Grandpa Jim and the 401st BG

[Ken]

In an earlier thread I mentioned that, over the past five years, I've gotten to know my wife's grandfather who was a B-17 pilot in the 401st BG. The 401st web site lists his airplane as 42-39993, a B-17G-10-VE, coded SC-C. I asked Jim why they chose this name for their airplane and he answered simply that it'd already been named when they arrived for their tour. In fact, he tells me that the crew photo below was taken on the occasion of the 100th launch of that tail number without an abort. He was later (possibly 3 Mar 45) flying that airplane when severe battle damage forced them down at an allied emergency airfield. My understanding is that the airplane was eventually repaired and returned to service, only to be later nosed over and scrapped. The theatre photos I believe should be credited to Jim although they are also duplicated on the 401st web site. I photographed his jacket in 2004.

Last edited by Ken on Thu Feb 23, 2012 5:55 pm, edited 2 times in total.

[Pat Carry]

The A-2 jacket is absolutely awesome!

[Django]

Wow, very cool jacket. Thanks for posting.

[Ztex]

Very nice! What a treasure!

Thanks for sharing!

[Ken]

I was doing some searching online for something else and found this blog that is chock-full of great info on the 401st. The gunner who wrote the blog even flew 3 missions in Jim's airplane. Enjoy.

http://teenageairwarrior.blogspot.com/

PS: Some research into the name reveals that He11's Angel was a hall of fame rodeo horse in that era and a horse appears on the fwd crew hatch. The above blog mentions that the crew chief, "Brownie" had been a rodeo rider before the war as well.

Forgive the links, I wish it were easy to merge these posts, but here are the other WIX threads where Jim and his B-17 were discussed ...

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=31406&start=15

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=41832&start=15

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/p ... 76&start=0

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=18861&start=0

viewtopic.php?p=311194

[cco23i]

OUTSTANDING!!!

[bipe215]

Those later pictures are something! Artwork all over the airplane.

Steve

[mustangdriver]

This is a great Thread! Ken have you had the chance to maybe do an interview of him on video?

[RAMC181]

A few snippets from the 401BG records for you Ken...

Extracts from the mission report for Mission #221 to Chemnitz, Germany (secondary target) where '993 landed early on the return trip.

Formation diagram for the 94th Combat Bomb Wing, Composite Group B, Lead Squadron, Jim's position on the right:



Crew Load List for the day:



Emergency landing note indicating '993 was pretty well shot up:



Mission flightpath, with the nominated emergency field for the day (A84 Chievres, Belgium) marked by the red circle lower left:



Larger version of his crew photo :

Lt. Nolan and Crew of the 612th Bomb Squadron, 401st Bomb Group in front of a Boeing B-17 "Flying Fortress" at an 8th Air Force Base in England, 3 February 1945. (USAF Historical Photo Archive via NARA. Ref. A65430AC)

'993 had clocked up 108 consecutive missions without a abort by the end of February 1945, the highest in the 401st at the time:



At the same time Crew Chief M/Sgt Brown had a personal running total of 111, split between the aircraft he was responsible for including '998:



I'll see what else I have and post it up.

All the best,
PB

[Ken]

Way cool, Paul, way cool! Thanks for sharing that data, I will pass it on to Jim and his family.

[RAMC181]

No problem Ken,

I'll have a crack at compiling all the reports for his missions into a PDF that I can e-mail you.

I also found the Overseas Air Accident report index entry for the 7th May 45 "nose-over" accident, however we don't hold copies of these reports in the Group archive:

Date: 450507
Type: B-17G 42-39993
Squadron: 612BS
Group: 401BG
Home Base: Station 128
Air Force: 8AF
Action: Landing Accident
Damage Category: 4
Pilot: Nolan, James A
Country: England
Location: Deenethorpe/Sta 128

All the best,
PB

[Ken]

Here are some pix I've found via online searches over the years - amazing that this airplane was the subject of so much attention. The pin up girl on the waist national insignia is unique!

This is labeled "Crew Gibson", I assume an earlier crew in '993's career.




The first photo show that the call letters were not grouped together aft of the waist window and the pin up was (at least) on the other side.

[RAMC181]

The photo of Lt. Gibson's crew is dated at the end of October 1944.
It shows quite well that the various pin-ups and other pictures were simply magazine cutouts pasted to the fuselage!

That photo of '993 being broken up is great, a new one on me.
Looks like she'd been dragged to the side of Hangar 1 and abandoned along with the other "salvage queens".
It's presumably showing a British salvage crew at Deenethorpe after the 401st had left for the USA.

That the nose art is on both sides is interesting, as is the lack of serious nose damage.
I'd guess that she didn't rear right up during her prang, but enough to drop back down and stress the fuselage.
Category 4 damage was repairable, but only at an air depot and not on-base.
Had it happened before the end of ETO combat operations she would quite likely have been patched up and returned to service.

All the best,
PB

[RAMC181]

Back to the ground crew photo, taken at the end of January 1945:

I just got a reply from Grandpa Jim...

He said the man on the left is M/Sgt C. H. Brown, known as "Brownie" and he was the ground crew chief.
The man who is right center is Corporal C.S. Smith, a member of the ground crew. Jim thinks the man who is left center is Sgt F. Able, member of the ground crew (but is somewhat unsure if he is that person), and could not identify the 4th man.

In addition, a copy of this photo was stuck inside a copy of "Serenade to the Big Bird" that Jim once signed for me as a gift. On the back of the photo he wrote, "After each mission, I taxied off the runway - stopped - and "Brownie" my crew chief would get in - come up to the cockpit and ask 'How the old bird that day fly? (sic)' "

It pains me to think of the stories and experiences that are lost forever when we lose these veterans. Getting him to identify some of the men in the photo is a minor thing but I think it matters.

Checking my ground crew notes I have the following assigned '993:
M/Sgt. Curtis H. Brown (Crew Chief)
Sgt. Felix R. Abel
Sgt. John B. Aloi
Cpl. Claire S. Smith

All the best,
PB

[Ken]

I can't help but think that this would make an interesting artwork idea for the B-17 undergoing restoration at Duxford ....