
| Sources | ||
Account of loss of 'Ready Freddie' ( http://blogs.iwm.org.uk/historic-duxford/ ) taken from Records of 78th Fighter Group USAAF at Duxford, 1943 - 1945 (IWM Documents.10395 - http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1030010237 ) |
||
| Date | Contributor | Update |
| 27 September 2014 18:40:13 | AAM | AAM ingest |
| Sources | ||
Dave Osborne, B-17 Fortress Master Log |
||
