Production-block:
B-17F-5-BO: 41-24390 to 41-24439
Manufacturer:
Boeing
- Bomb Group:
- 92nd Bomb Group
- 97th Bomb Group
- Bomb Squadron:
- 341st Bomb Squadron
Missions: 100
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History of
B-17 41-24437 / Thunderbird
Assigned 92BG Bangor 1/8/42; 341BS/97BG Polebrook 19/8/42; Maison Blanche 13/11/42; Tafaraoui 22/11/42; Biskra 25/12/42; Chateau-du-Rhumel 8/2/43; Pont-du-Fahs 1/8/43; Depienne 15/8/43; Cerignola 20/12/43; Amendola 16/1/44; Salvaged 9/11/44 {100m}. THUNDERBIRD.
Last updated: 7. October 2017
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30. November 2021 access_time 1:35
This B-17 is the one flown by pilot Lt. John Cronkhite and co pilot Lt. Dana F Dudley on a mission to bomb the aerodrome at Castel Benito on January 12, 1943. Two engines were knocked out on the right side just as their bombs dropped. For nearly 80 miles they fought enemy fighters during the return from the target. With three men wounded, the crew shot down six enemy aircraft, a record at the time. Landing two hours behind the other B-17s in their group, they had to fly through a mountain chain so low that the Thunderbirds wings were less than five feet from the ground. The Thunderbird story was immortalized by Ernie Pyle in newsprint that month and later in his book Here is Your War. It also spawned the song On a Wing and Prayer. This same airplane brought back its crew again on two engines on June 18, 1943 and made the news again in America. It flew over 100 missions before being scrapped for parts.
03. July 2023 access_time 23:04
Thunderbird was received by the AAF on June 30, 1942 at a cost of $314,109. She was sent immediately to the San Antonio Air Depot for modifications in July. She was then transferred to the 92nd Bomb Group, 327th squadron on August 1, 1942 in Bangor, Maine as they trained for long distance flight to Europe . She was one of the B17s that made the famous flight of 2,119 miles directly from Gander, Newfoundland to Prestwick, Scotland on the night of August 19/20 with Lt. Dana Dudley as the co-pilot. From there she was transferred to the 97th Bomb Group and was one of the 6 B17s that were stripped down to ferry the high ranking officers from England to the launch of Operation Torch in North Africa. Lt. Dudley transferred from the 92nd Bomb Group to the 97th Bomb Group in November and moved to North Africa in December. Thunderbird was refitted for combat and was joined again by Lt. Dudley as co-pilot on the famous mission to Castel Benito that launched the journalistic fame of Ernie Pyle and then became General Eisenhower’s favorite story of the war. Thunderbird’s damage from that day in January was repaired and Lt. Dudley then became her pilot until late May, 1943. As Lt. Dudley prepared to go home with 51 missions to his credit, on June 25, 1943 the 97th Bomb Group commander Col. Donovan wrote of Lt. Dudley, “By those who well know of his combat performances, especially his piloting of the “Thunderbird” aircraft for forty-five successful attacks after the spectacular raid on 12 January, 1943…” Thunderbird completed over 100 missions, with different pilots. Captain Dudley, went on to become a B29 instructor and then the pilot training standardization board president with the Gypsy Task Force in Cuba. He had piloted Thunderbird more than anyone and after the war he kept a Ryan PT-22 on the farm that he named “Little Thunderbird.”
02. December 2021 access_time 3:15
Corrections. The Pyle book is This is Your War first published in 1943 and the song title is Comin In on a Wing and a Prayer recorded by the Song Spinners in July 1943.