Dave,

How about the following B-17s?:

Alcohol Annie
Arf ‘n’ Arf 🙂
Dry Martini
Southern Comfort
Rum and Coke

Also, on the commercial side of things, how about sponsoring a B-17 with an authentic name and trade name such as Lucky Strike or OXO? Couldn’t see OXO :rolleyes: coming up with sponsorship money but Lucky Strike?

Quite fancy the Southern Comfort one myself – at least 10 B17’s had that name.

Regards

Graham

Cue drums…

😀 Courtesy of Lyricsxp.com

Friends all tried to warn me
But I held my head up high
All the time they warned me
But I only passed them by
They all tried to tell me
But I guess I didn’t care
I turned my back and
Left them standing there

All the burning bridges that have fallen after me
All the lonely feelings and the burning memories
Everyone I left behind each time I closed the door
Burning bridges lost forevermore

Joey tried to help me find a job
A while ago
When I finally got it I didn’t want to go
The party Mary gave for me
When I just walked away
Now there’s nothing left for me to say

All the burning bridges that have fallen after me
All the lonely feelings and the burning memories
Everyone I left behind each time I closed the door
Burning bridges lost forevermore

Years have passed and I keep thinking
What a fool I’ve been
I look back into the past and
Think of way back then
I know that I lost everything I thought I that could win
I guess I should have listened to my friends

All the burning bridges that have fallen after me
All the lonely feelings and the burning memories
Everyone I left behind each time I closed the door
Burning bridges lost forevermore

Burning bridges lost forevermore 😀

Karl Otto Alberty – that’s the fellow – thanks! 🙂

Regards

Skipper

Hi, Pathfinder! 🙂

My intitial thoughts from looking at the photos are that the “glass” is perspex. Can you confirm that it IS glass. Also, can you tell if it is, or it has been, laminated? This might help locate where on the aircraft the “glass” could have come from.

As it has been recovered from a crash-site (which most probably have involved a fire), I doubt we can say for sure the cause of the burning and damage. It COULD be flak, but then again a high energy impact and fire could cause similar damage.

Then again, looking at it AGAIN I tend to agree with you that the concentrated burn mark, hole and spread of smaller penetrations could indeed be from a close flak explosion.

A nice little artefact if it is flak damage 🙂

Regards

Graham

Doc Stirling

Triangle on Tail represents the 1st Air Division of the “Might Eighth”
Letter K represents the 379th Bombardment Group (H)
whilst the Squadron Codes represent 526th Bomb Squadron

I agree that it is two-engined and is most probably just a squadron hack. They used to use so many aircraft for such purposes and do a hell of a lot of apparently strange mods to them. Very creative guys in these ground crews.

One can also see an aluminium fairing placed over the fuel dump ram-air intake for the outer fuel tanks suggesting that these were also either removed (again to reduce wieght) or just faired over to reduce drag.
Just looked at it again and noticed this is the port landing light that’s been covered – the intakes are still there 😮

Taking off two engines also gives two more to the spares pool!

Spares for the hack would also be plentiful for its upkeep, as it’s obviously flying with a B-17 unit, and would therefore be easier to operate.

To me, it seems like a “very nice little experiment” for the ground crews to show off their skills and a nice “talking piece” for pilots to take around other bases – hence, someone thought they should take the photo we see here!!!

Skipper

Apart from the Barracuda – sorry, Michel 😉 – I can’t disagree with any of the postings here!

However, I thought the following photo might demonstrate the beauty, or maybe even the “evocativeness” ( :rolleyes: ), of the good ol’ Lanc’.

http://www.raf.mod.uk/news/images/limage_bbmf_may04_07.jpg

As with all of us at this time of year our thoughts are probably with family, where ever they might be. Apart from my kids who will be spending their first Christmas away from their dad 🙁 my thoughts are also with my great-uncle Doug in Adelaide, Aus.

P/O Doug Hunt, RAAF, flew the “good ol’ Lanc'” with much success and enthusiasm with XV Sqdn from 31st Jan 1944 until the war’s end. Anyone who has seen the “Lancaster at War” series and the “Oxford’s Own” XV Sqdn history might gather that he was one who didn’t really think much for the “rules” when it came to taking in-flight photos 😀 . Indeed, he, for one, could answer the question asked in a previous post about the Lanc’ flying on one engine – my father heard him recall (back in 1977) how he did precisely this – my sister also saw a supporting photo in his collection in 1995 😀 . I just hope he pulls through what seems to be a particularly rough time for him in his 84th year.

For me, it therefore has to be the Lanc 🙂

All the very best to you all for Christmas and the New Year

Skipper

Thanks, Steve,
The flight was a combined Cross-country NAVEX for a rookie crew, Test-flight for the veteran B-17, a Whisky Run for the base Christmas party and a Taxi Service!
Littlejohn was pilot instructor (he left a wife); Rosebasky the navigator instructor.
Merkley(P), Stoaks(CP), Bond(B), Frey(N) and Thomas(RO) were the rookie crew without their gunners.
Payne was an experienced Eng/TT.
Bell was the 388th Mdeical Officer who had been ordered to Prestwick for some extra duties. Bell left a wife and two kids.
Brown was groundcrew going to see his Scottish girlfriend just prior to Christmas.
Not yet known why Kriner was onboard – he was married to an English lass from Stafford.

A very sad little list when you start to delve into it – just like all these lists of names we see on memorials, etc. Part of my reason for the research was to show the full extent of the loss of these men and that they are not just names on a headstone or a list.

Graham