B-17 Flying Fortress B-17 43-38566

History of
B-17 43-38566

Delivered Cheyenne 18/8/44; Lincoln 6/9/44; Grenier 24/9/44; Assigned: 550BS/385BG [SG-T] Gt Ashfield 25/9/44; returning from Osnabruck 21/11/44 Pilot: Cliff Foss (Cobb), Otho Quick, Myron Loyet, Theo Otto, Bob Houston, John Bevilcqua, Gail Anderson (7RTD); Jim Shaver, Ed Myers (2POW); mid-air coll w/43-38270 (385BG), but returned and repaired; MACR 10468; Returned to US: Bradley 26/6/45; 4168 BU Sth Plains 28/6/45; Scrapped: Kingman 5/12/45.

Last updated: 21. November 2021

B-17 43-38566 Details

Mid-air-collision with B-17 #43-38270 on 21 November 1944. But returned to base. Survived the war and returned to the USA.

Statements about the incident

At 1207 hours on 21 November 1944, two B-17s came together in a mid-air collision en route to bomb enemy objectives deep in Germany.

A/C #43-38566, piloted by 1st Lt. Foss was flying #1 position in the low section of the high group. The second plane, A/C #43-38270, piloted by 1st Lt. Webb was flying the #4 position, second element lead, in the low section of the high group.

Evidently overshooting the formation, the vertical stabilizer of A/C 270 hit the ball turret of A/C 566. A/C 270. then continued forward and made contact with the nose and #2 engine of A/C 566, cutting off the nose of A/C 566. The tail section of A/C 270 was ripped off at this second impact, and both the tail section and the forward section or A/C 270 fell earthward.

The bombardier, 1st Lt. Shaver, and the top turret gunner, T/Sgt. Myers, abandoned A/C 566 at this time. Both of their chutes were reported to have opened.

The pilot then gained complete control of A/C 566 and returned the plane with the remainder of its crew to the home base, Station 155 UK.

Source: MACR 10468

B-17 43-38566 Crew