IX Engineer Command

I noticed the crashed B-17 photo.

Just in case no one has answered the question as to the Bomb Group:

I read the photo as showing a triangle-J. Tha would make the aircraft from the 351st Bomb Group

If I had thge tail serial number, I could look up the data on the aircraft.

Theron

tsnell@wi.rr.com

Hi Theron. I wasn't able to tease any more info out of the photo so can't get you the tail number. I'll be updating the description though from your information. Thanks

David

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I think I have the B-17 pegged. The triangle-J of the 351st BG can be clearly seen on the tail. This plane seems to be a later B-17 model, late F or G, as there is a chin turret, and the plane is bare metal with the red diagonal band of the 351st on the tail. Air squadrons had a 2-character code on the plane's rear fuselage along with a third letter identifying the individual plane within the squadron. Unfortunately, the left wing blocks out these characters; but on the tail below the tail number is the plane ID letter, from the shape, it seems to be a "Z". I looked on the 351st BG website, where they have an almost complete list of plane numbers, squadron codes, and ID letters, for the 279 planes (124 of which were lost during the war) that served with the group's four squadrons. After going through the list, I found 10 planes that had a "Z" ID letter in the 351st. Using the picture date and location, October 1944 and Leige, Belgium, I began eliminating aircraft from the list of possibilities. Five of the "Z" planes were lost before October, 1944; one was transferred to another BG before October, 1944; and three survived the war. That left one possibility: the 508th Bombardment Squadron's (YB-squadron code) 42-97965 YB-Z (no plane name was listed). The plane was hit by flak in the Brussels area, and crash landed shortly afterward (near Leige). The airframe was later salvaged, probably because it was equipped with the H2X special radar. This plane was lost on October 15, 1944.