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Buckingham Field B-17s?

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2019 7:26 pm
by Chris Brame
Looking at the history of B-17G 42-102875, I noticed that it was first assigned to the flexible gunnery school at Buckingham Field near Fort Myers, FL (April-May 1944). Have any photos of B-17s based there turned up? Fuselagecodes.com lists the base as having letter/number codes "FM###", with a shot of an RA-29 Hudson marked FM376, but the aircraft list doesn't show B-17s (yet).

ETA: Did some more searching and found reference to B-17s being used there to shoot at "Pinball" P-63s, but mostly B-24s were used. The Abandoned Airfields site has an aerial shot of about ten or twelve Forts on the ramp dated 4-14-44:
http://www.airfields-freeman.com/FL/Buc ... _B-17s.jpg

Re: Buckingham Field B-17s?

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2019 8:06 pm
by terveurn
42-102875
42-102875 bb.JPG

Re: Buckingham Field B-17s?

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2019 8:12 pm
by Chris Brame
Going through the Osborne list, I saw over thirty B-17s assigned to Buckingham at one time or another, from mid-series Fs to late Gs. Interestingly, several had the same history as '875 did - Buckingham to Yuma to Hobbs.

Re: Buckingham Field B-17s?

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2019 8:35 pm
by terveurn
The closest I can find to having field numbers for one of these Buckingham / Lardo trainers is 42-102877
42-102877.jpg