The October 2022 issue of Air Classics has an article I did that pulls together as much information as possible about the fourth Israeli B-17G...the one that ended up being seized at Santa Maria in July 1948 on its way to join the 1948 Israeli war for independence. Three other B-17s were covertly (and illegally) exported from the U.S. in June 1948 to form the basis of the Israeli bomber force, but the fourth never made it. This was B-17G 44-85764 and it carried the bogus civil registration of NL7712M on its tail when impounded in the Azores by Portugal on July 18, 1948.
It is an intriguing and admittedly obscure story. For anyone interested, the issue is available directly from Challenge Publications by calling 818-700-6868 or at
http://www.airclassicsnow.com/ (though the website has not yet been updated to the current issue). Though the opening spread color photo is not directly related to the story, it is a great photo of a combat veteran B-17G. We took a lot of time to try and find any photos of the new B-17s in storage at Altus, OK, in the post-war period...there were at least a hundred brand new B-17s there...but came up empty. 44-85764 was one of those Altus B-17s, as were most of the post-war surplus B-17s that made it to the civil world. If anyone is aware of on-the-ground photos of those
new B-17s at Altus, I'd sure like to see them.
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Scott Thompson
Aero Vintage Books
http://www.aerovintage.comWIX Subscriber Since July 2017
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