Warbird Information Exchange

Hello everyone. I am new to the forum. I am stationed in Germany, and do a lot of metal detecting.

Lately, one of my friends and I have been diggin up pieces of a B17 that was shot down in Kusel, germany. It was piloted by Bristol Sterling Jr. I don't have too much information on the plane.. I do know it was hit by flak from Kindsbach, caught fire, broke up, and spun in. Everyone bailed out, except the pilot. 2 crew memebers lost their lives when they were hit by pieces of plane on their way down in their chutes. The pilot, and 2 crewmembers were buried at the cemetary in Kusel, then moved to france after the war. I just wanted to make it clear that I am not messing up a war grave, or trying to mess things up. The plane crashed out in the middle of the woods. The area where the cockpit landed, is full of burned dirt, and nothing grows there. One of the first times I dug there, you could still smell fuel/oil in the dirt.

I have found a LOT of parts, but I can't ID 90% of them. I was wondering if anyone here could help me out. Send a private message, email me at viper771@yahoo.com, or reply to the post (I hope I posted this in the right place).

I have been interested in history for a long time, esp military history. My grandfather (who just passed away last year), was a pilot trainer in ww2, and flew just about everything.

If anyone can give me some ideas, or pictures, of what some of this stuff is let me know!! Thanks in advance!!

There is a wealth of knowledge on these forums and I'm sure we could identify a few of the parts. But without pictures it's going to be kind of hard just going off of descriptions. Most folks here use photobucket to upload their pics and post them. It's free to use and pretty easy. If you have questions about how to upload pics just check out the sticky thread located towards the top of the "hanger" forum that covers this subject.

John

Ah yes I am familiar with photobucket. I usually post stuff on treasurenet.com when I show ppl my metal detecting finds.

Is the off topics place the best section to post my pictures? I have TONS of little parts to scan/take pictures of.

There are no big pieces of plane left.. either most of this area was melted to nothing (hardly any 50 cal brass remains, most alum pieces are melted gobs), or it was cut up for scrap during/after the war. I did find a watch, pocket knife, and 2 pairs of scissors though.

I would really appreciate the help!!!! I will start uploading pictures tonight. thanks!!!!

Go ahead and give it a shot here and if you don't get much interest then maybe try posting in the hanger forum.

If you have any parts that are not too mangled I would try those first. Also try to include anything that has any unique markings like parts numbers, certain paint/primer color, etc.

Best of luck!

John

Alright! I can do that. I have to run a lot of stuff though my electrolysis machine to de rust the parts. A lot of the brass pieces did make it though the crash/fire in good shape.

Does anyone know how many flares they kept on the plane? I have found 6 smaller flare round bases, and 2 larger sized ones. I have about 60-80 lbs of parts/glass in the garage from this plane alone. I have been sorting them out so i can ID stuff.

thanks for all the help!!