At the conclusion of World War II, the U.S. was the dominant air power, by far, over the rest of world’s military forces. That diminished somewhat in the postwar demobilization, but the U.S. retained capability far and above any challengers, including the USSR, which quickly became a looming adversary as the Cold War began. However, the U.S. military lacked some basic information about a good part of the world, including the land mass of the USSR and the Far East in general. Potential targeting and geographic intelligence was challenging with the lack of good maps.

Probing the Soviet Union: “What you got there, comrade?”

Postwar photo mapping of western Europe and North Africa was accomplished by leftover units of the Eighth Air Force in 1946, but points east of the Iron Curtain and west of the Chinese and Russian Pacific coastline remained a black hole. The Army Air Forces initiated efforts to fill in that black hole with photo mapping efforts that began slowly in 1946 and continued for decades afterwards. In the early postwar years, the RB-17 and RB-29 played a significant role in the effort in the Far East to create the needed maps using photogrammetry cameras to provide 3D relief information and cultural intelligence of both friend and foe in the region. Also part of the program was to probe Soviet air defenses for responses and conduct electronic eavesdropping. The RB-29s took on the extremely long range missions that often required (somewhat illegal) overflights of the land masses, but the RB-17s also played a significant part of the mission and no doubt made more than a few such penetrations in the process.

RB-17G 44-83778

So this is a small part of that story and documents one RB-17G and one individual that participated in the years between 1947 and 1949. The airplane was B-17G 44-83778. It was a Douglas-built B-17 that rolled from the Long Beach production line in May 1945. It was slated to go to the Eighth Air Force initially, and made it as far as Hunter Field at Savannah, Georgia, before it was turned back. Instead, it was stored for a brief time and then modified to become and FB-17G, an earlier designation of the RB-17G.

The F-9C to the FB-17G to the RB-17G

The reconnaissance version of the B-17 was a wartime effort that began early with temporary field modifications to bomb group B-17s to provide some photo reconnaissance before and after bombing raids. Later efforts to specially modify B-17s with multiple camera installations followed, resulting in these aircraft being redesignated as F-9s, the B-17G so modified becoming the F-9C. The primary modification was the installation of a trimetrogon mapping camera mount in place of the chin turret. This mount accepted three six-inch K-17 cameras, one aimed vertically and the other two aimed obliquely. When photo lines were flown, the combination of the photos provided the relief information needed to create accurate maps.

Additional cameras installations were made forward of the ball turret in the radio compartment for a larger camera installations that also featured vertical and oblique photos. Additional equipment was installed for the missions including Janitrol gasoline heaters to provide a hot air source directly to the camera windows for defrosting. The bomb sight and interconnected autopilot were retained for the photo missions.

The F-9 designation lasted through the end of the war and then these aircraft were redesignated as FB-17s and then, in 1948, these aircraft became RB-17s.

RB-17G 44-83778 with the 338th Reconnaissance Squadron (VLR)

And, thus, back to 44-83778, which is shown in service as an FB-17G in early 1948 and becoming an RB-17G soon afterwards. It was assigned to an airfield in Guam, most likely North Guam Field that soon enough to become Anderson AFB, a significant U.S. Pacific installation. At this time or soon afterwards, RB-17G 44-83778 was assigned to the 338th Reconnaissance Squadron, Very Long Range (VLR). The 338th was attached to the 5th Reconnaissance Group (Very Long Range-Photo) based at Clark Air Base in the Philippines in mid-1947. The history of these units and other reconnaissance units is still obscure even so many decades later due to the nature of the mission.

Interestingly, there is a notation that 44-83778 was assigned for a brief time to Momote Field on Papua New Guinea for an unknown purpose at some point in late 1947 or early 1948. Perhaps the area was being mapped also, for another 338th FB-17G, 44-83720, crashed at Momote Field in August 1947, so one could surmise a reconnaissance detachment assigned there for a time.

By early 1948, 44-83778 was with the squadron at Clark Air Base. The nature of the missions it and other such RB-17Gs flew in the subsequent year remains very difficult to ferret out. However, it can be presumed that among the very secret missions were penetration over China (still in the midst of a civil war between Nationalists and Communists), the Korean peninsula (yet two years away from a war), most likely French Indochina, and the Soviet coastline further north. There are few accounts from participants of these missions available today, and documentation from official sources are greatly lacking. The nature of the classified missions precluded even sharing information at the time between different flight crews.

The photo of RB-17G 44-83778 shows a different camera installation in the nose section. It is not forward where the chin turret was mounted but, rather, aft with the three camera ports faired into the nose skin. It is not known if this is a ‘one-off’ modification but most photos of RB-17Gs show the standard nose modifications with the cameras mounted in place of the chin turret.

Service of Corporal Donald Wiseman with the 338th Recon Squadron

One part of the story about RB-17G 44-83778 was Corporal Donald Wiseman. He was an aircraft mechanic, certified in propeller maintenance. He flew as assistant crew chief on 44-83778 many times on a circuitous trip from Clark to Japan and back to Korea and back to Clark.

His son, Paul Wiseman, related stories that on several occasions they returned to Clark with small arms fire/damage to the aircraft. Corporal Donald Wiseman went on to become a full time prop man for many years and eventually transitioned into maintenance analysis. He entered the Air Force in September 1947, retired as a Technical Sergeant on January 1, 1970, at Nellis AFB. His story is typical for many of that generation: he was born on October 15, 1930, and passed away with full military honors on February 11, 2021. His son Paul tells of the many stories his dad had about his years in the service and that particular time with the 338th Reconnaissance Squadron, though even in latter years he would not or could not tell the complete stories. And, Paul notes that his favorite airplane that he worked on was that RB-17G, 44-83778. A story of a man and a plane.

I thank Paul for passing along Donald Wiseman’s information and photos. There are many, many stories like his around and the days of capturing them is quickly passing. I’m happy to document one right here.

Subsequent History of 44-83778

The 338th Squadron upgraded to RB-29s in early 1949, and 44-83778 was rotated back to the U.S. in February 1949. It was assigned initially to the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Group at Fairfield-Suisun AFB (later Travis AFB) in northern California. In October 1949, it was sent off to storage at Hill AFB at Ogden, Utah. The record suggests it was “reclaimed” in late 1949…which usually means scrapped. However, the airframe was still around in 1956. At that time, it was part of a group of seven USAF B-17s sent to Tucson, Arizona, where Hamilton Aircraft disassembled them to provide spares support for another group of eight B-17s provided to the Bolivian government for use in its civil transport fleet. 44-83778 even gained a U.S. civil registration, N7040C, for its final contribution. By November 1959, Hamilton Aircraft reported the airplane “demolished” and its civil registration was cancelled.

For more information about the wide and varied postwar use of the B-17, may I recommend Final Cut: The Post-War Flying Fortress and Survivors? The updated fifth edition of the book has 288 pages full of hundreds of photos and detailed information. Worth a look, perhaps?