B-17 groundlooped at Florennes Belgium

[Alain57]

On December 30th 1944 a B-17 groundlooped on landing at Florennes airfield Belgium. On board were a Maj Hayes and Major Chrichton ( both safe ) , they were researching the crash of Generaal Frederick W Castle on december 24 1944.Anyone an idea of the identity of this B-17 ?

[Leendert]

Alain,

B-17 was a/c 588 of (apparently) 487th BG.

See link http://www.criba.be/index2.php?optio...o_pdf=1&id=230 for full report.

Groet,

Leendert

[Alain57]

Hi Leendert,

As always thanks for the help.

Alain

[Ivo de Jong]

Alain,
The 487th BG did not have a 588 in its inventory.
The B-17 they 'commandeered' must have been a 'left behind' of another Group.
HTH,
Ivo

[Leendert]

Alain,

Unfortunately I couldn't find full serial of B-17 yet.
Did quick check of Freeman's Flying Fortress Story for B-17s with serial ending "588" (assuming it was jotted down correctly by Hayes/Crichton), but no match so far.

Groet,

Leendert

[Ivo de Jong]

Freeman lists for example 42-102588 as being assigned to the 8th AF (with no further details) on 29 April 1944. It survived the war and became an ASR B-17 in 1953.
Perhaps a likely candidate for such a mission?
Best regards
Ivo

[Leendert]

Ivo,

True, there were several B-17s that had a "588" serial. Assuming however that the B-17 was a write-off, no loss of this nature found so far for any of the "588" B-17s.

Something will come up, no doubt.

Groet,

Leendert