B-17 Flying Fortress B-17 42-30285 / Roundtrip Ticket

History of
B-17 42-30285 / Roundtrip Ticket

Delivered Denver 9/5/43; Gt Falls 16/5/43; Kearney 29/5/43; Dow Fd 15/6/43; Assigned 388BG Knettishall 30/9/43; transferred 550BS/385BG [XA- ] Gt Ashfield 1/10/43; then 549BS; Missing in Action Oschersleben 28/7/43 with John Noel, Co-pilot: Henry Wilczyk (2 Prisoner of War); Navigator: Leon Marion, Bombardier: George Ramelot, Flight engineer/top turret gunner: Bob McKnight, Radio Operator: Ned Mirabel, Ball turret gunner: Grant Schaff, Waist gunner: Ulysses McElhinney, Waist gunner: Ray Magin,Tail gunner: Bill Peterson (8KIA-all washed up later); mid air coll with 42-3316 (385BG), ditched North Sea; Missing Air Crew Report 189D. ROUNDTRIP TICKET.

Last updated: 5. May 2017

B-17 42-30285 / Roundtrip Ticket Details

120 B-17’s assigned to target the Fieseler Works and AGO factory in Oschersleben producing Fw190 components and airframes on 28/07/1943. Also of note this was the deepest USAAF bombers had ever flown into Germany since the start of the war. Only 37 B-17’s recorded a bomb strike on the primary targets, yet the mission was rated as a good result. After the mission at 0910 hrs the outbound formation of bombers was intercepted by Fw190 fighters of II./JG 11 near the North Sea coast and after a 20 minute engagement claimed 12 B-17s. Luftwaffe pilot Unteroffizier Wilhelm Fest’s rocket struck the the “Lady Susie II” (#42-30257), and the aircraft lost control and collided with “Betty Boom” (#42-3316) piloted by 2Lt. Wiliam Storr, and subsequently into the flight path of “Roundtrip Ticket” (#42-30285). All three aircraft went down into the North Sea west of Sylt, near the island of Helgoland (54°30’0″N / 7°45’0″E). The bodies of the deceased crewmen from all three aircraft washed ashore along the coastline during into weeks of late August.

B-17 42-30285 / Roundtrip Ticket Crew