Lt Steer went up for a short flight in a B-17 with 4 passengers – he had to make a water landing 20 miles from the base – 4 men were injured.
I never did find any other references for that B-17 loss, but the possibilities were always limited. I was recently going back over various 5th Bomb Group records and I think there’s a reasonably strong case that it was 41-9216, Alley-Oop.
Alley-Oop was assigned to Captain Kermit Messerschmitt of the 42nd Bomb Squadron when the 11th Bomb Group moved to the South Pacific in July 1942. When the 11th went back to Hawaii it was passed on to the 5th Bomb Group and was flying from Espiritu Santo with the 23rd Bomb Squadron in September 1943 (as was Lt Harold Steer).
The IARC for 41-9216 has a typically cryptic final entry . . .
Over the years I’ve found that June 15 1944 is a “blanket” date, used by the statisticians to cover SOPAC aircraft that they knew were no longer around, but they didn’t know where they’d gone.
I think the notation “9/43” is significant and I reckon there’s a pretty good chance that 41-9216 Alley-Oop was ditched by Lt Harold Steer on 29 September 1943.