Details about the plane
The Liberty Lady in Gotland, showing her serial #
The Liberty Lady was a B-17 Flying Fortress.
A year ago, I wasn’t even sure that the Liberty Lady was a B-17, and now I’m reading a book titled Big Bombers of WWII. I’m fascinated by stories of what it was like to be in one. The B-17′s were built by the Boeing Aircraft Company, beginning in 1934. There were several models built until the final and largest model which was the B-17G.
Mattias gave me the following details about the Liberty Lady. If anyone has any additions, that would be great!
B-17-G-10-VE: G is the Model of the plane. 10 is the batch code. VE is code for the factory Vega. Build by boeing Lockheed Vega in California. The factory made some modifications – New Britich lorenze radio and a new gun dome A-2A with new oxygen swivel and a few other changes.
4-240006: The Liberty Lady’s serial #. The USAAF (United States Army Air Force) ordered the aircraft in 1942. If you put a 4 before the aircraft serial number, you have the order year. Rolled out 1 november 1943. It came to Thurleigh 368bs 18 January 1944. Liberty lady had just about 60 flight hours. (Thurleigh is the Airfield where Herman’s Crew was stationed …the 306th Bombardment Group/the 368th Bomber Squadron.)
I’m not sure what the “H” means and could use some help there. The H was a marker from the 306th bomber group. These markings were so that the plane could be identified quickly. (Thanks to Geoff Smith, son of Charles W. Smith, pilot of the Liberty Lady, for helping me here. More about “Smithy” another day.)
I love this Interactive Tour of the B-17G. Keep in mind that Herman was the Bombardier. He had the ringside seat!
Here’re some interesting stats+info I found about the Liberty Lady and the mission in which she was shot down. Looks like there were 730 bombers in all and about 1/10 of them were shot down.
MONDAY, 6 MARCH 1944
EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS :
STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force) :
Mission 250 :
504 B-17s and 226 B-24s are dispatched to hit industrial areas in the suburbs of Berlin; fierce fighter opposition claims 69 bombers (the highest number lost by the Eighth Air Force in a single day) and 11 fighters; the bombers claim 97-28-60 Luftwaffe fighters; details are:
1. 248 B-17s hit secondary targets in the Berlin area; 18 B-17s are lost, 2 damaged beyond repair and 172 damaged; casualties are 2 KIA, 8 WIA and 184 MIA.
2. 226 B-17s hit targets of opportunity at Templin, Verden, Kalkeberge, Potsdam, Oranienburg and Wittenberg ; 35 B-17s are lost, 3 damaged beyond repair and 121 damaged; casualties are 15 WIA and 354 MIA.
3. 198 B-24s hit the primary target (Genshagen industrial area), secondary targets in the Berlin area and targets of opportunity at Potsdam; 16 B-24s are lost, 1 damaged beyond repair and 54 damaged; casualties are 15 KIA, 8 WIA and 148 MIA.
Escort is provided by 86 P-38s, 615 Eighth and Ninth Air Force P-47s and 100 Eighth and Ninth Air Force P-51s; results are :
1. P-38s claim 3-0-1 Luftwaffe aircraft; 1 P-38 is lost, the pilot is MIA.
2. P-47s claim 36-7-12 Luftwaffe aircraft; 5 P-47s are lost, 3 damaged beyond repair and 4 damaged; casualties are 2 WIA and 5 MIA.
3. P-51s claim 43-1-20 Luftwaffe aircraft; 5 P-51s are lost and 2 damaged ; casualties are 5 MIA.
The fighters also claim 1-0-12 Luftwaffe aircraft on the ground.
(http://franckruffino.chez.com/My-Site/Victory_23.htm)
The interactive tour is fascinating. Loved reading about the bombardier and his duties.
Johnny, you certainly know how to search the web. What an asset to your mother for this project!!!!