Fortress downing 23 Zeroes, October 1942??

ZeamerB17 · **Posted:** Sun Feb 20, 2011 10:44 pm

Jollygreenslugg wrote:

Hey Jack,

Any details on the Fort? That's a most impressive tally.

Cheers,
Matt

That appears to be B-17E 41-2609 Loose Goose. I was thinking it was
The Mustang, B-17F 41-24554, 43rd BG; but upon further review - if I read the serial number right, it is Loose Goose.

The scoreboard looks quite similar to The Mustang's. I thought I had read something somewhere about her scoreboard and here it is:

Quote:

The Mustang had an outstanding record, but all these elaborate markings for missions, planes shot down, ships sunk, and Purple Hearts were simply decoration, applied at the 13th Air Depot on New Caledonia shortly before the plane returned home on 2 December, 1943.

From Pride of Seattle - The Story of the First 300 B-17Fs by Steve Birdsall.

So, I'm wondering if the scoreboard on Loose Goose is the same kind of deal? Looks like the whole thing had been recently painted on.

Dave Homewood · **Posted:** Mon Feb 21, 2011 12:55 am

So what do the hearts denote in the scores on these B-17's?

JDK · **Posted:** Mon Feb 21, 2011 1:15 am

Dave Homewood wrote:

So what do the hearts denote in the scores on these B-17's?

Probably purple hearts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Heart

ZeamerB17 · **Posted:** Mon Feb 21, 2011 1:16 am

Purple Hearts, I believe.

whistlingdeath77 · **Posted:** Mon Feb 21, 2011 7:45 am

unfortunatley, that's a lot of purple hearts

the330thbg · **Joined:** Wed Nov 14, 2007 3:06 pm **Posts:** 2713

she definitely looked either stateside or headed stateside...

NO GUNS!!

davidbray · **Posted:** Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:51 pm

the330thbg wrote:

she definitely looked either stateside or headed stateside...

NO GUNS!!

Wouldn't the guns be removed after/between missions for cleaning/maintenance?

Jack Cook · **Posted:** Mon Feb 21, 2011 9:19 pm

ZeamerB17 · **Posted:** Mon Feb 21, 2011 9:22 pm

Starboard side of The Mustang.

Dave Homewood · **Posted:** Tue Feb 22, 2011 5:41 am

I had no clue the markings were for purple heart medals, never gave that a thought as our Air Force does not have such a medal, so apologies if my earlier flippant remark caused offence to anyone.

JDK · **Posted:** Tue Feb 22, 2011 6:26 am

Dave Homewood wrote:

I had no clue the markings were for purple heart medals, never gave that a thought as our Air Force does not have such a medal, so apologies if my earlier flippant remark caused offence to anyone.

I don't think your remark could be regarded as offensive, Dave, just a genuine question.

The equivalent British Empire and Commonwealth item would be a wound stripe:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wound_stripe

Despite the link's claim, Wound Stripes were appropriate for ANZAC troups in W.W.I: http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-bad ... cation.htm

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Tue Feb 22, 2011 9:40 am

ahh.... don't worry dave, those hearts might have been chances of being shot down in flames for trying to get laid on leave :wink:

67N20 · **Posted:** Tue Feb 22, 2011 10:40 pm

Got the book "Fortress Against the Sun" back from the library.
For October 4, 1942 the only mission mentioned is a 5 plane mission from Henderson Field to Baku. Due to weather they were unable to bomb Baku.On the way back to Henderson Field they came across 6 Japanese warships (type not mentioned). 6 float-planes and 6 Zeros appeared of which 2 of each were shot down. One B19 (41-24351) was lost when a damaged out of control Zero hit 41-24351 knocking off a wingtip and tearing off part of the vertical stabilizer. 41-24351 was last seen spiraling down and entering the overcast @ 11,000'.

Dave Homewood · **Posted:** Tue Feb 22, 2011 11:34 pm

Thanks for that, but from my original post,
"On Sunday the 4th of October 1942, whilst he was at Espiritu Santo, he stated in his diary, which is in note form, the following:
"Heard Fortress shot down 23 Zeros yesterday"

So anything in there for the 3rd of October 1942 perhaps? Cheers.

whistlingdeath77 · **Posted:** Wed Feb 23, 2011 8:28 pm

i don't even think it's possible for a fort to shoot 23 planes out of the sky on one mission. Those gunners had a tough enough time getting a beed on a fast moving target let alone 23 of them. But if they did, there's alot of aces in that B-17!

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Fortress downing 23 Zeroes, October 1942??

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