B-17F Spirit of Cleveland

[Steve Birdsall]

This is another “cold case”. For years I’ve been trying to identify a B-17F that was named Spirit of Cleveland. Fellow B-17 researcher George Wyatt found this one and the story goes something like this:

At 10:30 in the morning of Saturday, July 4, 1942, a B-17F with the name Spirit of Cleveland painted on both sides of her nose landed at Cleveland Airport.

The plane carried a crew of three: pilot Lt Jack D. Onerem, co-pilot Lt William J. Crumm (identified as “William J. Chum” in the news items) and flight engineer Sgt William B. Moorhead.

According to the July 6 edition of the Cleveland News the citizens of Greater Cleveland had raised $317,084.56 to “buy” the bomber for General Douglas MacArthur. Mayor Frank J. Lausche presented it, acting as general chairman of the “Back MacArthur Club”.

The B-17 was christened by the mayor’s wife, Jane, who emptied a basket of red and white rose petals over the plane’s nose.



At 12:30 the plane took off, this time with Bill Crumm in the left seat, destination unknown.

Thomas E. Lyon of Cuyahoga Community College came up with photocopies of several photos of the event taken by The Plain Dealer photographer Andrew L. Kraffert. Sadly the only known print showing the tail has had the serial number removed from it.



The aircraft is one of the early Seattle B-17Fs and must be somewhere in the serial range 41-24340 to 41-24449. I’m reasonably sure that the name Spirit of Cleveland did not remain on that B-17 for very long.

Bill Crumm went on to fly the 91st Bomb Group’s Jack the Ripper and he died in July 1967. Moorhead passed away in 1963, and Onerem in 2005.

[Bill Barrow]

I'm looking at a copy of the photo of the Spirit of Cleveland being christened and it looks like the numbers were blotted out on the negative, as there's just a big white rectangle there. Security purposes?

[jerryd]

In reference "The Spirit of Cleveland", I happened to be in Morton's in Cleveland last Friday. Hanging on the wall was a picture of "The Spirit of Cleveland", a woman is standing next to it. The view is taken from the right side. Maybe you could contact them and ask them where they got it?

Regards,

JerryD

PS: Long time resident of Cleveland, never new a plane was named after the city, hope this helps!

[JimLong]

This may be a shot in the dark but, there is a company, Arcadia Publishing that publishes a book titled, "Images of America". The book centers on the history of different cities in the US. One of the books I have, "Images of America, Healdsburg" shows a picture of a P-47 from 1943 when the children of Healdsburg led a bond drive to "buy" a military aircraft. "CITY OF HEALDSBURG, CALIFORNIA" was stenciled on the sides of the plane. That was the first time I had heard or had seen a picture of this airplane. Possibly a picture of this B-17 could be in an, "Images of America, Cleveland" book. I have searched the Arcadia site and they show a title of a book; Cleveland:1930-2000. The books generally run around $22. Like I said it could be a shot in the dark.

Jim
Santa Rosa

http://www.arcadiapublishing.com

[Steve Birdsall]

It seems that an uncensored full-length photo of Spirit of Cleveland appeared in the September 1942 issue of Boeing News. I don't have the magazine but it may reveal the radio call number on the tail.