Operation Aphrodite

[Alex Smart]

Hi Mike,
Yes agree 44-6950, only looked under Melancholy Baby.
Thanks for additional Alabama Girl .
Alex

[Martin Gleeson]

Hallo Brian, Alex and Mike,

To further help - or confuse - matters. The B-17 I referred to was a 452nd BG aircraft with a (normal) full bomb load. Hence the alarm which it did indeed cause. The pilot was Eccles and the date was the 30th September 1944. Another 452nd BG B-17 (43-38201) piloted by Beauchat crash-landed on its home airfield of Deopham Green on the 29th. I have the USAAF Accident Report, which includes photos, for the latter. Ed Hinrichs in his book MISSING PLANES OF THE 452nd BOMB GROUP unfortunately gives the same serial number to both above incidents.

Brian. Sorry if I threw a spanner in the works but I hope at least that part of it is cleared up to your satisfaction. While agreeing with your general comment about newspaper accuracy the details of the towns that the Eccles B-17 passed over in Britain were new to me. I could never work out the route it flew over England up to this. Many thanks.

Regards,

Martin Gleeson.

[Brian]

Hi Martin

You HAVE confused me!!

'My' story refers to a drone, apparently called Melancholy Baby possibly 39827 that had been abandoned by Haller & Shinault on 14 September, NOT Eccles' aircraft!

Cheers
Brian

[Brian]

Alex, Martin and Mike

My conclusion regarding the BQ-7 vs Melancholy Baby saga is that I am wrong and you are right! I think the newspaper reporter had confused the two breaking stories and somehow assumed that Melancholy Baby (minus its crew) was in fact a BQ-7 drone. Therefore I have dropped the idea of including the anecdote in my forthcoming book, as interesting as it is! Facts must prevail!!

Thanks for preventing another 'egg on face' scenario!

Cheers
Brian