Another B17B question involving Mary Ann

[Dan Johnson]

I came across this image of a B17B. And yes I'm hooked now. Never thought I'd get addicted to B17Bs, but so it goes



I noticed the notch in the number 3 cowl to allow it to fit correctly. It made me think of the screenshot I took of Mary Ann where they seem to have the number 4 cowling on number 3. The painted over scallop and the same scratching as on the other photos showing the number 4 scalloped cowl are there.

How'd they get it to fit on number 3? Still waiting on that Hendricks Field, Sebring 1942 book btw.

[DryMartini]

The Prop on #4 looks to be in the way of the notch in that screen shot.

[Dan Johnson]

The Prop on #4 looks to be in the way of the notch in that screen shot.

The problem is the cowling is almost for certain the same as is normally seen on number 4 in the rest of the movie. It has the overpainted scallop and the same scratches showing the metal through as normally seen on the 4 cowling.

At first I thought it was evidence of another 17 used as Mary Ann. But the cowl just seems to have been switched, but then the question of that notch in the cowl on 3 came up.

Yes I'm getting lost in the detail

[DryMartini]

I understand what you are saying, and indeed, from that photo,
it does look like #4 cowling is on #3 engine.

I've been looking through all my books for pictures
of B-17s with scalloped cowl markings, but I have not found
any as of yet.

[pokryshkin]

WOW!!!!!

You guys are all over this like white on rice!!!

Great!!!

We'll get to the bottom of this yet!!!!

Gratefully,

Dan K.

[Dan Johnson]

I understand what you are saying, and indeed, from that photo,
it does look like #4 cowling is on #3 engine.

I've been looking through all my books for pictures
of B-17s with scalloped cowl markings, but I have not found
any as of yet.

I think the top photo I posted might give us a clue as to the scalloped cowling on Mary Ann.

Note that each of the B17s in the image have different markings on their cowlings. The second bird with the checks also has a marking on the nose and the fuselage. There is a photo in the 2007 B17 news of a B17C with that same marking on the fuselage which is noted as belonging to the 88th recon squadron attached to the 7th BG.

The caption of the photo above said th 7th BG also, so maybe these are all 88th Recon? Did they use the cowlings for ID markings for individual B17s?

Of the three B17s in the image that can be seen clearly, they all have different painted cowlings.

Could be I'm totally off base, but it seems like a likely home for Mary Ann in her early days

[pokryshkin]

I understand what you are saying, and indeed, from that photo,
it does look like #4 cowling is on #3 engine.

I've been looking through all my books for pictures
of B-17s with scalloped cowl markings, but I have not found
any as of yet.

I think the top photo I posted might give us a clue as to the scalloped cowling on Mary Ann.

Note that each of the B17s in the image have different markings on their cowlings. The second bird with the checks also has a marking on the nose and the fuselage. There is a photo in the 2007 B17 news of a B17C with that same marking on the fuselage which is noted as belonging to the 88th recon squadron attached to the 7th BG.

The caption of the photo above said th 7th BG also, so maybe these are all 88th Recon? Did they use the cowlings for ID markings for individual B17s?

Of the three B17s in the image that can be seen clearly, they all have different painted cowlings.

Could be I'm totally off base, but it seems like a likely home for Mary Ann in her early days

I can't recall whether it's the 38th, or the 88th, which has the checker cowls.

One of them, the insignia is a bronco(?) with a sun behind its center/middle. This is from memory, so the insignia might be slightly off.

Dan K.

PS - good one!

A lot of early B-17Bs went to the 19th BG, then the 7th BG, then the BG that had the original YB's (2nd) got B-17Bs as well. That just about accounted for the B-17B production run: 8211 to Wright Field (MD105), and 1 or 2 others bailed back to Boeing for turret work, et cetera. Nearly half of them as of 1941 modernized, then distributed back around.

Even in 1941, at least 2 of them had complete write-off crashes.

Then the B-17Cs started coming along, but Uncle Sam only got 18 of them. I'm not sure how many went to the 19th out at Clark Field.

At least 24 B-17Ds went to Clark and the 19th, with maybe 5 or 6 held back in CONUS. with 12 based at Hickam.

At that point, the B-17E was coming off the assembly line, and the B's, C's, and D's left began to serve as training aircraft.

By the time, in 1942, that the B-17F entered production, there were still enough B-17E's to supplement the B's, C's, and D's, even at Hendricks/Sebring, as seen in the film, (and I'll bet that early-model B-17 shown in the formation shot with the B-17Es coming to help bomb the invasion force, was that B-17D!), even though we had given quite a few of the late-production, B-17E's, with nose-top navigator's bubble, to the RAF for anti-submarine work.