Production-block:
B-17F-75-BO: 42-29832 to 42-29931
Manufacturer:
Boeing
- Bomb Group:
- 351st Bomb Group
- Bomb Squadron:
- 510th Bomb Squadron
- RCL: TU-K
History of
B-17 42-29887 / Mehitabel
Delivered Denver 3/3/43; Gore 12/3/43; Presque Is 8/4/43; Assigned 510BS/351BG [TU-K] Polebrook 17/4/43; Missing in Action {7m} Tricqueville 28/6/43 with Derward Copeland, Co-pilot: Don Parker, Navigator: Ralph Reback, Bombardier: Bill Shanley, Flight engineer/top turret gunner: Bob Wood, Radio Operator: Vince Klanka, Waist gunner: John Castello (7 Prisoner of War); Waist gunner: Frank Hanan, Ball turret gunner: Merwyn Ranum,Tail gunner: Ed Tuminiski (3 Killed in Action); flak damage, crashed island of Belle-Ile, 45 miles W of St Nazaire, Fr. No MACR. MEHITABEL.
Last updated: 10. October 2017
10. August 2022 access_time 6:27
My father was Robert Foster Finch & he was the pilot of the B-17 Mehitabel. He was the one that named it. Was for a character of a cat in the book “Archy & Mehitabel” by Don Marquis. I donated almost all of my father’s WWII belongings to the Eighth Air Force Museum in Savannah, GA.
29. January 2023 access_time 22:10
I am Irish. I am a keen sailor and cruise the waters of South Brittany in my yacht most summers. In June of 2018 I happened to be on Belle Ile and decided to hire a bike and do some exploring on the island. Towards evening I came to a little road that lead through a stone arch which led through the Napleonic-era fortifications on to a secluded beach just below the village of Samzun on the south-east of the island. There at the entrance to the beach was a plaque commemorating the fallen crew of a B17 – shot down on the way back to England from a raid on the shipyards of St Nazaire on the mainland to the east. I remember that someone had laid flowers beneath the plaque.
I don’t know if the remains of the three fallen flyers were repatriated after the war. I could find no trace of any grave in the graveyard of the little Church in Samzun just above the beach.
Peace has of course long returned to this well-named Beautiful Island, and the only reminder of the long ago war is a stark concrete German pillbox, crumbling and overgrown, overlooking the beach. I often wonder what the many Germans who holiday on Belle Ile must think when they see these relics of unhappier days.
12. August 2023 access_time 18:17
There were two B-17s from the 351st BG that went down on June 28th, 1943. The plague you describe was placed in 2002 to commemorate the five airmen who died on the B-17 “Screwball”. There were 5 survivors who parachuted before the plane went down offshore near this site. I believe the five who were killed in the air battle are considered buried at sea. There is a monument near the small airfield near Tineue to three airmen who died in a separate B-17 (Mehitabel) that crashed with three airmen killed in the air battle. Seven survivors parachuted and were taken prisoner by the Germans. The French residents recovered the three bodies, recorded dog tag info, and temporarily buried the bodies. A monument was erected in recognition of the role of these who contributed to the liberation of Belle Ile.
https://www.aerosteles.net/steleen-b17-belleile
After the end of the war the body of Frank Hanan was buried in the Mountain View cemetery, Walla Walla, Washington (plot #85), while Edward Tuminski was buried in the Long Island National Cemetery (Plot H, grave #8408). Merwyn Ranum is buried at the Normandy American Cemetery above Omaha Beach (plot C, row 26, grave #9). A museum has recently been opened near the Le Palais fortress documenting some of the history of the island in WW2. https://www.letelegramme.fr/morbihan/belle-ile-en-mer-56360/le-palais/a-le-palais-le-musee-jacques-tomine-inaugure-4099545.php