B-17 Flying Fortress B-17 42-39867 / Hang the Expense II aka Boeing Belle

History of
B-17 42-39867 / Hang the Expense II aka Boeing Belle

Delivered Long Beach 24/9/43 Gr Island 6/11/43; Assigned 351BS/100BG [EP-Z] Thorpe Abbotts 11/11/43; on mission to Frankfurt 24/1/44, with Frank Valesh, Co-pilot: John Booth, Navigator: John Johnson, Bombardier: Maurice G Zetlan, Flight engineer/top turret gunner: Herscell H Broyles, Radio Operator: Ernest M Jordan, Ball turret gunner: Louis G Black Jr, Waist gunner: Paul Carbonne, Waist gunner: Herschel Broyes (9 Returned to Duty);Tail gunner: Roy Ulrick (Prisoner of War); flak hit in tail, limped home to RAF Eastchurch, Kent, UK & repaired. TG was blown out of tail and became POW; witnesses swear he flew through the air still in his seat and hanging on to Browning gun handles!; transferred 351BS [EP-Z]; retUS 6/45; 121 BU Bradley 19/6/45; 4168 Base Unit, South Plains, Texas 22/6/45; Reconstruction Finance Corporation (sold for scrap metal in USA) Kingman 11/12/45.

Last updated: 1. August 2022

B-17 42-39867 / Hang the Expense II aka Boeing Belle Details

Tail Gunner was blown out of tail and became POW; witnesses swear he flew through the air still in his seat and hanging on to Browning gun handles. He becames POW. The B-17 limped home to England.