Fortress downing 23 Zeroes, October 1942??

[ZeamerB17]

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:

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]

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

[JDK]

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]

Purple Hearts, I believe.

[whistlingdeath77]

unfortunatley, that's a lot of purple hearts

[the330thbg]

she definitely looked either stateside or headed stateside...

NO GUNS!!

[davidbray]

she definitely looked either stateside or headed stateside...

NO GUNS!!

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

[Jack Cook]

[ZeamerB17]

Starboard side of The Mustang.

[Dave Homewood]

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]

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]

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

[67N20]

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]

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]

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!