B-17 Flying Fortress B-17 43-37763

History of
B-17 43-37763

Delivered Cheyenne 19/5/44; Kearney 2/6/44; Grenier 18/6/44; Assigned: 422BS/305BG Chelveston 28/6/44; MIA Wurzberg 21/7/44 Pilot: Frank Toftness, Bob Shearer, Bob Stachowiak, Harry Beasley, Ray Orr, Wilbur Hall, George Wilson, Adolph Leuti (8KIA); Lloyd Peacock (RTD); flak, crashed North Sea; MACR 8233.

Last updated: 5. August 2019

B-17 43-37763 Details

Peacock stated: ‘‘our aircraft was hit by flack and engines one and four were knocked out of commission. Three of the crewmembers bailed out of the plane. The three men were Sgt. Wilson, Sgt. Lenti and myself. The parachutes of Wilson and Lenti opened and they landed in the sea close to each other. I landed some distance from them and did not see them again. Friendly fighters followed us down and probably radioed our positions to Air-Sea Rescue, as shortly after two amphibious aircraft arrived over our position, but were unable to land because of the very rough seas. However, one of the planes dropped me a one-man life raft, but I was unable to inflate it as there was no Co2 cylinder in the raft. About 45 minutes after I had landed in the sea an Air-Sea Rescue launch arrived and I was taken aboard. The body of Sgt Wilson was picked up by the same launch, but there was no trace of Lenti or anyone else. Just prior to bailing out I glanced towards the forward of the ship, yelled to the radio operator to hurry and saw the pilot and co-pilot leaving their seats. Just as soon as I had left the ship, and passed the tail surfaces, the aircraft exploded and went down in a ball of fire. I watched the ship until it hit the water, and no one else got out of that ship except Wilson, Lenti and I. The engines one and four were knocked out over Germany, so we turned back, salvoed (dropped) our bombs, and we were making good progress until got over the Frisian Islands, where another barrage of flack was loosed at us, and that barrage knocked out number two engine, and that was the cause of us going down. We had an escort of friendly fighters all the way back from Germany, until our ship was hit over the Frisian Islands.”

Source: http://www.edwilson.org/B17-Crash/B17-Crash.htm#The%201944