8th Air Force WWII - B17 Missions

kkart · Mar 19, 2006

check this out!

"B-17 #42-29888 JOKER #1 Flew 50 missions and was returned to the U.S.A. to sell War Bonds. I know nothing of what happened to it after that.
This aircraft was assigned to the 532nd Bomb Squadron, 381st Bomb Group; one of 40 B-17s assigned to the 381st that survived the war and returned to the U.S.A. It has been said that it also may have been used to train new troops."

I was lookin thru your shots on PB and decided to google some of the bombers names. http://uk.geocities.com/[email protected]/Joker.htm

In fact: http://uk.geocities.com/[email protected]/ could ve VERY valuable to you

duncanp · Mar 19, 2006

AAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaamaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazzzzzzzziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnngggggggg

!!!!!!!

wow great pics

airgunr · Mar 19, 2006

Thanks for the comments guys. I have no idea where he was based but I "think" his plane was named "Any Base" because they were shot down twice and rarely made it back to their home base on the ones they didn't get shot down. From what I can tell I think they ditched in the English Channel twice and one of those resulted in his medal. I'm still sifting through stuff as is my brother-in-law to see if we can sort it out.

Thanks KKart for the links and suggestions.

AIRIC · Mar 19, 2006

Thanks for posting the images. Please make sure these photos survive for future generations. There is an 8th AF website at http://www.8thafhs.org/ that may help you research about your father's war history. They would also be interested in the images.

Eric

This is a B-17 I shot last summer over Geneseo New York for the History of Flight airshow.

Eric

df3photo · Mar 19, 2006

Looks great, My grandfather was a WWII marine. Ive seen some of his photos in the past, now I have to go dig them up... nothing from the air like these though... good find.

wls3 · Mar 19, 2006

First, great photos.

If you are interested in finding out more info about his military records, awards,training,
unit assignments, etc. check here. National Personnel Records Center.
http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/public/veterans-and-next-of-kin.html

Very slow, but I have had good luck.

Bill

sfaribault · Mar 20, 2006

Great find !!!!!

Steve

airgunr · Mar 20, 2006

wls3 said:
First, great photos.

If you are interested in finding out more info about his military records, awards,training,
unit assignments, etc. check here. National Personnel Records Center.
http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/public/veterans-and-next-of-kin.html

Very slow, but I have had good luck.

Bill

Thanks for the link. I'm logging in now.