Production-block:
B-17G-40-BO: 42-97058 to 42-97172
Manufacturer:
Boeing
- Bomb Group:
- 100th Bomb Group
- Bomb Squadron:
- 350th Bomb Squadron
- 418th Bomb Squadron
- RCL: LD-A
MACR: 8817 / KSU/ME/KU: 985 A
History of
B-17 42-97154 / Our Babe aka Our Babe Hutchie
Delivered Cheyenne 4/2/44; Gr Island 18/2/44; Presque Is 4/3/44; Assigned 418BS/100BG [LD-A] Thorpe Abbotts 6/3/44; 350BS (LN-A); Missing in Action Bohlen 11/9/44 with Wes Carlton, Bombardier: Jack Eppendorf, Flight engineer/top turret gunner: Mike Bagdasian, Radio Operator: Milton Edelstein, Ball turret gunner: Ralph Jacobson, Waist gunner: Bill Schaefer,Tail gunner: George Watrous (7 Killed in Action); Co-pilot: Ed Neu, Navigator: Hugh Davidson (2 Prisoner of War); enemy aircraft, crashed Neudorf, N of Ober Weisenthal, Ger. Missing Air Crew Report 8817. OUR BABY HUTCHIE aka OUR BABE.
Last updated: 13. February 2022
B-17 42-97154 / Our Babe aka Our Babe Hutchie Details
Remarks or Eyewitness Statements:
The group in which A/C 154 was flying was attacked by from 50 to 70 E/A. The attack caused at least three of our A/C to explode on the first pass and most of the others appeared to be damaged. Many of them were attacked again as stragglers. In a few moments all but one disappeared beneath the undercast. Since none of them returned no account of the loss of specific A/C is available. About half of them appeared to be under control as they disappeared into the undercast. Two chutes were seen before the A/C disappeared but from which one they came is undetermined.
Source: MACR 8817
B-17 42-97154 / Our Babe aka Our Babe Hutchie Crew
| Position | Rank | Name | Status | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | 1LT | Wesley R. Carlton | KIA | - |
| CP | 2LT | Edward F. Neu | POW | - |
| NAV | 1LT | Hugh R. Davidson | POW | - |
| BOMB | 1LT | Jack L. Eppendorf | KIA | - |
| ENG/TT | T/SGT | Mike H. Bagdasian | KIA | - |
| RO | T/SGT | Milton S. Edelstein | KIA | - |
| BT | S/SGT | Ralph E. Jacobson | KIA | - |
| WG | S/SGT | William U. Schaefer | KIA | - |
| TG | S/SGT | George E. Watrous | KIA | - |
09. February 2022 access_time 18:39
Please note correct spelling of 1st Lieutenant Hugh DAVIDSON, Navigator on this flight. (My father.) Plane shot down, he parachuted into Oberwiesenthal forest area (Sudetenland). Captured 7 days later. Spent remaining months of the war as POW in Stalag Luft I, Barth Germany.
13. February 2022 access_time 10:01
Hello Megan, thank you for the information. I have corrected your father’s name to DAVIDSON.
19. November 2023 access_time 6:11
According to my dad, 2Lt Edward Neu , he assisted Lt Davidson to get to the bomb bay doors to bail out. They had the chutes stag lines attached and just as they were about to jump the plane exploded knocking them unconscious blowing them through the open bomb bay and the stag lines opened the chutes.
29. November 2024 access_time 3:16
Actual the real crash site of that plane is in Kretscham-Rothensehma (not in Oberwiesental like it is currently marked in the map).
I was visiting the village in 2005 because of a friend whose mother is living there had her wedding anniversary.
One of the young men of the village told me about the crash site nearby – that events of that fateful night are still a story now told over generations.
His own grand mother, back then a young woman, had seen the plane going down in flames , and crashing behind the village in the woods.
One of the attackin Me-262 also crashed in a swampland not far away in the area of the (now) czech borderland.
He also invited me to visit the crash site the day after the party. So we went there – unfortunately not much to see there now anymore.
All the biggger parts of the plane were transported away. But you can still see the clearing formed throughout the crash in the middle of the wood and there were still some smaller pieces of metal to be found on the ground. He also showed me later an altimeter and some bullets, he had found there using a metal detector in the late 1990ies.
29. November 2024 access_time 12:28
Danke für die Info. Ich habe die Absturzstelle auf der Karte aktualisiert.
Thanks for the information. I have updated the map.
Grüße/Cheers
Jing
03. December 2024 access_time 23:53
Gern geschehen – ich bin nur zufällig über diese großartige Seite gestolpert – gelebte Geschichte quasi – finde ich sehr gut.
Und natürlich hab dann aus Neugier nach der B17 in Kretscham gechaut – um sie dann in Oberwiesenthal zugeordnet zu finden.
Ich habe übrigens glaube ich einen Fehler im Text oben gemacht – die abgestürzte Jagdmaschien ware keine Me262 sondern eine FW190.
Der Junge Mann hatte mir an dem Abend viel darüber erzählt und ich denke ich hab mir das falsch gemerkt. Historisch ist es relativ unwahrscheinlich das im September 1944 Me262 als Jäger im Raum Cemnitz eingesetzt wurden.