Warbird Information Exchange

I know they weren't operatiional in the ETO until after the war, but did any B-29s go to Europe before the end of the war, if not when did the first even if only a single go over there?

I know they weren't operational in the ETO until after the war, but did any B-29s go to Europe before the end of the war, if not when did the first even if only a single go over there?

Ober,

The 58th Wing sent YB-29 41-36963 (later named Hobo Queen to tour several 8th Air Force stations in March of '44. The trip was designed to give Axis intelligence the idea that the '29s were going to be used in the ETO. She then went on to India after the Germans got some good photos of her, the only YB to work in the combat zone.

Scott

Just for the record, I never wrote that The Dragon Lady "never flew again". I wrote that she never flew combat again, as this scan of the photo and caption from Saga of the Superfortress shows . . .



Obviously I don't agree that books are no longer the best source of accurate information. The beauty of the web is that information can be so quickly gathered, updated and added to - perfectly illustrated by the progress of this thread, and a similar one on the "Black Cat Pass B-17" over at Aero Vintage.

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www.B17BlackJack.com

Here's a fairly well-known pic of Hobo Queen during that trip:

http://i42.tinypic.com/35bfuog.jpg

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

This is getting off-topic a good bit, but when I was last rummaging around at AFHRA I came across the documents that the Joint Chiefs studied pertaining to the trip to England by the YB-29. In the same document there is reference to another ruse that was being planned. Once the Japanese learned of the arrival of the B-29s in India word was to "leak out" that the Superforts hadn't worked out as bombers but were going to be used as transport aircraft in the CBI. That isn't really all that far from the truth when you consider the number of Hump trips it took to fly a bombing mission.

S

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S.

As this thread came up when I was looking for 'B-29 Emirau', I may as well throw in this link to photos of a B-29B (serial 42-63655) there.

http://rnzaf.proboards.com/index.cgi?ac ... 599&page=1


Photos taken by poster's father, serving in 5 Servicing Unit RNZAF Emirau 28th Oct 1944 to 19th Aug 1945
http://rnzaf.proboards.com/index.cgi?ac ... ost=148743