Warbird Information Exchange

B-17G, Serial No. 42 -97203 of the 92th Bomb Group, 407th Bomb Squadron, , emergency landing in Altenrhein on April 24, 1944, nose section demolished. Copilot 2nd Lt. Oscar C. Sampson and Bombardier 2nd Lt. John H. Garcia were among the first American internees to escape from Switzerland and return to their home base in England. The incident that led to their early escape was the theft of the Nazi plaque, which was mounted in a clearly visible position on the front of the German consulate. The theft was the culmination of a series of pranks that American officers played on the Germans. The first major incident was the firing of homemade fireworks and rockets at the German Consulate on July 4, 1944, to celebrate American Independence Day. However, the most famous incident between the Americans and the resident Germans was the theft of Nazi insignia on the facade of the German Consulate building on Sunday, August 6, 1944, by Sampson and Garcia.

B-17G 42-97894 in flight, trainer based at Rapid City, SD:


From a photo album sold on eBay; it was captioned "Faulty brakes":


Unfortunately this was a fatal, although I don't know if it was someone on the plane or someone in the building:


Incident date was June 29, 1945 at Rapid City AAF.

_________________

All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

Losing the brakes in a B-17 is a helpless feeling. You can’t even retract the landing gear to stop because there is no override for the squat switch that prevents inadvertently retracting the gear with weight on the wheels.

I had the brake line rupture at the top of the left landing gear strut during a landing at Porterville in 1982. When my copilot who was making the landing hollered No Brakes I ran the electric hydraulic pump and regained brake pressure for a short while until the remaining fluid went overboard. However, that allowed me to slow enough to make a controlled ground loop onto the taxiway and then get lined up on the centerline and lock the tail wheel.

I shut down the engines. Again, the helpless feeling with zero control as at the walking speed we were rolling full rudder and aileron made zero difference and there is enough play in the tail wheel lock to allow the airplane to drift from the centerline. I had to quickly restart a couple of engines and regroup. Finally, my copilot Jerry Glenn found a wheel chock and got down inside the nose entry door and tossed the chock down against the left main wheel and we finally stopped.

I worried about how to stop the airplane every time we taxied into a crowded or tricky area for the rest of the Fire Season in case we lost the brakes again. I tried to talk the maintenance guys into installing a guarded override switch in the cockpit for the squat switch in case we lost the brakes again, but that never happened.

Tanker 65 at Porterville in 1982

13795BC9-46A8-4912-9736-EEB72F594BCC by tanker622001, on Flickr

Another picture of Tanker 65 at Fresno in 1980

13CFFCE1-5C82-4146-98F5-4CE9C07CB0C6 by tanker622001, on Flickr

The view that Jerry Glenn had when he heaved the chock against the left main wheel to finally stop T65 from rolling

353AC628-A2DE-4E92-ABA3-B8B18DA303BA by tanker622001, on Flickr

Great story and pictures Larry!

That picture of Tanker 65 makes it still look like the tail gunner glass is there. Do you recall if it was painted over or sheet metaled over? Did the drop tanks take up most of the bomb bay? Great stuff- and you have any interior pictures fantastic.

Yes, the retardant tanks took up most of the bomb bay. This is in T65 looking aft. I have more pictures of this area on other B-17s that I flew, but I’ll have to figure out where they are hiding. They aren’t on this iPad.

D71902AF-9B70-4F7E-84C6-80955C36C99C by tanker622001, on Flickr

There a lots of interior shots and stories in this WIX thread including a more complete version of the Porterville brake failure on Page 7 of this thread.

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