The B-17F named Redmond Annie

[Steve Birdsall]

Redmond Annie is a bit of a mystery. I'm pretty sure it's one of the early Seattle B-17Fs that never went overseas . . . the paintwork and the location of the stencilling support that.

I can't quite make out exactly what the nose art shows, I can't read the serial and I don't know when or where the photo was taken.

It's a USAF Official photo with one of those frustratingly vague captions: "Captain Tower and the crew of a Boeing B-17F".

Any thoughts?

[Larry Kraus]

Steve,

Redmond,Oregon (KRDM) was used as a B-17 training base during the war.It's hard to see enough detail in the background for a positive I.D. of the local area,but what I can see doesn't eliminate it either.

[Steve Birdsall]

Thanks Larry, that makes sense to me.

I suspect that the name (and nose art) are the key to this.

[Steve Nelson]

Interesting to see the "dimples" molded into the nose plexi, but no gun mounts installed.

SN

[DaveG]

Here's a link I found that shows that same picture of the plane from a book on Nose Art, and includes a description of the drawing. It says that "Annie is riding a mule and has a B-17 on a string." The picture is shown on page 47 of that link.

http://tinyurl.com/dystwj

[Steve Birdsall]

You're right Steve Nelson, the nose is unusual - the swivel mounts were fitted to the dimpled nose cone and cheek windows before final assembly at Seattle. So you would expect the nose to look the way it does on another stayed-at-home B-17F, 41-24519 Miss Barbara.



(The lettering on Redmond Annie bears some striking similarities to the lettering on Miss Barbara but I guess that's just co-incidence.)

DaveG - thanks for that link. To me it looks more like "Annie" has a single-engined aircraft on a string, if that's what it is, and the mule is on top of something, and there are pointed peaks in the background, maybe poking through cloud?

[Second Air Force]

Do you suppose a replacement nose transparency would have come from the Depot with no receptacles installed? That would be one possible reason that Annie has the blank nosecone.

Scott

[Steve Birdsall]

Scott - Certainly possible, but as the cheek window has also been replaced, it indicates that there was some specific purpose to the changes.

[aerovin]

For what it's worth, Redmond sits in the shadow, figuratively, of the "Three Sisters," three prominent mountain peaks in a north-south chain that runs to the west of Redmond. Could be the mountains depicted in the noseart.

I'm pretty sure the mountains were already there in the early 1940s.

[Second Air Force]

Scott - Certainly possible, but as the cheek window has also been replaced, it indicates that there was some specific purpose to the changes.

That leads to a question I've been mulling around in my head--could this airplane have been "stripped" of certain equipment on the assembly line because it was specifically slated for training use? First Phase and Transition Training stations didn't do a lot of gunnery training, especially earlier in the conflict. The top and ball turrets would probably have been retained in order to train those crewmen in proper operation of their equipment.

Just a thought,
Scott

[Steve Birdsall]

Thanks Scotts, everything you added brings us closer to the answer.

I'm surprised that neither Pete Bowers or Al Lloyd ever covered this one . . .

[Second Air Force]

Steve,
I haven't yet gotten into the records of the B-17 Transition Training program, so don't put a lot of stock in my "stripped trainer" idea.

Larry,
Do you know the exact type of B-17 training that was accomplished at Redmond? I can't find a lot so far. They did drop bombs, it appears--there is an M-5 bomb trailer in the background. Thanks in advance.

Scott

[aerovin]

Do you know the exact type of B-17 training that was accomplished at Redmond? I can't find a lot so far. They did drop bombs, it appears--there is an M-5 bomb trailer in the background. Thanks in advance.

Scott

As per the AeroFiles site: http://www.aerofiles.com/usaf-bases.html

"Redmond AAF, OR [44 15 14N 121 09 01W] (194?-1946). Was civil airport (c.1922-1941). Aircraft modifications, sub-base for Portland AAF. Aerial gunnery tng. 3 local bombing and gunnery ranges. 19??-->: Reverted to civil muni, aka Roberts Field. "

[Larry Kraus]

Steve,

I did a little research in Roger A. Freeman and David Osborne's excellent "The B-17 Flying Fortress Story".This book includes each B-17 by AF s/n and gives a brief history of them.I was searching for the name "Redmond Annie",but it wasn't listed in the early F models.However,I did find some reasonably early airplanes that show Remond as a base for at least a brief period.I wrote these down as the earliest airplanes listed:

B-17F-10DL's 42-2993 and 42-2988 (this one shows basing at Madras,Or. which is about 30 miles north of Redmond).These two were accepted by the USAAF in December 1942

B-17F-30BO's

42-5064

42-5092

42-5096

42-5097
These were accepted by the USAAF in September 1942

B-17F-35BO 42-5122 This one was accepted in September 1942

B-17F-15VE 42-5753 This one was in December 1942

The hills in the background look more like the area around Ephrata,Washington than Redmond,but could be anywhere in the Western USA.The airplanes above cycled through Walla Walla,Washington as well as Moses Lake and Ephrata,among others.Moses Lake and Walla Walla also have similar terrain to that in the picture.

[Holedigger]

I also was going to comment on the background mountains in the pic not matching up with Redmond, but then again, just because the hills where it was shot does not make it the A/Cs home field. It is an intriguing mystery as to the nose gun mounts NOT being installed. Unless there was some accident and had nose parts replaced, will have to dig through more pics and files!

While digging pics on Redmond, Who has/had a bunch of 4 engined propliners there? Saw a small fleet in some of the pics.