Missing pieces of the 41-24406 story?

[Steve Birdsall]

The other day I was looking through some old, well-known photos of 41-24406.

If I recall correctly there are no (known) photos of the plane's nose before the 1 February 1943 collision with the Messerschmitt 109 and I've only ever seen one name on the nose of 41-24406: ALL AMERICAN. However those photos were taken much later, after the plane had been repaired and stripped of all armament.

In various publications I've seen the plane referred to as All American, All-American and All American III and I've always wondered about this because when I was researching the story in the early 1990s I found 41-24406's ground crew chief in the 301st Bomb Group - Virgil "Hock" Annala.

Annala categorically stated that "whilst with our Sqdn. she did not have 'All American' on her nose nor any trace of it". Annala had the plane in the 353rd Squadron from 27 April 1943 until August 1943.

So - was the name actually painted on 41-24406's nose prior to 1 February 1943 and where the hell does this "All American III" business come from?

Maybe I've missed something and somebody here will be able to get me up to speed.

[terveurn]

All the photos I have seen for 41-24406 when they were salvaging this B-17 did not show any nose art / names on the nose.

Always assumed she was named for a PR stunt to show how tough B-17 (and USAAF Bombers were)

[Steve Birdsall]

You may well be right Dave. The “official” story seems to be that the plane was named for pilot Bragg, who had played football for Duke University, but I’ve heard an alternative story from another crew member. He thought that it was to do with the crews’ various ethnic origins – German for the co-pilot and navigator, Greek for the tail gunner and so on, but they were “all Americans” now.