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Two airmen of the 398th Bomb Group examine the damaged tail of a B-17 Flying Fortress. Damaged received while on the April 8,1945 mission to Derben, Germany. Just after bombs-away a direct hit by flak completely tore the tail gunner position away and disabled the rudder controls. The tail gunner, S/Sgt. Wallace E. Kasch, was carried away without his chute, his remains were never found. It took the skill of the two pilots, Lt. Col. Edwin B. Daily and 1st Lt. John L. Hahn, to get the aircraft back to base using the engines for directional control. MACR 13869
This contains information written on the back of the original print and some of it may be inaccurate.
Two airmen of the 398th Bomb Group examine the damaged tail of a B-17 Flying Fortress.
Group
The 398th Bomb Group flew B-17 Flying Fortresses from Nuthampstead, Hertfordshire on strategic bombing raids over Germany. The Group switched focus in the days before D-Day, when they targeted enemy positions on the Cherbourg peninsula. When the Allies...
Squadron
Military | Lieutenant Colonel | Pilot, Squadron Commander, Group Operations Officer
Group commander 9 Feb 1945 for Altenbeken mission. Group commander on 27 Feb, 1945 Leipzig, Germany mission and 4 March, 1945 on Ulm, Germany mission. Group Commander on 14 March 1945 on Vlotho, and Osnabruk, Germany mission and 21 March 1945 on Rheine...
Military | First Lieutenant | Co pilot
Assigned to 600BS, 398BG, 8AF USAAF. Derben mission 8-Apr-45 in B-17 44-8811 hit in tail by direct flak hit, skills of both pilots required to return the A/C to base for crash landing, directional control was by control of engines only.
Military | Staff Sergeant | Tail Gunner
Assigned to 600BS, 398BG, 8AF USAAF. Failed to Return (FTR) mission to Derben Germany. A/C B-17G 44-8811 hit by flak over target, carrying most of the tail and the tail gunner (minus chute) away. Killed in Action (KIA). MACR 13869.
...
B-17 Flying Fortress
Delivered Cheyenne 3/1/45; Hunter 16/1/45; Grenier 28/1/45; Assigned 600BS/398BG H2X [N8-C] Nuthampstead 30/3/45; battle damaged Halberstadt 8/4/45, tail shot away with tail gunner S/Sgt Wallace E Kasch, with Lts Dailey & Hahn and crash landed back at...
8 April 1945
Military site : airfield
Built during 1942-43, Nuthampstead was the nearest Eighth Air Force heavy bomber base to London. It had three concrete runways, 50 loop hardstandings and two dispersed T2 hangars. It was first occupied from September 1943 to April 1944 by the 55th...
| Date | Contributor | Update |
|---|---|---|
| 20 December 2014 04:29:25 | Superman | Changes to caption, unit associations, person associations, place associations, aircraft associations and mission associations |
| Sources | ||
From MACR 13869 |
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| Date | Contributor | Update |
| 08 September 2014 15:26:37 | AAM | AAM ingest |
| Sources | ||
IWM, Roger Freeman Collection |
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