Production-block:
B-17G-35-DL: 42-106984 to 42-107233
Manufacturer:
Douglas
- Bomb Group:
- 388th Bomb Group
- Bomb Squadron:
- 562nd Bomb Squadron
MACR: 8908
History of
B-17 42-107085 / Little Chum
Delivered Tulsa 16/2/44; Kearney 24/2/44; Presque Is 10/3/44; Assigned 562BS/388BG Knettishall 13/3/44; Missing in Action Magdeburg 12/9/44 with Gene Creagh (Killed in Action); Co-pilot: Capt Lucian Taylor, Navigator: Don Nicholson, Bombardier: Mitch Boumkana, Flight engineer/top turret gunner: Carl Deitzler, Radio Operator: Stan YaskiewiczWounded in Action, Ball turret gunner: Bob Scanlon, foto-John O’Flarity, Waist gunner: George Wilkinson,Tail gunner: Paul Breitenstine (9 Prisoner of War); flak, crashed St Andreasberg, SE of Goslar, Ger. Missing Air Crew Report 8908. LITTLE CHUM.
Last updated: 8. May 2017
12. November 2022 access_time 15:08
My Uncle, Glen D Churchill, was the waist gunner and radio operator on this B-17 but was wounded by flak a few missions before it went down. He was in hospitals in England and later the States for a year before being released. He kept in touch with the crew after the war and they told how the Little Chum was hit by flak and the pilot kept it stable for the crew to bail out before it crashed, with him at the controls, saving the lives of the crew. How tragic and heroic.