1943 news story: Pacific B-17 returns to the US

[Chris Brame]

Does this sound familiar to our Pacific B-17 experts? Anyone have a photo?

[Steve Birdsall]

There's no trace of a Stuart S. Knickerbocker in the SOPAC records I've (quickly) checked. July 1942 is about the time the 11th Bomb Group left Hawaii for the South Pacific, so that bit sort of fits. Other newspaper reports indicate this man was killed in a private plane crash in July 1952.

[FlyFlitG]

Steve, I am new to this site and was interested in where you got your information about the Flying Flit Gun (97th Bomb Group 340th Squadron). My dad was the ball-turret gunner on the plane and yes, it was named by Margaret Bourke-White. She devotes the 8th Chapter of her autobiography to the Flying Flit Gun and mentions my father by name but spells our name wrong (spells it Froelig or something like that). Would like to converse with you more on your info about the plane, as my father passed away in 2009. Here is an unpublished photo of him that was recently released and I found it on the web (the link). I would like to know how I can gain access to the other unpublished photos that she took of them during her time with the 340th Squadron (commanded by Paul Tibbetts--pilot of the Red Gremlin--my father's wing plane--which also as you know is the pilot of the Enola Gay). Can you help me? Email me a.s.a.p. please! TheFrelighs@mail.com

Here's the picture of my dad:

http://life.time.com/history/world-war- ... nd-1942/#1