e-bay WWII MacDill B-17 Cash Photos

[res6kgcr]

Friends,

I bought 2 of the 3 lots of these WWII e-bay photos mostly taken at MacDill that I would like to share with you all. I think that they are personal copies of the base photographer since there are all 3x5 contact prints with typical Army margin notes with no local photo store stamps on the back.

This first set is not at MacDill but of a fatal accident at Great Falls, MT of a 383rd BG ship out of Geiger Field, WA when two of the engines failed. They almost made it, but 7 men died and 4 others were seriously injure as noted in Tony Mireles book “Fatal Army Air Forces Aviation Accidents in the United States, 1941-1945 Vol. 1” The price was high.







This set is at MacDill as note by the notation “MCD RTU” for MacDill Replacement Training Unit on these and the rest of photographs. This accident is listed in AviationArchaeology.com data base for the noted date as Category 4 damage (major damage for depot repair decision) in a TACMF (Taxiing ACcident due to Mechanical Fail) accident.

Does not look like a taxiing accident to me! It hid the ground hard! What do you all think?







This next set of the taxiing accident of 42-5273 is, for some reason, listed 4 days later than what is noted on photographs.

















This one may not be accident for there is no listing at all for MacDill on the date noted on the photo or in the week following . The National Insignia looks like it still has the red boarder from the previous summer of 1943. Maybe some ship being scraped?



AviationArchaeology.com data base list this accident one day later than the photo as a TACNU probably some kind of taxiing accident. What section of a B-17 has been photograph I don’t know?



The notation on this last photo says it all about Victor-Three. The 325th AAF BU is now being call a CCTS, Combat Crew Training Station, rather than a RTU, Replacement Training Unit, for morale purposes.



Any comments or correction are welcome.

All the best to you all

Tom Michel

[Second Air Force]

Good save, Tom!

The second-from-bottom photo is of the tailwheel retraction linkage and gearbox. Here's a recent photo of the same assembly in Chuckie:



The two upright members appear to be somewhat beefier on the accident photo than the ones on our airplane, other than that everything looks pretty familiar to me. You're also looking up into the dorsal fin/vertical stabilizer in the photo you acquired. Whatever happened to that airplane has really twisted the bulkhead structure around a lot.

Scott

[Pat Carry]

Interesting photos.

[Taigh Ramey]

The ball turret shot is interesting to see how it pushed up and tore out the rubber shock mounts. It broke one of the castings too on the right side. I would think that the damage to the top of the structure of the fuselage was extensive.

It is also interesting to see the stencilling that talks about how to drop the ball turret in case of a belly landing to prevent this kind of damage. Doing this certainly was not applicable in a taxi accident but the damage is similar. There was a Tech Order issued about dropping the turret prior to a belly landing. I like how they say if time permits to try and save the gun sight because of its extreme value.

Thanks for posting the photos.

[Chris Brame]

What were the serials of the others besides 42-5273?

[Second Air Force]

It is also interesting to see the stencilling that talks about how to drop the ball turret in case of a belly landing to prevent this kind of damage. Doing this certainly was not applicable in a taxi accident but the damage is similar. There was a Tech Order issued about dropping the turret prior to a belly landing. I like how they say if time permits to try and save the gun sight because of its extreme value.

Thanks for posting the photos.

Here's the Clovis AAF version of the T.O. Taigh mentioned in the quote above:


A crescent wrench and a hammer really CAN fix anything!

Scott

[Second Air Force]

I took this photo today to give a bit more comparison to the accident photo:


S

[res6kgcr]

Hi All,

Thanks Scott for the location of the picture dated 8-25. Just think what kind of force it took to rip a tail wheel out of its mountings!

Did a double check the photos dated 6-26 and sadly they are of a fatal crash of B-17G, 42-102740 the day before 12 miles East of Sarasota that was trying to let down during a thunder storm, the entire crew of 9 were killed.

Still do not know what is happening in photo 8-18 may be the lot of photos that I miss out on had more information.

The B-17 in the pictures dated 6-19-43 was 42-30460 a B-17F model, the one dated 9-28 was 42-102831 a B-17G model.

One typo the base unit at MacDill was 326th AAF Base Unit it would later in 1945 do B-29 replacement training.

Best to you all

Tom Michel

[Second Air Force]

The irony of the tailwheel compartment photo is that our Chuckie suffered a damaged tailwheel when she had her first accident with 100 hours on the clock. In that case the airplane went up on the nose and then fell back hard enough to push the tailwheel up into the fuselage, not unlike the photo you posted. The damage wasn't as severe, but the box that holds the retraction gearbox probably folded up in the same fashion. You can still see evidence of the repair job the AAF did back there.

I'm not sure about the "8-18" photo either. It seems the national insignia is too small for a Fortress and the way the skin is lapped rules out a wing panel. It isn't curved enough to be a fuselage panel either, and the lap seams are wrong for a B-17 fuselage also.

Scott