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Quelle:
www.fold3.com
Produktionsblock:
B-17G-25-VE: 42-97636 bis 42-97735
Hersteller:
Lockheed/Vega
- Bomber-Gruppe:
- 379th Bomb Group
- Bomber-Staffel:
- 526th Bomb Squadron
- RCL: LF-L
MACR: 12217
Einsätze: 127
Geschichte der
B-17 42-97678 / The Birmingham Jewell
Delivered: Denver 25/1/44; Kearney 15/3/44; Grenier 2/4/44; Assigned: 526BS/379BG [LF-J] Kimbolton 11/4/44; 525BS; MIA Chemnitz {127m} 3/2/45 Pilot: Bill Webber, Ray Weatherbee, Carl McHenry, Bill Wells (4KIA); Jim Kiester, Tom Pickett, Harry Francis, Bill Scarffe, Bennett Howell (5POW); flak, crashed Ilvenstadt, Germany. MACR 12217. THE BIRMINGHAM JEWEL.
Zuletzt aktualisiert: 27. Juni 2023
10. April 2020 access_time 23:55
Your photo: B-17, 42-97678/ Birmingham Jewell, top far rt. is my wife’s uncle: Cecil Loveless, Dover, AR. Survived 30 missions!
12. April 2020 access_time 14:51
Thank you for identification!
11. Mai 2020 access_time 15:50
Top row, 1 in from right, with chut on, is the pilot, my grandfather 2nd Lt. Michael Francis Medinger, picture was right after the successful completion of The Jewel’s 100th mission. Email me for any more info on this plan, I grew up with its history and met the woman for whom it was named.
02. Januar 2026 access_time 6:57
The trip was uneventful and most the men were listening to the BBC radio and were not on the plane’s intercom. We felt we had very little to worry about. We went between Bremen and Hamburg which had accurate flack guns since both cities had been bombed considerably by both the British and Americans. There is a corridor directly between the two cities that the flak guns could not reach. We would, however, have to cross over a German fighter base where Goering’s famous Messersmidt ME 109 were based. The fighter situation for the Germans was pretty well depleted, we felt little concern.
Very shortly after we entered this corridor, two or three ME 109s came in to make a pursuit curve and attacked our plane. The first fighter came in and scored a hit on at least one or two of our engines. The fighter came in at the tail and I could almost see the pilot’s face and he pumped 20 mm cannon shells right into my position. Very fortunately the Birmingham Jewell had been equipped with a special armor plate for the tail gunner. The shells hit on my armor plate, I was not injured,. When it came in I tried to fire my guns but they jammed on a short round. I lifted the cover of my 50 caliber machine gun and removed the short round, so that the gun was ready to fire if and when the ME 109 made another pass. However, it did not make another pass but just watched us. I didn’t understand why it didn’t come in (at first)…