Tuffy, 41-24574, flew with the 43rd Bomb Group from Australia and New Guinea.
I’m interested in anything about the movements of this B-17F between when it returned to the U.S. in November 1943 and when it went to Altus for salvage in August 1945.
A photo of it taken at Lockbourne turned up recently on eBay, but there were no details at all in the caption. The photo was date-stamped August 1945 but that may be just the date it was filed away.
Any help will be very welcome. I thought I had an old photocopy of the IARC but if I did I can’t find it.
I've always thought it was odd, given the variety of armament modifications done to 5th AF bombers, that B-17Fs weren't modified to accept .50 cal nose guns in a manner similar to field mods done by the 8th AF.
41-24574 Del Cheyenne 12/8/42; Hamilton 9/11/42; Ass 63BS & 403BS/43BG Mareeba, Aus 14/11/42; Milne Bay, NG 23/11/42; Mareeba, Aus 21/1/43; Port Moresby, NG 11/5/43; RetUS Rapid City 9/11/42 (398BG training at Walker Fd, Kan); RFC Altus 30/8/45. TUFFY.
To be honest, I've never quite understood that entry in Dave Osborne's list. I know he worked from the IARCs, with input from Roger Freeman and many others (including me). The 398th was employed as an OTU before going overseas - from July to December 1943 - and was at Rapid City from June 1943 until early April 1944.
That is part of the problem with the Master index -- way too many short-cuts.
There was a bunch of Bomb groups that staged through Rapid City in 1943 and any one of them could have used this aircraft as a temporary training aircraft.
The best way is to order the Rapid city AAF CD and see what show's-up -- I did this with Sioux City and found a radio school that was still using B-17B's & D to train (radio procedures) until August 1944
Steve Birdsall wrote:
A photo of it taken at Lockbourne turned up recently on eBay, but there were no details at all in the caption. The photo was date-stamped August 1945 but that may be just the date it was filed away.
Is the Lockbourne photo the one in the first post? If not, do you have a link to the completed auction? I looked through nearly 600 completed listings yesterday and didn't find it.
Did find another Alexandria trainer photo, so I ain't complaining!
Steve Birdsall wrote:
A photo of it taken at Lockbourne turned up recently on eBay, but there were no details at all in the caption. The photo was date-stamped August 1945 but that may be just the date it was filed away.
Is the Lockbourne photo the one in the first post? If not, do you have a link to the completed auction? I looked through nearly 600 completed listings yesterday and didn't find it.
Did find another Alexandria trainer photo, so I ain't complaining!
600 complete listings from e-bay in one day -- you got me beat....
