Warbird Information Exchange

A30yoyo 4 months ago | reply

This was the first flight on 'Operation Sonnie', an airlift to and from Neutral Sweden in 1944/1945 (overflying occupied Norway). It was set up by Norwegian born Bernt Balchen by then in the USAAF to augment the British/Norwegian civil flights and to fly out Norwegian refugees from Sweden and later interned US aircrews who had crash landed in Sweden. C-87 and CB-24Ds (field converted, war-weary B-24s) were used. The first Liberator on the night of 31March/1April 1944 from Leuchars, Scotland arrived at Stockholm-Bromma with no markings and the US Air Attache there, Felix Hardison, had it painted falsely as G-AFYO (as if a British Civil air transport) to keep the Swedish authorities happy .It visited Gothenburg-Torslanda on 2 April so marked. All later Sonnie flights just wore a small NC tail-number. Several thousand passengers were brought out in 550 flights with only one fatal accident. The crews were US military wearing civilian clothes. Guy Carnine who flew in Operation Sonnie wrote an account here;
http://www.b24.net/stories/carnine.htm

also see
http://www.amhult-lyse.se/torslandaflyg ... B/esgb_s...

Balchen Arrives in Sweden for Operation Sonni,,Gothenberg, Sweden, Note V near top of fuselage

A30yoyo 4 months ago | reply

23217 'Georgia Rebel was force landed by 1st Lt O.V. Jones, USAAF at Arjang, Sweden near the Norwegian border. The Swedes disassembled the wings and tail and shipped the B-17 across Lake Vanern to Satenas with a view to rebuilding it as a 4-engined airliner. Better examples of the B-17 began arriving in Sweden (e.g. 'Sack Time Susy' 42-3543) as the US bomber assault on Germany stepped-up and the 'Georgia Rebel' was eventually used for spares.

Inscription reads, "To my good friend Charlie Babb. Billy Parker. In a 1912 Curtiss over B-29 at Okalahoma City-1945."