Air combat Italy April '44

[chief wahoo]

My father-in-law's B-17F 43-5418 "Chief Wahoo" was shot up by 109 over Piombino [near Pisa] on 28th April 44. Ed was seriously WIA when a cannon shell struck his upper turret. on 30th April "Chief Wahoo" was shot down by flak and fighters over Vanette {Milan}. Ed was not on board obviously.

I'm trying to locate any details on both actions including who or what unit flew the 109's.

Also any photographs or detailsa on "Chief Wahoo" would be helpful. His other aircraft was B-17G 43-30232 "Flak Happy" tfr to 99th BG.

Ed flew with 815th BS 483rd BG...

[veltro]

Dear Chief Wahoo (or Oscar Duck?), the data reported are interesting, but seemingly doesn't correspond to similar Germain claims, neither on 28 or on 30 April.

As already indicated in another reply you received in a different forum, by that date units of JG 53, JG 77 and JG 4 were based in Italy, as well as the C.205s of the 1° Gruppo Caccia, the G.55s of 2° Gruppo and of Squadriglia Montefusco (all Italian ANR units).

So far no evidence of the encounter near Piombino have surfaced. This is no surprise, because even if an encounter there was, as the bomber wasn't apparently claimed as damaged/probable or destroyed, it is very difficult to track down the unit involved.

As far as the shooting down of the B-17 in/around Milan area (what's "Vanette"? No place like that do exist, maybe "Varese"?), on April 30 the Breda Factory and the airfield of Milano-Bresso were bombed, with the Fiat G.55s of 2° Gruppo Caccia scrambled to avoid being destroyed on that airfield. Although 1 B-24 was claimed as "probable", it is much more probable that the bomber you're interested in was shot down by the heavy flak of the area.

Sorry to have been vague, but not much more informations are available to me about these two dates.

HTH

[chief wahoo]

Sir

Thank you for your response. My father-in-law was certainly wounded in action and was awarded the Purple Heart. Still only has partial use of his left arm due to the injuries received that day. It mentions flak and enemy aircraft. Ed assures me as late as yesterday that he shot at and was hit by a fighter [He says Me-109!!]

Here is the report on "Chief Wahoo": \

a/c 42-5418 Chief Wahoo 97th BG no Sqdn #. Assigned 20 Jan 43.Transfer
to 99 BG 14 Nov 43; flew 27 missions with 99 BG ; Transfer to 483rd BG 31
Mar 44. MIA Milan 30 Apr 44.... 815 Sq..damaged by flak.and attacked by
fighters; two engines out,crashed near Vanette; Hilmer Landholt crew;
Daniels; Kleiner; Bowles; Landwehr; Altgelt; Gatch; Conn; Davis ; Goddard.
Altgelt, Goddard evade to Switzerland ; Rest POW. (MACR 4612).


This is from "The Flying Fortress Story" by Roger Freeman and David Osborne.

a/c 42-5418 Del Tulsa 3/2/42; West Palm Beach 9/1/43; ass 97th BG Biskra
20/1/43 ; Chateau-du-Rhumel 8/2/43 ; Pont-du-Fahs 1/8/43 ;Depienne 15/6/43 ;
tran 99 BG 346BS/99BG Oudna 14/11/43 ; (27m/99) ; 815BS/483BG Tortorella
31/3/44 ; MIA Milan 30/4/44 ; w/Landholt ; flak & e/a ; cr Vanette ; 8POW.2
EVD to Switz. MACR 4612 ; CHIEF WAHOO.

[veltro]

Sir,

no one put in doubt that your father-in-law was wounded in combat on the date reported or that he witnessed the attack as being made by enemy fighters (the identification as "Me-109" is of little value, as this was in 90% of cases the usual identification made by USAAF crews or pilots, no matter what was in reality the type of fighters met, as continously verified during my researches...), only that this attack isn't reported by the documents currently available and/or published so far.

There could be a million explainations possible, starting from the simplest one, i.e. that such report hasn't been found or was lost, following with the possibility that, not being filed as a victory, it didn't end in the survived reports.

So far it can only be said that none of the units mentioned (either German and Italian) appear to have reported any such encounter on 28 April 1944, in the area indicated.

The only further data available (thanks to my friend Nick Beale) - bejond the reports and the texts of Jochen Prien on JG 53 and JG 77 and of Eric Mombeek on JG 4 - is that Luftflotte 2 on 28 April effected 184 sorties (i.e. individual flights), while on the 30th Lfl.2 effected 94 sorties. Such data results from ULTRA radio interception reports.

This has nothing to do with putting in doubt the word of your relative, but is the simplest and more honest reply available to your kind question.

Hope this explains a little better the concept.

P.S. Although reported as "Vanette" in the official reports available, the name doesn't correspond to any known Italian locality. It isn't the first and it wouldn't be the last case of a mispelled Italian name in Allied or German reports.

[chief wahoo]

Thanks again for the information. I agree that the "history" of wartime encounters ranges from exact to at best a faded memory. No doubt the aircraft was shot down etc. Ed tells me that he was shooting at an fighter which hit his aircraft in the wing/engine area setting an engine on fire as well as a cannon shell exploding in his turret. It knocked out the turret severley wounding him and his left arm was jammed in the gun mechanism. He had to break his own wrist to free his arm. He spent 17 months in hospital in Italy and the USA after this. Your help is invaluable to me as I try to piece together his history. I have located a WW2 cartoon written in 1943 that features "Chief Wahoo" when she was with the 97th BG in Nth. Africa. If you send me your email address, I'll forward it to you. The guys here might like to see it as well. I don't know how to upload it.

I own a Spitfire XIV RM-797 that shot down four e/a including a Fw-190/Me-262/Ar-234/Ju-52 and am rebuilding it to fly.

[veltro]

Dear Mr. McFarlane,

You're welcome and I'm pleased to have been of some help, if any. I am sending you a PM with my e-mail address to allow you to send me a copy of the cartoon, which I will be honoured to post in this forum.

My best wishes for your enterprise of rebuilding the old "EB-E".

[veltro]

As promised to the kind Mr. McFarlane, here it is the cartoon depicting the B-17 "Chief Wahoo" which has been the protagonist of this thread.



According to the words of Mr. Larry N. Colvard, grandson of the pilot of the B-17, Col. Talment, "...After they had named the plane, a correspondent published this cartoon in US papers, My grandmother cut this out during the war, it depicts the noseart, they had ferried the writer for some reason..."

This is what makes history alive, IMHO...!

A second image is due to show the original look in wartime of the Spitfire which Mr. McFarlane is actually rebuilding...



Hope to have been of help to the community...

[Russell]

If the fight was on 30 April 1944, the following are the claims from Tony woods lists.

30.04.44 Oblt. Erich Thomas: 13 2./JG 53 B-17 £ SD-4: 6.500 m. [N.N.E. Bologna] 11.15 Film C. 2027/I Anerk: Nr.237
30.04.44 Uffz. Josef Ostrowitski 2./JG 4 B-17 £ TC-5: 5.000 m. [S. Bologna] 11.42 Film C. 2027/I Anerk: ASM
30.04.44 Uffz. Eberhard Lang: 3 2./JG 77 B-17 £ 30 km. S.W. Padua: 7.000 m. 11.57 Film C. 2027/I Anerk: Nr.141

Cheers

Russell

[chief wahoo]

Fantastic. I guess we could look at the relativity of "Milan" to the shoot downs together with possible tracks to/from the target area to narrow it down. Also the time of day might help. I did locate the mission details once but cannot find them. For example on the mission that Ed was wounded I believe 183 B-17's attacked Piombino steel works and the 30th mission was to 'Milan'.

[chief wahoo]

Bolognia is certainly on track to Milan from Sterapone [Foggia] where they were based. Not sure where Padua is only that it is in the NE of Italy. Of course they could have tracked up the Adriatic as a feint and then headed West...