Production-block:
B-17F-40-DL: 42-3229 to 42-3283
Manufacturer:
Douglas
- Bomb Group:
- 379th Bomb Group
- Bomb Squadron:
- 527th Bomb Squadron
- RCL: FO-U
MACR: 958
History of
B-17 42-3269 / Piccadilly Willy
Delivered Denver 15/4/43; Assigned 527BS/379BG [FO-U] Kimbolton 6/6/43; Missing in Action Schweinfurt 14/10/43 with Capt Walt Carnal, Co-pilot: Bill Davidson, Navigator: Albt Chudoba, Flight engineer/top turret gunner: Dean Wyland, Radio Operator: Leon Cruzan, Ball turret gunner: Don Sherman, Waist gunner: Monico Rodriguez,Tail gunner: Wilton Fisher (8 Prisoner of War), Co-pilot: Leslie Gross{body never recovered}, Waist gunner: Nick Rukavina{broke neck when chute opened} (2 Killed in Action); enemy aircraft, crashed Machtilhausen, 10 miles W of Schweinfurt. Missing Air Crew Report 958. PICADILLY WILLY.
Last updated: 10. July 2017
16. September 2021 access_time 13:05
Hallo,
Captain Karl-Heinz Langer, squadron captain of the 7./JG 3 ‘Udet’, shot down the Piccadilly Willy on October 14, 1943 with a Me109G6 with the factory number 26024. The Me109G6 took off from Wörishofen Air Base.
The Messerschmitt flew too close to the B-17F so that it was hit by parts and crashed itself, the German pilot seriously injured in the process. Piccadilly Willy flew for a while, smoking, before she went into a tailspin and broke apart. Shortly before you saw how the parachutes opened between Trimberg and Machtilshausen. 3 bombs were still on board the B-17 that lay next to the debris and had to be defused. The 2 dead were buried in the cemetery of Machtilshausen and later exhumed by the US Air Force.
14. November 2022 access_time 4:39
Hello. My father-in-law was the co-pilot on Piccadilly Willy. He survived being shot down, was a POW, had 6 children and lived to be 96. Thank you for posting this information. I will share it with his family.