zoom_in
Source:
William Wade Collection 388th BG
Production-block:
B-17G-20-VE: 42-97536 to 42-97635
Manufacturer:
Lockheed/Vega
- Bomb Group:
- 388th Bomb Group
- 482nd Bomb Group
- 96th Bomb Group
- Bomb Squadron:
- 413th Bomb Squadron
- 563rd Bomb Squadron
- RCL: MZ-B
MACR: 12926 / KSU/ME/KU: 3788
History of
B-17 42-97542
Delivered Denver 16/12/43; Rochester 11/1/44; Langley 13/1/44; Assigned 482BG (H2X) Alconbury 25/1/44; transferred 413BS/96BG [MZ-B] Snetterton 26/1/44; 563BS/388BG Knettishall 27/1/44; Missing in Action Chemnitz 5/3/45 with Ralph Kittle, John Watkins, Irwin Boxer, Lloyd Sanford, Salvaged Genco, Ray Kudla, Bob Jones (7 Prisoner of War); Bob Warren (Killed in Action); John Rutt (evaded capture); flak, crashed Kraslice, Czecho. Missing Air Crew Report 12926.
Last updated: 6. September 2025
B-17 42-97542 Details
Based on Missing Air Crew Report 12926, this B-17 had not been given a name. Other sources state that it was called ‘City of Savannah’.
Interrogation Report from MACR 12926
Aircraft was last seen on the bomb run. Two engines were out. The pilot jettisoned his bombs and just after this a third engine went out and the pilot told the Command Pilot over VHF that he was heading for Russian territory with the ship under control.
27. February 2020 access_time 18:17
Hello, I am Lincoln Sanford, Lloyd Sanford’s nephew.
Lloyd was the dorsal turret gunner on City of Savannah. When the plane was hit by flak, Lloyd stayed at his guns, trying to fend off fighters while the crew bailed out.
When he finally bailed, his parachute did not open. He ripped his fingernails out trying to get the chute to open, which it finally did, dangerously close to the ground. He broke his back upon impact with the ground, and narrowly avoided being lynched by some locals. During interrogation, he was never given treatment for his back injury.
28. February 2020 access_time 20:54
Thank you for sharing of Llyod Sanford’s story.
08. November 2022 access_time 20:58
Hello Lincoln Sanford, I live very close to the crash site of “City of Savannah”, about 30 miles west in Germany. I am an author for a local newspaper, would like to write a story for the local newspaper and I am interested in a contact to you. I would be very happy if you would contact me: schildbach47@gmail.com. I just wrote a book about two other B-17 crash in April 1945 near Dresden, you can see them at my website http://www.matthias-schildbach.de
01. April 2024 access_time 16:36
Hello Lincoln, My father was the pilot of The City of Savannah. I did not know of Lloyd’s heroism that terrible day. I was contacted by a Czech student who told me that he found the wreckage of the plane. I met him at the crash site of the plane in the Czech Republic and we spent the day digging around the cockpit. He found the Parker pen that my grandmother had given to my father. There is now a marker nearby saluting that plane and her crew.