B-17 Flying Fortress B-17 42-38117 / Touch the Button Nell II

History of
B-17 42-38117 / Touch the Button Nell II

Delivered Denver 18/12/43; Kearney 31/12/43; ass 535BS/381BG {MS-T] Ridgewell 26/2/44; {4+m} MIA Tours 4/7/44 Pilot: Bob Bobrof, Co-Pilot: George DeVono, Navigator: Chas Cole, Bombardier: Bernie Goodman, Engineer / Top Turret Gunner: George Dell, Ball Turret Gunner: Ed Polski, Tail Gunner: Tom Snyder (7KIA); Radio Operator: Clinton Word, Waist Gunner: Ken Hitchcock (2EVD); mech fault, crashed near Amboise, Persac, Fr; MACR 6779. TOUCH THE BUTTON NELL II. (Dug up by French archeological group in Feb. 1986 looking for Roman remains, via crop marks showing from the air, when a farmer pointed out that a US aircraft crashed in that field in WW II ).

Last updated: 4. July 2021

B-17 42-38117 / Touch the Button Nell II Details

Eyewitness Statements to the loss of B-17 #42-38117 /Touch the Button Nell II

I was flying as Pilot in B-17G A/C 42-107018-U in the lead Squadron, #3 position, on 4 July 1944 to Tours, France. Lt. Bobrof, in B-17G A/C 42-38117-T, was flying in the #2 position in the lead Squadron. He called on channel À, VHF, and said he had one engine feathered and could not hold his place in formation. After he left formation he salvoed his bombs and the last sight of him that I had, he was going toward the clouds with two (2) P-38’s in trail.

2Lt. Wayne E. Hermann
Pilot, 381st Bomb Gp
535th Bomb Sq.

I was flying as Bombardier in B-17G A/C 42-102590-M on the mission to Tours, France on 4 July 1944. We were about twenty (20) minutes from the target when I noticed that B-17G A/C 42-38117-T, piloted by Lt. Bobrof, had the No. 1 engine feathered. He was losing altitude and falling back of the formation. I watched until he was past my line of sight and he was still lowing altitude. I did not see his bombs drop nor any parachutes come out of the ship.

2Lt. Russel B. Rodrick
Bombardier, 535th Bomb Sq.

I was flying as Tail Gunner in 3-17G A/C 42-97265-P, piloted by 2nd Lt. Floyd H. Metts, on the mission to Tours, France on 4 July 1944. I saw B-17G A/C 42-38117-T, piloted by 2nd Lt. Bob B. Bobrof, peel off to the left of the formation, his #1 engine feathered. He was still losing altitude after salvoing his bombs. Two (2) P-38’s turned back and the last I could see of them they were going into a cloud bank at about the same place we saw Lt. Bobrof. We were about five (5) or ten (10) minutes off the I.P, when I last saw him.

Sgt. Leon S. Bucy
Tail Gunner

Statements from survived crew members

On a mission to Tours, France, 4 July 1944, our ship lost its number two engine. Due to loss of oil pressure we were unable to feather the propeller. With the propeller windmilling we had to leave formation and drop our bombs. After that we tried to get back in formation, but didn’t make it because lost number three engine. After the loss of number three engine we began to throw out everything we could get loose from the ship, except radio equipment. Some time soon after that the radio man bailed out. After him the Bombardier or Navigater bailed out of the nose. Whom ever it was that bailed out was over run by the ship and his chute was caught in a propeller.

The tail gunner and the ball gunner (Sgt. Edward J. Polski) were in the waist with me. At about or between 500 or 700 feet, decided to bail out. I was the first to jump with My chute opening just in time to break my fall. The tail and ball gunners followed me out, but their chutes didn’t open in time.

The ship crashed about 200 yards from where I fell and burned. The pilot, Co-Pilot, Engineer and Bombardier or Navigator, whom ever did not bail out, went down with the ship.

This information about how the boys died was told to me by an old Englishman the second day I was down. I hope this is the information you are seeking.

S/Sgt. Kenneth F. Hitchcock

On 4 July 1944 I was radio operator on B-17 aircraft, number 177, “Touch The Button, Nell”. Sergeant Edward J. Polski ball turret gunner on the above mentioned ship. At about 0530 on the above mentioned date, the above mentioned ship with a crew of nine (9) members took off from Ridgewell, England on a mission to bomb a bridge near Tours, France.

About eight (8) minutes out of Tours, France we had a mechanical failure, two of the engines going out. We dropped our bombs trying to stay in the formation over the target and then another engine went out and we lost the formation and turned back. We lost altitude from about 25,000 to about 10,000 and the ship started spinning. I bailed out and the ship was spinning so that the wast gunner, Staff Sergeant Kenneth F. Hitchsook, could not get out and I saw the ship just before it hit and the pilot nearly pulled it out.

The waist gunner bailed out opening his paraohute making one swing and hit the ground. The ball turret gunner, Sergeant Edward J. Polski, and the tail gunner, Staff Sergeant Thomas H. Snyder, bailed out after the waist gunner. They were so low until their parachutes did not have time to open.

I did not 800 them hit the ground. This was told to me by an old Englishman who apparently lived in the vicinity of the accident. I did not go to the scene of the crash but this old Englishman told me the next day, 5 July 1944, that he directed the burial of seven (7) members of our orew. The accident occurred in the vicinity of little French village called “Lushep” and the old Englishman lived on farm near there. I do not know his name as I only saw him on that one occasion.

He did not tell me where the members of my are were buried but I have reason to believe they were interred in a cemetery within twenty miles from the above named village. I last saw Sergeant Polski in the waist of our ship immediately prior to my bailing out of same. It is my opinion that he is now deceased and that he is buried in the place above mentioned.

T/Sgt. Clinton S. Word, Jr.

Source: MACR 6779

B-17 42-38117 / Touch the Button Nell II Crew