B-17 Flying Fortress B-17 42-30095

History of
B-17 42-30095

B-17 42-30095 Details

Eyewitness Statement

Fighters attacked two aircraft out at our left (42-31628 and 42-31703). Both of them went down burning. Three chutes appeared out of the last aircraft knocked down. Fighters then came in our formation. The aircraft flying 23 position (42-31628) went down first. Some chutes appeared. I don’t know how many. An aircraft in the high right squadron in front of us went down next. I didn’t see any men jump out. They might have bailed out after the aircraft went below us. The fighters were attacking us from all sides by this time. No. 3 engine was hit and smoking quite a bit. Oxygen then went out on our left side, the propeller ran away on No. 3 engine, and we couldn’t feather it. When the oxygen went out the pilot started down to a lower altitude and turned back toward Italy. When we started down from altitude No. 3 engine was on fire a little. The fire went out in the dive. At the time when we started down from altitude the other six men from our crew started bailing out. The pilot’s interphone system was shot out. One fighter followed us down to about six thousand feet, flew on our left wing a while, looked us over, then went back up to the formation. We were now over the Alps. We didn’t have any more trouble with fighters or flak all the way back.

S/Sgt. Raymond H. Joggerst
Engineer on B-17 #42-30095



About 1130 hours our tail and waist gunners reported a large formation of fighters approaching at high 7 o’clock. There were two stragglers flying low left which the fighters made their first attack on. I could not see this attack from my position but it was reported that the two B-17’s were shot down, one going down in flames. A few minutes later the fighters started attacking our aircraft from all directions–in two’s, three’s and four’s–following up the lead ship’s attacks. I saw one B-17 at high three o’clock, in flames from the trailing edge of the left wing to the tail. I saw three chutes open from this aircraft. The aircraft went into a descending circle to the right and out of sight.

Then the fighters started attacking our aircraft from high three o’clock. I saw four aircraft coming in, one behind the other. The pilot called my attention to the lead ship in our element and I noticed his No. 3 engine on fire. I saw one crew member bail out of this aircraft. A few seconds later there was an explosion in our cockpit and later I noticed oil blowing out around No. 3 engine. Then the propeller started running away.

At this time we were unable to stay in formation. The engineer reported that the waist gunner’s oxygen supply was out and we went into a dive to lose altitude. It is my belief the crew members thought the aircraft out of control and bailed out. The fighters were making attacks on our descent. One fighter remained with [us] until about 13,000 ft. but did not attack. He left us and started back for the formation.

2Lt. Paul L. Vaughan

Co-Pilot on B-17 #42-30095

At approximately 1130 hours the tail and waist gunners called out a large formation of fighters approaching from 7 o’clock high. There were two stragglers flying between 7 and 9 o’clock low and some distance left of our formation which were attacked and knocked down, one of them burning. By this time the fighters were attacking our formation and the gunners were too busy to watch for parachutes from the other aircraft. Another straggler from the lead group was flying out at 9 o’clock on the beam. One of the crew called out an aircraft going down at 9 o’clock. The aircraft was in flames. Our No. 3 engine ran away and we could not feather the propeller. At the same time 42-31628 in the 23 position seemed to be having trouble to stay in formation. Our oxygen system was knocked out and we had to leave the formation.

Aircraft 42-31703’s No. 3 engine was on fire but it was still in formation. One ME 109 followed us down to 13,000 ft. and made one pass at us without firing, and then climbed back up towards the formation. All of this happened between the time we passed west of Klagenfurt on course, and the Alps. There were nearly 50 fighters in the group that jumped us and they made all their attacks between 9 o’clock and 3 o’clock. The fighters when first sighted were approaching from the area east of Villa Orba. They were equipped with external fuel tanks. The formation was still climbing to approach altitude and we left formation at 22,000 ft. When our No. 3 engine ran away we stayed in formation for five minutes. Then our oxygen system was knocked out. There seemed to be an explosion in the aircraft. It must have been a 20 mm.

At the same time No. 3 engine caught on fire. I could not contact anyone on the interphone or 3 or 4 position of command. I believe the navigator left the aircraft first, probably thinking it was out of control. The engineer said he saw the rest of the crew bailing out of the waist and tail on the way down. Before and during the descent, I tried to get rid of the bombs with the emergency release. At around 15,000 ft. the bombardier bailed out. I tried to motion to him for he was looking up through the opening behind the rudder but he left before I could make him understand the aircraft was still okay.

2Lt. Robert A. Snyder

Pilot on B-17 #42-30095

Source: MACR 2725

B-17 42-30095 Crew