B-17 Flying Fortress B-17 42-39882

History of
B-17 42-39882

Delivered Long Beach 28/9/43; Harvard 14/10/43; Assigned 711BS/447BG Rattlesden 1/11/43; retUS Bradley 10/7/45; 4168 Base Unit, South Plains, Texas 13/7/45; Reconstruction Finance Corporation (sold for scrap metal in USA) Kingman 19/12/45.

Last updated: 5. November 2022

B-17 42-39882 Details

B-17G 42-39882, was the plane my father Patsy Angeloni and his crew were issued when they arrived at the 487th in Lavenham UK. They arrived very late in the war Apr 4, 1945. They were a replacement crew. The WW was painted on the tail July 1st 1945 by the Co-pilot William Schulze. It was done a kind of a joke for the trip home on July 4th 1945. The joke was they were issued and brand new B17 to travel over to the UK but were assigned an old worn out war horse for their equipment and had to fly it home. They dam near crashed it when traveling home. When landing in Iceland on the trip home part of the plane broke off when landing. They got down safe but wanted to get back to the USA. So, some of the guys liberated a jeep and they left the base and proceeded to break into a few peoples garages and sheds looking for a piece of steel. The metal was located and the flight engineer repaired the plane. The guys loaded the plane with fuel and headed off Iceland before people noticed the broken doors in the morning. They wanted to get home for the July 4th celebrations in the USA.

Written by Brian Angeloni