Lt. Bud Wentz B-17 on German Airfield

[Dr.frimarkt]

B-17 43-39126 Lt. William Bud Wentz

On 7.April Lt. Wentz's a/c was seriously damaged by the Bf 109 of Uffz. Klaus Hahn. He landed on a German airfield which had been occupied the same morning by US Army. Up to now he airfield couldn't be identified. On the same airfield he found a B-17 with which he flew back three hours later to his base Lavenham. In "the B-17Flying Fortress Story", by Roger Freeman I found:
.
43-39126 Del Hunter 8/12/44; Dow Fd 21/12/44
assigned 838 BS / 487 BG Lavenham 7/3/45;
ret. US Bradley 13/7/45;
4185 BU Independence 15/7/45;
RFC Kingman 3/1/46"

Since a/c returned to US on 13/7/45 it must have been repaired and flown back to Lavenham if all notes are correct and reliable. However, where had it been repaired, from where had it been flown back to Lavenham?
What mean 4185 BU Independence 15/7/45 and RFC Kingman 3/1/46? All of of these notes are of interest for our research, for finding the German airfield.
In the report AFHRA 520.83 A, Aug.1944 -June 1945 Eighth AF Reports of Aircraft Salvaged on the Continent, Extract April 1945, no information about the B-17 43-39126 is given.
Who can help?Thank's for the assistence.
Horrido
Fritz Marktscheffel

[shooshoobaby]

Sir - RFC is Reconstruction Finance Corporation , A U.S. Government agency created to sell surplus aircraft. Kingman , Arizona was one of several locations where Bombers were stored and eventually scrapped.
The 1st week of April , 45 the U.S. Army was concentrated in the Lipstadt area and Gottingen area.

Contacts: Aurthur Silva
487th BG Assn
1002 Rosalind Dr.
Santa Maria, California 93454
Telephone 805 - 925 - 6666

Harry Gobrecht - 8th AF Museum Historian
pilot8thaf@aol.com
Regards,
Mike

[Rabe Anton]

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

[Ivo de Jong]

Dear Dr. Marktscheffel,
Lt Wentz landed his damaged B-17 at A-92, which is the code for the St Trond airfield in Belgium. There he left his B-17, which eventually returned to the 487th BG in Lavenham.
Wentz himself flew a B-17 from St Trond to Merville (France), and then another from Merville to Honington (England). It is absolutely impossible to keep track of all of these 'ferry flights' of damaged and repaired a/c back to England and to tell you exactly when 42-39126. In my book about the history of the 487th BG is a photo of Lt Wentz' crew with a piece of Me 109 wreckage that had embedded itself in the B-17 after the collision.
Kind regards,
Ivo de Jong
The Netherlands

[Dr.frimarkt]

Dear Mr. de Jong,

thanks for your refering to your information of Dec. 2004. Since then Arno Rose and me had an extensive correspondence with Budd Wentz. He was not very happy about the fact that he was supposed to have landed his B-17 at St.Trond (A-92). His A/C was so havely damaged that he had to land within 20-30 min. Fortunately some crewmembers detected the German Airfield whose name I am looking for. Based on our present informations it might be the Airfield of Wernershöh' nearby Hildesheim.
If you wish I am happy to furnish informations we have received from Budd Wentz.
Kind regards
Fritz Marktscheffel
Germany

[Dr.frimarkt]

Hallo Mike,
thank you for your usable tips. Do to have an address of the U.S. Army units which had concentrated in the Lipstadt, Göttigen and Hildesheim Area.
Kindest Regards
Fritz

[Dr.frimarkt]

Dear RA,
Bud Wentz never could have flown his B-17 back to England. All rudder and stabilizer had been damaged. It must have been repaired on the continent. May be the Eighth AF Reports of Aircraft Salvaged on the Continent, Extracts Mai and/or June have the information.

Familie is fine.
All the Best
Fritz

[Ivo de Jong]

Dear Dr. Marktscheffel.
I quote from the 487th BG report on the mission of April 7:
"No a/c are missing.A/c 126, Lt Wentz, landed at A-92. Crew reported safe".
When researching my book 'the history of the 487th Bomb Group" I have studied all combat reports of the 487th BG. I can tell you that when the Group did not know at which airfield on the continent a crew had landed, simply was stated ' crew.... landed on the continent'.
The fact that explicitly is stated that A-92 was used by Lt Wentz, and that the crew was able to report that they were safe, leads me to stick with the opinion that they landed at St Trond.
Of course I value the story of Lt Wentz himself. However, recalling events of 60 years ago is not easy and judging the lapse of time ('20-30 minutes') is extremely difficult.
Kind regards,
Ivo de Jong

[Rabe Anton]

Gruß Gott Fritz!

I have again looked at AFHRA 520.83A, Eighth AF, Monthly Reports of Eighth AF Aircraft Salvaged on the Continent. The reports for April, May, and June contain no entry whatever for B-17G s/n 43-39126.

As the history of this airplane shows, it survived the landing on the continent. It got back to England, somehow, and from there returned to the U.S. This confirms the salvage reports, because in the language of the USAAF, "salvage" meant "junk the airplane," "save only the good or useable parts."

It is a pity that there seem to be no Eighth AF reports of damaged aircraft per se for 1945. . . . If these do exist, they must be in the National Archives and Records administration, Record Group 18. But I doubt that they are there. Enthusiasts for the Boeing B-17 and/or for Eighth AF aircraft might know something about this, but I do not.

RA