This is a short story about another obscure B-17. It is short because little is known about why and how this airplane, B-17G s/n 42-102642, was operated. The unique aspect of the story of this particular B-17 is that it operated in the European Theater of Operations in late 1944 as a civil airplane. Though assigned to the Eighth Air Force and no doubt operated by AAF crews, it flew as NC19929 from October 1944 through December 1944, and was ultimately lost in an accident at Orly Field (Paris) in March 1945.

Early Service Use of 42-102642

The early history of B-17G 42-102642 is pretty standard. It was built by Boeing at Seattle as a B-17G-55-BO and accepted for service by the AAF on March 23, 1944. It went through the United Air Lines modification center at Cheyenne, Wyoming, in early April and then departed the U.S. for assignment to the Eighth Air Force on April 21. According to David Gansz’ authoritative B-17 Production series, it was initially assigned for modifications at the depot at RAF Burtonwood, and then to the 8th Air Force at Bovingdon. Additional information suggests it was assigned to the Headquarters Unit of the United States Strategic Air Forces (USSTAF) at that time. The USSTAF was the successor organization the VIII Bomber Command and its HQ air unit was based at RAF Bovingdon, northwest of London. One would expect that the B-17G was to be utilized for administrative travel to support the USSTAF mission.

The B-17 had a taxi accident at Madna Field near Molise, Italy, on August 24, 1944, when it was hit by P-51C 42-103935 during ground operations. The B-17 was enroute to Cairo at the time. Aside from that incident, the airplane appears to have been used in routine transportation.

The AAF B-17G Gets a Civil Registration

However, (admittedly scant) evidence suggest that 42-102642 was employed in some type of clandestine operations, though no details are known. On October 24, 1944, internal communications within the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) directed its Certificate Section “…in connection with the war effort, to immediately assign registration umber to Boeing aircraft bearing Army serial number 42-102642.” Though specifics are not in the CAA record, the civil registration of NC19929 was assigned. It was a short-lived assignment, though.

Not shown above but present in other paperwork on the airplane was that it was carried as NC19929. Those more detailed oriented folks would know that the assignment of the “NC” prefix to the registration number officially indicated that the aircraft indeed conformed with all the required CAA airworthiness requirements, which no B-17 did ever. However, war exigencies made such details not important. After all, if the B-17 had been properly NX19929, would anyone have noticed or cared?

Nonetheless, it is apparent that the Air Transport Command, on behalf of the USSTAF, operated the B-17, though for what purpose? Was it to allow freer movement through Europe in the latter part of 1944? Was it engaged in some clandestine activity whereby a “civil” B-17 worked better than an AAF B-17? All good questions; no good answers.

In any event, the need for the civil registration on the B-17G was short. In late December 1944, just two months after its assignment, the Air Transport Command requested the registration be cancelled. On December 28, Major M.D. Marks of the Headquarters, Air Transport Command, requested that the certification of the NC19929 (and also, C-47 41-16492 as NC18639 and C-47 43-16268 as NC18664) be cancelled. The request stated that “certification and pertinent documents are no longer needed for operation of these aircraft. Diligent search has been made by the European Division, Air Transport Command, for these documents and it has been determined that they are lost.”

C-47 Sidebar

I’ll insert some information parenthetically here to save some DC-3/C-47 guys a bit of time. Both of the above C-47s, 41-18492 and 43-16268, had been assigned to Air Transport Command in Europe. 41-18492, as per Air Britain, went to the 9th AF in October 1944. 43-16268 was assigned continuously to ATC in Europe from August 1944 until it was shown as salvaged in July 1946. Curiously, Air Britain does not show those civil registration numbers were ever assigned to either of these aircraft. They were, however, assigned in the post-war period to other C-47s: NC18639 to msn 4347 and NC18664 to msn 9980. I’ll leave to C-47 sleuths to follow up on this little tidbit of information.

Back to B-17G 42-102642

It would appear that B-17G 42-102642 assumed or resumed administrative transport duties with the Air Transport Command to support USSTAF. It was on such a flight, arriving from the continental U.S. on March 27, 1945, that the airplane met its demise. The B-17, with a crew of five and nine passengers, had a landing accident at Orly Field (near Paris) that damaged the airplane beyond repair. Fortunately, there were no injuries to crew or passengers.

At the time of the accident, the airplane was based at Bovingdon and assigned to Headquarters, USSTAF.

Details of the Last Flight of 42-102642

The B-17G left Lages Field in the Azores under the command of 1st Lt. Greenville Baker. Baker had amassed a total of 1,000 hours of flight time, 50 hours in the B-17, as he departed with his four crewmembers and nine passengers. (Gives an idea of the qualifications required by the AAF at the time to command a four-engine bomber.) At the time of the accident, Lt. Baker was assigned, according to the accident report, to “St. Germine,” presumably a clerk’s butchering of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, located near Paris and the then headquarters location of the USSTAF.

Among the passengers were five State Department employees, three AAF officers, and one probably lonely Sergeant. Among the notable aboard was Col. Hayden N. Smith, who at some point was a deputy assistant chief of staff of the United States armed forces in Europe.

Arriving at Orly Field in the late evening, the airport had low clouds at about 800 feet. The pilots made an instrument approach, coming into visual contact with the field. The local tower heard the B-17 crew calling on the radio, but did not respond to its queries. The B-17 circled around the airport and ended up landing on the downwind runway without flaps. It landed 1500 feet past the threshold of the 4000′ runway and continued off the end until the main landing gear hit some soft dirt and then abruptly stopped. The aircraft damage was considered severe enough that the it was condemned for salvage. Lt. Baker was found to be 100% at fault for the accident. It was noted that the radio receiver to hear the tower was not turned on, the flaps had not been extended, and red light gun signals and flares fired from the tower had been disregarded. A bad night indeed for Lt. Baker and B-17G 42-102642.

Thus, a tiny little part of the B-17 story. This accident was similar to thousands of others that occurred during the war years. The only thing that makes it notable is the brief if, as yet, unexplained civil registration applied to this B-17.

A final note for those keeping score. The first four official U.S. civil registered B-17-type airplanes were, then:

(It should be noted that the Swedish operated numerous civil B-17 airliners during the last year of the war. That’s another story, and a good one.)