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Source:
www.fold3.com
Production-block:
B-17G-30-VE: 42-97736 to 42-97835
Manufacturer:
Lockheed/Vega
- Bomb Group:
- 379th Bomb Group
- Bomb Squadron:
- 525th Bomb Squadron
- RCL: FR-L
Project-Number:
92697-R
History of
B-17 42-97833 / Silver Dollar
Delivered Denver 10/3/44; Kearney 14/4/44; Grenier 13/4/44; Assigned 525BS/379BG [FR-L] Kimbolton 26/5/44; mid air coll with 42-97170 on 9/12/44, with Chas Faught, Carroll Sears, John Cox, Melvin Townsend, Joe Carroll, Harry Hall, Fred Knock, Pat Dalton, Ron Guerttman (9 Returned to Duty); repaired & ret 29/3/45; Returned to the USA Bradley 6/7/45; 4168 Base Unit, South Plains, Texas 8/7/45; Reconstruction Finance Corporation (sold for scrap metal in USA) Kingman 28/11/45. SILVER DOLLAR.
Last updated: 12. September 2021
B-17 42-97833 / Silver Dollar Details
Mid-air-collision with B-17 #42-97170 Julie Mae on 09 December 1944. Landed safely and repair. Then return to the USA after war.
Photo shows the moment of the collision. The tail of #42-97170 is visible.
Transcription of voice recording with Ronald A. Guerttman
I guess one of the closest calls we had was on December 9 1944. We were flying a mission to Stuttgart and we were about 160 miles southwest of Paris flying at about 24,000 feet. One of the planes in our own group got caught in a prop wash and came up underneath us. ( The aircraft was 42-97170 Julie Mae) We cut the aircraft right in half with our propellers. Our aircraft (42-97833 Silver Dollar) had part of the nose cut off and had some bad damage to her left wing. Our pilot (Lt. Charles V Fought ) lost control right away and he hollered for everybody to bail out.Well, the radio man S/Sgt Harold W Hall and the ball turret gunner Sgt Frederick A knock bailed out. They were picked up by the allied armed forces on the ground. Before any of the rest of us could bail out, the pilot said that he could land the plane and that he had it under control again. But the plane was vibrating something terrible because of the way the propellers were bent up. We still had the bombs on board, so I had to crawl back into Bombay and put the pins back into the bombs. We had to take the pins out on every mission so the bombs would explode. Finally, we landed at the airport in Paris and they put a guard on the plane because the bombs were still on board. There was not much for us to do, so we went into town, but we could not find any place for us to stay the nightWe ran across a civilian engineer and we slept in his apartment room for two or three days and finally got a ride in a C 47, right back to the base so that we could continue with our missions.
Ronald A. Guerttman
Transcription provided by Phil Walpole
Photos of 42-97833 / Silver Dollar after landing
B-17 42-97833 / Silver Dollar Crew
| Position | Rank | Name | Status | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | 1LT | Charles V. Fought | RTD | - |
| CP | 2LT | Carrol B. Sears | RTD | - |
| NAV | 2LT | John I. Cox, Jr. | RTD | - |
| ENG/TT | T/SGT | Joseph F. Carrol | RTD | - |
| RO | S/SGT | Harold W. Hall | RTD | - |
| BT | SGT | Frederick A. Knock | RTD | - |
| WG | S/SGT | Patrick J. Dalton | RTD | - |
| TG | S/SGT | Ronald A. Guerttman | RTD | - |
| TOG | T/SGT | Melvin W. Townsend | RTD | - |
15. February 2020 access_time 6:41
my father,
Caroll sears,
My father Carroll Sears was the co-pilot on the Silver Dollar. He died in 2006. I have been in touch with Joe Carroll over the years and have the book he has written about their missions. They are all rat men. Brad Sears (Jr.)
My father Carroll Sears, i am junior , was the copilot for the Silver Dollar
.who died in 2006. I have talked over the years with Joe Carroll who was the lat surviving crew member. They were all great men.