Delivered Denver 2/10/43; Gr Island 21/10/43; Assigned 562BS/388BG Knettishall 25/10/43; Missing in Action Berlin 6/3/44 with Lowell Watts captured by civilians, Co-pilot: Bob Kennedy, Navigator: Emmett Murphy, Bombardier: Ed Kelley, Flight engineer/top turret gunner: Joe Ramsey, Radio Operator: Ivan Finkle (6 Prisoner of War); Ball turret gunner: Robert Sweeney, Waist gunner: Don Taylor, Waist gunner: Raymond Hess, Tail gunner: Harold A. Brassfield (4 Killed in Action); enemy aircraft attack, causing mid-air collision with #42-40054 (388BG), crashed near Zwartemeer, near Emmen, Hol. Missing Air Crew Report 3089. BLITZING BETSY.

On the return from a mission to Klein Machnow, Berlin on 6 Mar 1944, B-17G #42-37886 Blitzin' Betsy was severely damaged by attacks from several FW190s causing it to collide with another 388th B-17, exploding in mid-air and crashing near Emmen, Holland.

Service

Events

Event	Location	Date
Delivered	Denver, CO, USA	2 October 1943
Assigned	Knettishall, Diss, Suffolk IP22, UK	25 October 1943
388th BG - 562nd BS
First 388th BG Mission	Bordeaux, France	5 December 1943
Failed to Return (FTR)	Klazienaveen, Netherlands	6 March 1944
Attacked by FW 190's of JG11 over the German/Dutch border on return from Berlin. Though her gunners shot down two of the attackers, Blitzing Betsy was set afire with hits to the #3 engine and to the oxygen bottles under the flight deck. Out of control she collided with the aircraft flying above her, knocking the ball turret off of that ship and peeling the roof away from her own flight deck. Going into a spin, the pilot, Lowell Watts was just beginning to recover from the spin with the aircraft blew apart.