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Paul Bellamy
9/3/2009 7:01:54 AM | Following on from the photo Don found on Footnote (57105AC), I did a bit of investigation and came up with another two of the same event:
57236AC:
After being damaged by enemy flak this Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress was forced to land short of its home base on a small ploughed English field with fences and frees offering extreme danger to the pilot.
Personnel of a U.S. 8th Air Force Bomber repair base rolled the field and laid down two strips of steel matting for a runway. With the aid of 12 rockets mounted beneath the wings the plane made a take-off in 372 feet, half the usual take-off run.
Received 27 April 1945 from BPR (Air Forces Group)
57105AC:
Rockets aid Fortress in short take-off.
Twelve rockets mounted beneath the wings of a B-17 "Flying Fortress" of the U.S. Army 8th Air Force aid this crash-landed plane to make a take-off short enough to clear obstacles at the end of a small ploughed English field. Fences and trees at one end of the field, located in a valley between two hills, offered extreme danger to the pilot, who successfully cleared them on the short take-off.
The novel and successful experiment was conducted by Capt. Richard G. Holub, Grass Valley, Calif., for bombers which crash-land away from sizeable air strips.
Received 26 April 1945 from BPR to accompany Press Release "Rockets Air Fortress In Short Take-Off".
A-57236AC:
It's up.... after rolling only 372 feet, half the distance it would take without the 12 rockets mounted beneath the wings.
This Boeing B-17 had originally been forced, because of flak damage over enemy territory, to land in a small ploughed English field with fences and trees offering extreme danger to the pilot.
Received 27 April 1945 from BPR (Air Forces Group)
All sorts of details are to be found in the photos....
All armament, including turrets, has been removed, presumably to reduce weight to a bare minimum for the short take-off run.
The bombsight and the entire bombsight mounting assembly have also been removed.
The B-17 is fitted with the "Bull-horns" ILS antenna, and has the later "Cheyenne" tail turret. The port inner (No.2) engine has a shroud fitted over the exhaust pipe, which was a late-B-17G modification to improve crew-compartment heating.
The rocket packs are mounted on the wing bomb shackle hardpoints.
The starboard outer wingtip has been replaced at some point with an OD-painted one.
There is no nose art or mission markers visible in the port side of the nose, although the aircraft data stencil is visible. Any such markings, should they exist, are then presumably on the starboard side and as such would not be indexed in official files. (Nose art was not officially recorded unless the data stencil was also visible in the same photo it would seem.)
And then there's that odd series of letters on the fuselage.
I think the first letter is an N, the second could be either S, U, O ( or maybe an 8 ), the last letter (or possibly two letters from the uneven spacing) could be M, H, I I, IY, YI etc.
More questions than answers from these photos which, including the air depot one from earlier this week, bring the number of 401BG-related photos in the NARA files up to 680.
All the best,
Paul
Paul Bellamy
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donaldbyers
9/3/2009 7:47:53 AM | Paul,
Thanks for finding the other two photos of this aircraft. As I first found the photo of the jet packs engaged I was supprised to see the odd markings of this aircraft and as you say more questions than answers.......
Don
Sgt. Donald C. Byers, 613th Bomb Squadron, Togglier, 42-97344 Carrie B II, KIA 08/24/1944.
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Paul Bellamy
9/3/2009 8:18:00 AM | Ta Don,
I've been looking at the photos again, and we should be able to narrow down the date of the incident using the clues in the photos.
The 401st's yellow fin stripe seems to have been introduced during August 1944.
The black edging was added at a later date, to increase the contrast between the yellow stripe and the bare metal fin of NMF B-17s.
If I can find when the edgings were introduced that should result in a date bracket in which to concentrate the search for any report into the incident.
If the plane can be identified, that may assist in identifying other photos I've seen of a bare-metal B-17G with an OD starboard wingtip.
Back to the books for me!
TTFN,
Paul
Paul Bellamy
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donaldbyers
9/3/2009 10:45:56 AM | Paul,
Right on with that line of thought but the black strip seems to be their just faded. The letter markings is a puzzeling factor in this photo.
Don
Sgt. Donald C. Byers, 613th Bomb Squadron, Togglier, 42-97344 Carrie B II, KIA 08/24/1944.
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rmoorehead
9/21/2009 9:03:07 PM | If you’re still interested in the date this happened I could find out. Richard Holub is my grandfather and still lives in Grass Valley and so do I and see him often. His middle initial is C not G
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donaldbyers
9/24/2009 10:32:20 PM | We are always looking to have valid information so that would be very kind of you.
Thanks
Donald Byers
Sgt. Donald C. Byers, 613th Bomb Squadron, Togglier, 42-97344 Carrie B II, KIA 08/24/1944.
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rmoorehead
9/28/2009 9:32:13 PM | I'll see my grandfather this weekend and I'll ask him about the date then.
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Nate 2010
8/24/2010 2:09:22 AM | Just to complete the thread :
The aircraft concerned is 43-39137. The reason why records may be conflicting is the fact that 401st BG tail section was from a scrap yard. The aircraft itself is N8-H of 398thBG, Nuthampstead.
Regards
Nate
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398ther
8/31/2010 6:09:19 PM | Wotcha Nate...beat me to it! LOL
Nate is correct. This was a 398th B-17 that crashed on a night flight as the pilot mistook the approach lights for the runway lights (!!) and after making a very good wheels down landing that included a bounce across a country road, he finally came to rest up against a landing light pole. The outer wing and tail section were removed (from damage) and replacements fitted before the a/c was pulled back to the top of the hill. Then the 8th AF undertook an experiment using rockets under the wings to see if it would get airborne on a makeshift runway of PSP.
It did! Flypast magazine did a story on it a few years back.
rmoorehead - The 398th community would be very interested to hear from your Grandfather. They have spoken to the Boeing rep who was there and were extremely keen to talk to everybody involved. Any chance we can arrange a conversation?
Here's me doing a 'then and now' photo for a friend's project. Notice the tree in the background...still there.
Russ
http://www.55th.org
http://www.station131.co.uk
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Paul Bellamy
8/31/2010 6:41:15 PM | Nate & Russ,
I found a photo of the B-17 that they trial-fitted the rockets to at Abbots Ripton/Alconbury.
If you don't already have a copy I'll pass it along.
All the best,
Paul
Paul Bellamy
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