Warbird Information Exchange

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Boeing B-17 Resource - http://www.boeingb17.com

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Boeing B-17 Resource - http://www.boeingb17.com

I know it says post photos but the image in this linked thread seems to fit here.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=57539
Is that two guns in the nose?

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Chris Mellor

They are very nice, certainly not seen these before.
I agree, they would seem to look like the UK
They are all 'E's and do remind me of the colour schemes that were applied to some of the 17's involved in the earliest of the 8th AF raids.
BB

Hi,

Those two pictures almost certainly show planes belonging to the 97th Bomb Group in England.

Plane in the first picture coud be 41-2578

http://www.americanairmuseum.com/media/5117

which lead the first 8th AF B-17 daylight raid

and the second picture should be Boomerang 41-9148

http://www.americanairmuseum.com/media/4956

Thanks for sharing these pictures, Peter.

Laurent

Posted these on Aero Vintage the other day:

There don't seem to be many clear shots of the B-17s at Walnut Ridge awaiting scrapping (most closeup images are of B-32s and engineless P-40s stacked vertically), but I caught images of four (two or three IDed by serial) in this newsreel excerpt:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhKYLuzyv5g


Is this Y code a late version of Dyersburg or is it from Williams, AZ? I tried enhancing the serial but it's very blurry; looks like 43-37XXX ending in 42 or 47; 43-37742 was a stateside trainer that last served at Dyersburg and ended up at Walnut Ridge - ?


Left to right: Alexandria, Rapid City and Roswell. The one in the upper left corner might be another Alexandria plane - X K3? - but it's hard to make out.

Found an image of Roswell W 091 - it's 44-8091:

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All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

Gooday Chris,

Both Alexandria & Dyersburg where transferred to Third Air Force from Second Air Force early in 1945 and used the alpha/numeric codes of Third AF for III Bomber Command. Y for Dyersburg and X for Alexandria. Both are crew replacement training bases.

Both Williams and Roswell are pilot transition schools of AAF Western Flying Training Command note the lack of guns on these transition ships. Y for Williams and W for Roswell with the last three numbers of the serial number on the tail. I think that both Williams & Roswell are assigned to the same Flying Training Wing of Western Flying Training Command to have this system.

A lot of Second AF bases used a two letter field disignation and last three of the serial number on the tail, like RC for Rapid City as shown, Alexandria used AL and Dyersburg used DY when assigned to Second AF.

They are lots of duplicate field letters for HQ AAF left that up to the various reporting commands and air forces to do that.

Here is a B-17 transition trainer at Williams being welcome back to base from Life magazine:


All the best

Tom

B-17G Flying Fortress G-BEDF Sally B - B-17 Preservation Ltd by stu norris, on Flickr


B-17G Flying Fortress G-BEDF Sally B - B-17 Preservation Ltd by stu norris, on Flickr

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... Chino, 3 Oct 1970, N3713G "Picadilly Lilly II" ...