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Lt. Bud Wentz B-17 on German Airfield
Dear Fritz,
Gruß Gott and hello to the Marktscheffels!
Fritz, I can make no comment about repairs to the B-17G s/n 43-39126. Depending on the extent and severity of damage, repairs could have taken place at a field landing ground, at the airplane's home field in England, or at strategic air depot,
or some combination of all three places.
I can give you some information about the entry in Roger Freeman, The B-17 Flying Fortress Story, for s/n 43-39126.
"Ret. U.S. Bradley 13/7/45" - This means the airplane returned to the United States by way of Bradley Army Airfield, Connecticut, on 13 July 1945.
"4185 BU Independence" - The 4185th Army Air Force Base Unit (AAFBU) was at Independence AAFld, Kansas. It was one of many base units in the USAAF. These base units were neither combat nor training units. Their mission was
administration of personnel, airplanes, or property, or all three. At Independence AAFld, the 4185th AAFBU no doubt received the B-17 s/n 43-39126 and placed it in temporary storage. Thousands of B-17s were stored in this way after returning from overseas.
"RFC Kingman 3/1/46" - Either received by the RFC or disposed of by the RFC at Kingman AAFld, Arizona, on 1 Mar 1946. RFC stands for Reconstruction Finance Cor-poration. This federal agency was created by Franklin Roosevelt about 1940 (or possibly even before) to handle financial recovery problems of the Great Depression. During World War II, it was assigned the disposition of surplus Government property, including military airplanes no longer needed. The RFC had offices at a number of USAAF airfields to dispose of surplus airplanes. One of the biggest of these RFC offices was at Kingman AAFld, Arizona, where thousands and thousands of former USAAF machines could be seen in the desert in 1945-1946 awaiting their fate. The RFC sold almost all USAAF airplanes for salvage, that is, scrap metal value. A few were sold or saved for various purposes (conversion to private transports, fire-fighting airplanes, etc.) but 99 percent were simply turned into pots and pans. So it probably was with s/n 43-39126.
I hope that some of this helps understand the final career of the B-17G s/n 43-39126. I'm sorry I've never been able to figure out where Lt Wentz landed on 7 April 1945 and found another B-17 to take back to England.
Best for you and all the family.
RA
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