zoom_in
Source:
Jim
Production-block:
B-17G-35-BO: 42-31932 to 42-32116
Manufacturer:
Boeing
- Bomb Group:
- 483rd Bomb Group
- 99th Bomb Group
- Bomb Squadron:
- 347th Bomb Squadron
- 817th Bomb Squadron
MACR: 10704 / KSU/ME/KU: 2610
Missions: 87
History of
B-17 42-32016 / Swamp Gal
Delivered Denver 15/1/44; MacDill 5/2/44; Morrison 12/3/44; Assigned 817BS/483BG Tortorella 30/3/44; transferred 347BS/99BG Tortorella 31/3/44; Missing in Action {87m} Brux 25/12/44 with Bill Brandon, Forman, Duncan, McReynolds, Dunn, Kuzan, Leffingwell, Eaton, Lynn H. Ostrander, Miller; flak, crashed Oslip, Czech ?; Missing Air Crew Report 10704. SWAMP GAL.
Last updated: 23. April 2020
B-17 42-32016 / Swamp Gal Details
Witness statements from MACR 10704
On 25 December 1944, I was Navigator on plane #744, leader of the formation of which plane #016, was a part of it. At approximately 1245 hours a crew member reported to me on interphone that the plane #016, had left formation with #2 engine either smoking or fire. When I looked it was dropping back and out of formation.
1Lt. Claude Acree
Navigator
Over Slany, on 25 December, 1944, I heared someone report from the waist or teil of my ship #744, that ship#016, flying #3 position in the 347th squadron was dropping out of formation.
We proceeded over the target Brux, and after the rally, I heared that #016, had gone off to the left of the formation with it’s #2 engine smoking excessively. I myself did not see the aircraft and heard no report as to what happened to it.
1Lt. John P. Bedell
Bombardier
On the morning of 25 December, 1944, Ship #016, was flying number 2. position on the lead ship. The bomb-bay doors were open and we were over the bomb run. I couldn’t see too much of what happened but Ship #016, raised a little and then dropped behind then he crossed over us. I saw a lot of sparks coming from #2 engine and a long spurt of flame. It quit throwing sparks and flame as it passed overhead. That is all I could see.
S/Sgt. Edmund F. Sisko
Engineer
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This is the full story – Starting over Brux, Ger.
Flak hit #1 and #2 engine and left props windmilling. Pilot turned the plane towards closed Russian territory with everyone’s approval. Had to throw out all guns and ammo to keep in the air. Got all the way back across Czecho’ and northeast Austria. Entered Hungary at about 5000 feet at this time #4 engine conked out and left windmilling.
Pilot ordered all of crew into radio room except him self and co-pilot to prepare for crash landing. We were in radio room about 3 minutes when a of bullets and 20 mm explosives tore the plane up on the bottom from waist to front of plane. Two men in radio room were wounded and #3 engine was on fire. The eight of us in radio room went for the back door and bailed out. Two German fighters were circling our burning plane, and it crashed about 10 seconds after last man bailed out.
The Hungarians did not permit us to return to the burning ship which had crashed about a mile from us. One mile outside Eisenstadt.
At the interrogation center, somewhere near Frankfurt, the German G.I. who interrogated me said that two men had been killed. And all that he knew about them was their last names – Brandon and Forman. I thought this was some kind of a ruse to get information out of me but I think he was on the level.
The only answer I can think about is that the pilot and co-pilot were killed or badly wounded when the fighters attacked us. Therefore, they couldn’t bail out.
I’m hoping this information will be of value to you. I shall be glad to give more details if necessary.
Rudolph M. Kuzan
About one hour before target time, part of the oxygen system and the ball turret of our B 17 went out of commission. The pilot, Lt. Brandon, immediately contacted the group leader, Major Katzenmeyer, and asked for permission to turn back. He refused to left us turn back and ordered us to stay with the formation.
He should have allowed us to turn back with a fighter escort, and we would have returned to our base safely. But we had to continue, were shot down, made POW’s, and two of our crew were killed.
I think it should be brought to the attention of Major Katzenmeyer what he was responsible for on that day. And, perhaps, something down about it.
Rudolph M. Kuzan
All of the crew except Lt’s Brandon & Forman were in the radio room in prepartion for a crash landing when our plane was hit by fighters. Plane caught on fire and all of the crew except Brandon & Forman bailed out.
Befire bailing out we could not receive any response over the interphone and we couldn’t see or go thru the bombay on account of the fire. We assumed to probably both the pilot and copilot had been hit as most of the figthers fire power hit from the radio room forward and immediately after the fighters struck the plane’s motions became very erratic. At this time we had only 3 engines operating and had aborted all equipment we could get loose.
We had first been hit hard by flak near the IP. Knocking out one engine completely and a second partially. We immediately aborted our bomb load and still kept losing altitude. Then we aborted the ball turret and later the guns & ammunition. Our airspeed had dropped to less than 100 mph going against a head wind.
At the time we were struck by the fighters our absolute altitude was about 1500 ft. and a crash landing looked very probable.
Leroy A. Duncan
B-17 42-32016 / Swamp Gal Crew
| Position | Rank | Name | Status | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | 2LT | William C. Brandon | KIA | - |
| CP | 2LT | Charles D. Forman, Jr. | KIA | - |
| NAV | F/O | Leroy A. Duncan | POW | - |
| ENG/TT | SGT | Wendell J. Dunn | POW | - |
| RO | SGT | Arthur C. Leffingwell | POW | - |
| BT | SGT | Rudolph M. Kuzan | POW | Asst Eng |
| WG | SGT | Lynn H. Ostrander | POW | - |
| WG | S/SGT | Carl D. Eaton | POW | Asst R/O |
| TG | SGT | Robert H. Miller | POW | - |
| TOG | S/SGT | Charles E. McReynolds | POW | - |
26. December 2018 access_time 14:54
The name Strander should be Lynn H. Ostrander. He was a waist gunner on his first mission. Dad at 95 is still alive and has written up some of his memories of being shot down in Swamp gal.
26. December 2018 access_time 15:22
Thank you! Name updated.
26. March 2019 access_time 15:13
No I don’t. My brother sent me a link where he found a list of the original crew and he was thinking that may have been Daddy’s plane. He told us he was sick the day his crew got shot down. I don’t know a whole lot, but he was stationed in Italy and flew 24 missions as a gunner.
26. March 2019 access_time 20:06
Hello Sara, only one B-17 with the name Swamp Gal know to me so far. And this is this one. It was assigned at last to the 99th bomb group which was stationed in Italy. It’s very possible. that this B-17 was your father’s plane.
15. April 2020 access_time 21:41
Hello, My grandfather, Amarante “Pete” Torres, was the pilot of Swamp Gal early in the war in Italy where he and his crew flew their 25 missions and rotated home.
Its my understanding, that then the name was changed to Lil Abner when it crashed over Austria. I have the actual crash report that I could share, it has written accounts and everything.
My grandmother is Swamp Gal, she was born and raised in the swamps of Tallahassee, FL, the nose art even looks like her.
I have great pic of my grandfather standing in front of Swamp Gal and would like to share it also.
15. April 2020 access_time 21:51
Hello Dan, can you send me the crash report an photos to me? My email is: info@b17flyingfortress.de
Thanks!
27. December 2018 access_time 0:54
Not sure that the mission was Oslip, but it was to Czechoslovakia. The plane took flack at mission site over Czech. The plane was shot by a fighter over Austria and crashed and burned in Austria. The date was 25 December, 1944.
26. March 2019 access_time 14:38
I’m trying to find out if the Swamp Gal was the plane my Dad flew in as a gunner. His name was George Mitchell. The story I always heard was that he was sick the day his crew got shot down.
26. March 2019 access_time 14:47
Hello Sara,
do you know the unit where your father served?
10. April 2019 access_time 16:06
I finally figured out this is the plane my Dad flew on. I have a picture of the original crew with the names listed on the back, and he’s listed as the AG. He was sick that day and it appears Mr. Ostrander took his place.
12. September 2019 access_time 18:53
It would seem that my Dad, Lynn Ostrander, was the fill-in waist gunner for the final, fatal mission of the Swamp Gal on Christmas Day 1944. It seems he filled in for Sara Head’s father who was sick that day.
Lynn Ostrander is still doing well at age 96 and he has an active mind and a good memory. He now lives in Syracuse, New York and he was interviewed for the local TV station for the July 4th. celebration this year, 2019. He is the only surviving member of the Swamp Gal’s crew on that final mission.
Dad was 96 years old on July 5th and he and Mom were married 70 years on July 30th. He was interviewed on the Syracuse, New York TV station. Here is the link if you would like to see it.
………………………………………………………………….
WWII vet encourages others to remember the importance of Independence Day | WSTM
Sun, 30 Jun 2019 20:35:03 -0700
………………………………………………………………….
https://cnycentral.com/news/local/wwii-vet-encourages-others-to-remember-the-importance-of-independence-day
–
06. September 2019 access_time 2:56
Have two photos of “Swamp Gal” from dads WW2 photos, he was a driver for the 78 Bulk Petrol company, R.A.S.C attached to the 8th army. Think it’s a R.A.S.C group photo although there may be one or two USA servicemen in it. Not sure if anybody using your site would be interested.
20. November 2019 access_time 0:18
Here is Lynn Ostrander’s narrative of the final mission of the Swamp Gal:
After we [the flight crew I trained with in the US] arrived in Italy from Tunesia, we left our plane in southern Italy and traveled by truck to our base at Tortorella Landing Ground on December 5, 1944. We were near Foggia, Italy. American crews flew during the daytime and the British crews flew night time missions from our base.
It was common for the members of a newly assigned crew from stateside training to fly their first mission substituting with an experienced crew. Lt. Randolph, our navigator, was the first of our crew to go on a mission. He went out on December 18th …. and didn’t come back. He never got to fly into battle with Lt. Colby, our pilot, …. nor did I.
I watched the lists each day which showed who was to fly the next day. On December 24th, my name appeared for the first time. Since it was my first mission, I was scheduled to fly with an experienced crew. Thus I knew none of the men that I was to fly with on that day and don’t remember any of their names. I was filling in for one of their crew members who was sick. Their plane was named ‘Swamp Gal”.
I boarded the plane and, as per instructions, tied my shoes to my parachute harness. We wore flying boots to fly, but in case we were shot down I would need my shoes. As I looked at the way I had tied mine on, I made a mental note that I would have to do a better job next time. I lost my shoes!
Our flight seemed to be ill fated from the beginning. Long before we reached our target, the ball turret man spun his turret around and broke an oxygen connection. Thus we lost half of our oxygen supply. When we got to our bombing run I was on a walk-around bottle plugged in to the line on the other side of the plane. I had to crouch down to keep it attached, so my position was such that I could only peek out of the corner of my eye to see the window that I would normally have been at. I could hear the crunch, crunch of the flak; it sounded to me like water hitting the fenders of a car going through a puddle.
Our plane, the Swamp Gal, was hit while on the bombing run; but I think we held course until our bombs were dropped. One engine and our hydraulic system had been knocked out. Because the hydraulic system was gone the bomb bay doors had to be cranked shut by hand and the propeller of the damaged engine could not be feathered. It kept wind milling and sometimes caused the whole plane to shudder. We knew we couldn’t go back to base and so a decision was made to head for friendly [Russian] territory. One of our fighters flew up beside us and motioned to our pilot to follow him and head for home base. But our pilot knew that we couldn’t make it to the base in Italy. The pilot in the US fighter plane waved and peeled off heading for Italy.
[A continuation of this story is following the narrative]
As we went on we were losing altitude and so we threw out guns and whatever we could get our hands on to lighten our load. The ball turret was also dropped. Since there was nothing else for us to do, everyone, except the pilot and co-pilot, gathered in the radio room – the safest place for crash landing or ditching.
I was sitting close enough to the gaping hole where the ball turret had been, so I could see tracers coming up at us from the ground. About that time, I became aware that an enemy fighter had joined us. From his motions, it was my understanding that he wanted the pilot to follow him to his base. The pilot refused because that would have given the Germans a plane to study. About that time, I apparently lost consciousness and when I came to our plane was full of holes and on fire. Some of the crew tried to check on the pilot and co-pilot but couldn’t get there. I believe the fighter had killed them.
A decision was made to bail out and we filed back to the side door to jump out. I was next to the last one in line. When I go to the door, fire was streaming past. I turned to say something to the man behind me, but he just said to go and I jumped. By this time my sense of timing was all messed up. I was all right as long as I could see the ground, but when I began to tumble, I immediately pulled my rip cord. Nothing seemed to be happening and I thought I had had it. Then the pilot chute popped out and began dragging out the main chute. I was so relieved and I lost consciousness again. Thus I missed my parachute ride to the ground. I woke up when I hit the ground. When I picked myself up I could see a column of smoke from where the plane had already gone down.
One of the other men had landed near me and as we were getting loose from our parachutes we heard a shot. We dove for the ground. We were in a large field just outside a small town and people were coming out to get us. There was nothing to do but stand up and raise our hands. I was greeted by a rifle butt to the head by a SS soldier. Fortunately I was able to stay on my feet. I don’t know what might have happened if he had knocked me down.
We had to carry our parachutes in to the town and were given a brief interrogation. I asked if I could sit down. I sat down and took off my flying boot. I had a small wound beneath my right ankle bone. It was decided that I should be sent to a hospital, and so I was separated from even the men that I had just met that day. We did not know it at the time, but we were near Weiner Neustadt, Austria. It seemed like a long ride to the hospital. The hospital that I was taken to was at Felbring, Austria. It is my understanding that it was about 35 miles from Vienna.
I was given a bed in a sizeable ward, but they soon pulled the curtains around me. It was good to have a bed, but it was a lonely young man that filled it that night.
[Lynn’s story continues with his POW experience. I can post it here too if there is interest.]
There is a “Continuation of the Story” ….. In 2010, my daughter-in-law, Susan, went to a talk in Sierra Vista, Arizona about a book written by a guy who was a tail gunner in a B17 during World War II. During the comment period after the talk, Susan offered the comment about her father-in-law, being a waist gunner on a B17 and saying he flew “one half of one mission” because “he was shot down on his first mission from a base in Italy on Christmas Day in 1944”.
As folks were leaving the room, a guy and his wife who had been in the audience too, came up to Susan and asked if she knew the base in Italy that flight of Lynn’s took off from. She said she didn’t know the name of the base. He then shared that he had been a pilot in a support squadron that escorted bombing missions from a base in northern Italy into Germany. He said there was only one base in northern Italy that the US used at that time. He said he was on a mission on Christmas Day 1944 and one plane was hit especially badly. He said he flew up beside the badly wounded plane because the pilot was heading the wrong way – not back toward the base in Italy but northward toward Russia. He said he motioned toward the plane that they needed to turn left because he thought they were disoriented or had their navigational equipment damaged. He would lead them back to the base. But he said the pilot waved him off and indicated he knew the right way but was unable to reach the Italian base. He indicated he was heading toward friendlier country than they were flying over where he would try to land the plane. The fighter pilot said he waved to the B-17 pilot and crew and returned to his assigned route back to the base in Italy.
He said he often thought of that plane and wondered what happened to them. He said they are on his mind every Christmas Day. Susan wondered if there were other damaged planes on that mission. The fighter pilot said he thought that was the most damaged plane and the rest all returned from the mission.
After Susan got home, she called me and asked if I saw one of our fighter planes after our B17 had been shot up on Christmas Day 1944. I told her one of our escort fighters flew up beside our B17 and motioned for the pilot to follow him in the direction of the base in Italy. The fighter stayed with them for a minute or so and then waved goodbye to us and returned to the appropriate coarse to Italy.
Susan had not gotten any contact information for the pilot of the escort fighter. She was unable to tell him that, yes – in fact, some of those crewmen survived the war … but many, including the pilot, did not. Her father-in-law, Lynn Ostrander, was the waist gunner on that ill-fated B-17.
15. April 2020 access_time 21:48
Chuck, thank you for sharing this greate story!
08. April 2021 access_time 23:25
As a follow-up to the encounter of the pilot of the US fighter and Lynn Ostrander, the Waist Gunner on the Swamp Gal: At the time of the 75th Anniversary of the fatal mission of the Swamp Gal …. Susan Ostrander (daughter-in-law of Lynn Ostrander) gave an interview to the local newspaper asking if the fighter pilot who met her over ten years previously was still in Sierra Vista …. or had he told the story of the Swamp Gal encounter to a family member. There was no response to the newspaper article requesting contact with the fighter pilot. Too much time has passed. The pilot and his wife have probably both passed away by now. The contact should have been attempted at the time it happened and not ten years later. Lesson to All …. get the contact information right then!
23. February 2021 access_time 17:03
After the passing of my wife’s mother, we found all of their family photos, including a large collection of Air Force photos from her Great Uncle, William Brandon. The last photo we have is the entire group, titled “The Best Damn Crew in the Air Force” and has the group listed out and their position, postmarked Oct 23, 1944, a short two months before the plane was shot down. As we’re building out the family history, I would love to find any more information on this group. I will also upload all photos for anyone that would like to share.
08. April 2021 access_time 23:37
We told my father, Lynn Ostrander, about the comment made by the family of William Brandon, who was the pilot of the Swamp Gal on the fateful last mission. Dad is now 97 years old and he is doing well cognitively. He says he has no information to share about William Brandon as he only met him briefly just before the plane took off on that last mission. The regular crew member (waist gunner) was sick that day and Lynn was a substitute who only joined the crew a few minutes before they took off. He doesn’t even have a recollection of speaking to the pilot. This was Dad’s first mission and they flew as replacement crew members on other crews for their first missions … rather then send a novice crew out all together for their first mission. Dad has written up his experiences on that fatal flight and it is included above. He regrets that he cannot offer any recollections of William Brandon to his family. May he rest in peace.
18. April 2022 access_time 23:52
William Brandon is my mother Ruth Brandon’s cousin. She is 90 years old and loves to tell others of her cousin’s bravery. I have uploaded a photograph of William on the honorstates.org website. I would appreciate if you could contact me with any further information or photographs.
22. October 2022 access_time 12:17
My stepfather Arthur C Leffingwell was the radio operator when “Swamp Gal” was shot down. He was a POW until the war ended. I would certainly love to see a photo of him and the crew. Thanks