B-17 The Mustang's Journey

[Steve Birdsall]

This clipping is from The New York Times, April 7, 1944 . . .



B-17F 41-24554, The Mustang was delivered by Boeing Seattle on August 5, 1942 and flown to Australia in October. She was originally assigned to the 403rd Bomb Squadron, 43rd Bomb Group, but in late December 1942 she was transfered to the 63rd Bomb Squadron where she was flown by the legendary Captain Ken McCullar.

When General George Kenney invited General Douglas MacArthur to observe the paratroop invasion of Nadzab in New Guinea, Colonel Harry Hawthorne, commander of the 43rd BG, organized what Kenney called the "brass hats flight". Hawthorne carried MacArthur with him in Talisman, Kenney was in Cap'n & The Kids and MacArthur's chief of staff, General Richard Sutherland was in The Mustang .

On October 18, 1943 41-24554 was one of three B-17s that took off at 0830 for a daylight attack on Rabaul, but they turned back before reaching the target. The pilot that day was Lt J. H. Domagalski, who had arrived a month earler with one of the new B-24 crews. It was to have been the final 5th Air Force B-17 bombing mission of the war.

The Mustang was next seen at the 13th Air Depot on New Caledonia, where all the bomb, ship, plane and purple heart stencils were added to her nose. (The aircraft's record was outstanding, but this scoreboard was a work of fiction.)

Records show her returning to the U.S. on December 2, 1943 and on December 12 she was at the Rock Springs Municipal Airport in Wyoming. She was also photographed at Rosecrans Field in Missouri.

The Mustang was one of a number of B-17s that served as stop-gap trainers for early B-29 crews at Walker Army Air Field, Kansas, and she was flown to Albuquerque for salvage in June 1945.

Can anybody fill in the gaps or add information, particularly about her time at Walker AAF and later?

A footnote: Ralph De Loach, (the pilot who ditched Black Jack off New Guinea), flew The Mustang on his first mission as a pilot with his own crew on June 10, 1943.

[Holedigger]

Here are some more pics of her
http://pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/b-17/ ... stang.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=ajQgDf ... &ct=result

[Second Air Force]

Steve, I'm in the preliminary stages of researching Walker and will dig into the records next time I'm at AFHRA.

Here are two photos of the field taken in early '44 when the 462nd B.G. was working up at Walker. Notice there are two Forts on the south apron and three parked on a connecting taxiway near the north end of the ramp. It is possible that The Mustang is one of these B-17s.

Looking southeast:


Looking north:


Scott

[Steve Birdsall]

Holedigger, it was that photo of Hazel Shelton that re-kindled my interest in this particular B-17.

Scott, I was hoping that you might buy into this . . . I'd say it's very likely that The Mustang is one of the B-17s in those photos of Walker.

[Second Air Force]

Mention 2AF stuff and my ears immediately perk up!

Here is a third photo of Walker I was studying this evening, and I found three more B-17s on the south revetments. They're parked at the top left of the photo just under the "248 BU" writing.



The B-17s that were used at the Phase Training stations seemed to be of two types: returned combat veteran war wearys, and cast-offs from Transition School and First Phase stations. A 9th Bomb Group airplane commander once told me that the B-17s they had to use at McCook were of questionable heritage, and he was looking forward to the day when they could train on the B-29. After a few engine fires in flight and feathering one or two engines on almost every hop with their early Superforts, he told me the clapped-out B-17s were suddenly looking a lot better!

I'll keep looking for more and better photos from Walker,
Scott

[fortzarah]

Veteran of 109 Missions

Great Bend -- There's one bomber at the Great Bend army air field that gets a special pat on the back from the army airmen here. It's "the Mustang."

There are newer, larger and finer heavy bombers at this field. "The Mustang" is old, and shows signs of a hard life. But she has a glorious record of service.

"The Mustang" was once part of the American army air force's hard-hitting bomber force operating from Australia against the Japanese. She has to her credit 109 missions over Japanese territory.

The service markers on her nose record 17 Zeros downed, four Japanese destroyers, three Japanese merchant ships and two Japanese submarines destroyed.

"The Mustang" arrived in Australia Dec. 9, 1942 and was immediately put into service as a shuttle-plane delivering cargos of bombs to the Japanese, who at that time were dangerously close to Australia. The bomber was returned to the USA several months ago and has been in use as a training ship since then.

There are a number of other bombers at Great Bend field that have seen active service either in the southwest Pacific against the Japanese, or helping in the air armadas bombing the Nazis in Europe.

Among them are "Ramblin' Wreck," "Stardust," "Misdemeanor," "Mary," and "Pistol Packin' Mama." But none has had more missions, or delivered more deadly freight to the enemy than "The Mustang."

The Hutchinson (KS) News-Herald, Thursday, May 4, 1944

[Second Air Force]

Welcome to WIX, fortzarah! And thank you for posting that article.

Those old warriors were often reassigned from field to field during their time as 2nd Air Force trainers/hacks/administrative airplanes. Steve has placed her at Walker for a time and now you've shown evidence of reassignment down the road at Great Bend. It is very possible that The Mustang helped train the 462nd crews and then went to Great Bend to assist their B-29 program in the early spring/late winter of '44. The three Walker photos I posted were most likely taken in late February or early March and the May date on the Hays article fits pretty closely. I'll be sure to look for any reference of her when I start researching Great Bend.

Scott

[Edward Sheetmetalhands]

Scott,

Any idea as to the identity of the Block 1-5 B-29 BW in the foreground?

[Second Air Force]

Scott,

Any idea as to the identity of the Block 1-5 B-29 BW in the foreground?

The 462nd had one YB-29 (41-36967) that was lost in an accident 29 January 1944. The -1s known to have been assigned to the Walker Base Unit or the 462nd are as follows:

42-6205, the first production airplane, reclaimed postwar.

42-6209, combat veteran Old Man Mose, (the airplane I searched for an identity on for eleven years) broken up at Clovis in the summer/fall of '45.

42-6210, also surveyed at Clovis on the Fourth of July 1944.

42-6213, reclaimed postwar and listed as a TB-29.

42-6219, converted to a tanker in the combat zone, returned to CONUS 23 Nov. '44, reclaimed at Roswell in '46.

42-6223, surveyed 6 June '44.

42-6226, destroyed by fire July '44 in combat zone.

42-6244, surveyed in the CONUS 3 Feb. '44.

42-6248, returned from combat 14 Dec '44 (probably to crew training after return), broken up at Pyote in '49.

42-6252, identical history to '248.

I've always been a little sketchy on whether all of the Boeing-built -1s were in camouflage. Records state that they were, so I've given the full list of -1s known to have been with the 462nd.

If my estimate of the photographs' timeframe is right, the YB and 42-6244 can probably be eliminated from consideration.

I'm confident that '6209, '6219, '6223, and '6226 were, or should have been, assigned to Walker/462nd Group at the time the photo was taken. I'd guess that '6210, '6248, and '6252 would also have been there during this timeframe. The three photos I put up show at least five O.D. ships and a sixth if I'm seeing correctly, so that works out pretty closely.

When the four Groups of the 58th Wing first started to get airplanes off the lines they were allotted one to each base as completed. Thus, the 462nd got '6205, the other units the next three, and the next delivery to the 462nd was '6209 etc. Some swapping inevitably occurred, and the real "problem children" sometimes got left behind and were sentenced to a training role for the next crews.

And just 'cause I can, here is the original photo of Old Man Mose, 42-6209, taken in India and given to me by the flight engineer's widow years ago. This picture started me on my eleven year search for the serial number......


Scott

[Edward Sheetmetalhands]

Scott,

Any idea as to the identity of the Block 1-5 B-29 BW in the foreground?

The 462nd had one YB-29 (41-36967) that was lost in an accident 29 January 1944. The -1s known to have been assigned to the Walker Base Unit or the 462nd are as follows:

42-6205, the first production airplane, reclaimed postwar.

42-6209, combat veteran Old Man Mose, (the airplane I searched for an identity on for eleven years) broken up at Clovis in the summer/fall of '45.

42-6210, also surveyed at Clovis on the Fourth of July 1944.

42-6213, reclaimed postwar and listed as a TB-29.

42-6219, converted to a tanker in the combat zone, returned to CONUS 23 Nov. '44, reclaimed at Roswell in '46.

42-6223, surveyed 6 June '44.

42-6226, destroyed by fire July '44 in combat zone.

42-6244, surveyed in the CONUS 3 Feb. '44.

42-6248, returned from combat 14 Dec '44 (probably to crew training after return), broken up at Pyote in '49.

42-6252, identical history to '248.

I've always been a little sketchy on whether all of the Boeing-built -1s were in camouflage. Records state that they were, so I've given the full list of -1s known to have been with the 462nd.

If my estimate of the photographs' timeframe is right, the YB and 42-6244 can probably be eliminated from consideration.

I'm confident that '6209, '6219, '6223, and '6226 were, or should have been, assigned to Walker/462nd Group at the time the photo was taken. I'd guess that '6210, '6248, and '6252 would also have been there during this timeframe. The three photos I put up show at least five O.D. ships and a sixth if I'm seeing correctly, so that works out pretty closely.

When the four Groups of the 58th Wing first started to get airplanes off the lines they were allotted one to each base as completed. Thus, the 462nd got '6205, the other units the next three, and the next delivery to the 462nd was '6209 etc. Some swapping inevitably occurred, and the real "problem children" sometimes got left behind and were sentenced to a training role for the next crews.

And just 'cause I can, here is the original photo of Old Man Mose, 42-6209, taken in India and given to me by the flight engineer's widow years ago. This picture started me on my eleven year search for the serial number......


Scott

Well that is hitting a nail with a sledgehammer! Great job! Amazing.

I wonder if the OD/Medium grey paint scheme on the Block 1's influenced the 58th Wing later in the war.... when it came time to "Paint 'em Black" on the undersides. The 58th often had the straight separation between black and aluminum, whereas the other wings went wavy with their patterns. Anyone else notice this?

[Second Air Force]

I wonder if the OD/Medium grey paint scheme on the Block 1's influenced the 58th Wing later in the war.... when it came time to "Paint 'em Black" on the undersides. The 58th often had the straight separation between black and aluminum, whereas the other wings went wavy with their patterns. Anyone else notice this?

I really doubt that the old O.D. scheme had much to do with how the Jet was painted on late in the war. We discussed the matter a while back here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=17974&start=30

The options for 58th Wing night camouflage range from field-applied on Tinian to factory or depot-applied in the States. I forget now, but I think the only factory that delivered airplanes to the AAF with the Jet already applied was Renton. The T.O. is supposed to have mentioned a soft, wavy line, but I guarantee that it was done according to the artistry of the individual painter in the field. Even some Renton-applied camouflage has a different amplitude to the break line forward and aft of the wing.

Scott

[fortzarah]

Thanks for the welcome, Scott. I am currently researching the history of Great Bend Army Air Field, along with collecting info on the BGs and echelons that trained here.

[whistlingdeath77]

great old photos!

[whistlingdeath77]

great old photos!