lorem ipsum February 2014 384TH BOMB GROUP NEWSLETTER 1306 ADAMS WAY BEAVERCREEK, OH 45434 being convenient to the base Happy 2014! It’s a new year and the Museum. and we are looking not only back at the great reunion in Another great opportunity for Norfolk, but now looking the Group will be a trip to forward to getting together one Urbana, about a 45-minute bus more time in Dayton, Ohio for ride, where they are building, another really memorable practically from scratch, a new B-17 named Champaign Lady. evening at the Air Force At the museum proper in the Museum. Remember the WW II gallery, we will have reunion in 2008? It was so cocktails just off the nose of magical and one that left a Shoo-Shoo Baby before having This is not a restoration, but a lasting impression on all those dinner in the Vietnam and new build. The fuselage is who attended. Korea Gallery to the music of nearly complete and the engine the Air Force Band, after which It will be even better this time, we will have full access to the as we have planned a visit to Goodrick Receives DFC rest of the Museum. One of the the Restoration Hangar as well most exciting exhibits is the as having access to all the new recently opened Space Shuttle. displays since our last visit. We will also have more time in the Although the AF Museum did Museum store and time for not receive one of the three individual visits to the galleries. available shuttles after the program was halted, it did get In the Restoration Hangar you the Shuttle Crew Compartment will see up close and personal Trainer that was used by the THE Memphis Belle, a B-17F, astronauts to train for space plus the only remaining B-17D flight. The Museum took that 70 YEARS LATE Christy Lehen- in the world, the Swoose, as well piece of history and built onto it bauer joined her dad, Gene as the newest acquisition, the the rest of what would be the Goodrick as he received the CV-22 Osprey. There are many Orbital Vehicle, including a Distinguished Flying Cross in a other unique aircraft in that Payload Bay with a real satellite ceremony last Nov in Rogers, AR. hangar for you to enjoy. and the ability for It’s a beautiful medal said Christy, visitors to actually see into the who was responsible for making cockpit and the mid-deck. this event happen. The medal was presented on Gene’s 92nd birthday, We will be staying at the same as Rep. Steve Womack, R-Rogers, hotel, the Holiday Inn just off of pinned the sixth highest honor on Colonel Glenn Blvd, which is his lapel while more than 200 very close to many restaurants looked on. and other shops, as well “Keep the Show on the Road…” as 384th Bomb Group Newsletter February 2014 nacelles are well along the way as is one of the wings. You will really like what you see in this project. 2 384th Bomb Group Newsletter February 2014 Message from Your President... Len Estrin Hello Fellow 384thers! We are close to wrapping up plans for the Final Reunion in Dayton, OH, home of the Air Force Museum. The dates have been set for Oct- ober 16-18. Those who were at the 2008 reunion in Dayton will remember how awesome that evening in the Museum was and will not want to miss this one. Carol has really made this reunion very special, so please be there. Planes of Fame’s Mighty Eighth Salute This year’s theme at Planes of Fame Museum's annual airshow in Southern California will be "A Salute to the Mighty Eighth." The event will be on May 3-4, 2014, from 9am to 4pm at Chino Airport. Airshow info can be found at www.planesoffame.org. Among the aircraft that will fly will be at least one B-17, P-47, P-38s, P-51s, B-25s and an assortment of other WWII vintage aircraft. That same weekend, The Collings Foundation B-17G "Nine-O-Nine" will most likely be in the area. Please go to the Collings Foundation website at www.collingsfoundation.org or call 978-562- 9182 in April to verify their B-17 schedule before making plans. There's a plan a-foot for 384th Bomb Group, Inc. NexGen members Keith Ellefson, Fred Preller and Chris Wilkinson to attend the Planes of Fame airshow on Saturday. Any Veteran or NexGen member interested in connecting with this inauspicious crew so they can link up at the airshow may contact Fred Preller at 469-338-1397 or his email at [email protected] and Chris Wilkinson at 310-866-1397 or [email protected]. If veterans are interested in visiting the Collings Foundation B-17 on Sun, May 4 (if it is available), a car pool arrangement could be organized by Chris Wilkinson for them to attend this event. Monument to the Gordon Erickson Crew by Fred Preller You may recall from the Spring 2013 newsletter that villagers in Belfonds, France, long ago erected a monument to the Gordon Erickson crew, which crashed nearby on the Fourth of July 1943, and that they hold memorial observances each year. Our faithful correspondent Mme. Sally Sorel reports that the monument is showing signs of its age, and an effort is underway to restore it. In addition, the village government will use this opportunity to revise the inscriptions on the tablets for increased clarity, and to correct errors that have recently come to light using information now available from the 384th website. Mme. Sorel will continue to keep us posted, and extends an invitation to all for this year’s ceremony, to be held 5 July at 4:00 PM. Further information will be made available as it is received. If you are able to attend, please contact Mme. Sorel directly. However, if you are unable to be there in person, please send a message of greetings and appreciation to the Belfonds Veterans Association, via Mme. Sorel. Mme. Sorel may be contacted by email at: [email protected], or post at Madame Sally Sorel, Les Feugerets, 61250 VINGT HANAPS, FRANCE 3 384th Bomb Group Newsletter February 2014 B-17 "All American" tried to do the same for the tail gunner, the tail began On 1 Feb 1943, a mid-air flapping so hard that it collision between a B-17 and began to break off. The a German fighter over the weight of the gunner was Tunis dock area, became the adding some stability to the subject of one of the most All the control cables were tail section, so he went back famous photographs of WW severed, except one single to his position. Turns had to II. An enemy fighter elevator cable still worked, be very slow to keep the tail attacking a 97th Bomb Group and the aircraft miraculously from twisting off. They formation went out of still flew! actually covered almost 70 control, probably with a miles to make the turn home. wounded pilot, then con- The tail gunner was trapped tinued its crashing descent because there was no floor For a brief time, two more into the rear of the fuselage connecting the tail to the rest Me-109s attacked the All of a Fortress named All of the plane. The waist and American. Despite the American, piloted by Lt. tail gunners used parts of the extensive damage, all of the Kendrick R. Bragg, of the German fighter and their gunners were able to 414th Bomb Squadron. When own parachute harnesses in respond and soon drove off it struck, the fighter broke an attempt to keep the tail the fighters. The tail gunner apart, but left some pieces in from ripping off. had to shoot in short bursts the B-17. The left horizontal because the recoil was stabilizer of the Fortress was While the crew was trying to actually causing the plane to completely torn away. The keep the bomber from turn. two right engines were out coming apart, the pilot Allied P-51 fighters inter- and one on the left had a continued on his bomb run cepted the All American as it serious oil pump leak. The and released his bombs over crossed over the Channel vertical fin and the rudder the target. and took one of the pictures had been damaged, the shown. Lt. Bragg signaled fuselage had been cut almost that 5 parachutes had been completely through con- "used" so five of the crew nected only at two small could not bail out. He made parts of the frame, and the the decision that if they radios, electrical and oxygen could not bail out safely, systems were damaged. When the bomb bay doors then he would stay with the There was also a hole in the were opened, the wind plane to land it. top that was over 16 feet turbulence was so great that long and 4 feet wide at its it blew one of the waist Two and a half hours after widest; the split in the gunners into the broken tail being hit, the aircraft made fuselage went all the way to section. It took several its final turn to line up with the top gunner's turret. minutes and four crew the runway while it was still members to pass him ropes over 40 miles away. It from parachutes and haul descended into an emer- him back into the forward gency landing and a part of the plane.