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B-17 bomb group info???

Discussion in 'Information Requests' started by Fire_spit, Sep 11, 2004.

  1. Fire_spit

    Fire_spit Member

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    HI everyone,
    I have a friend at work whos father was a B-17 pilot in WWII. I hardly have much info to go on but his last name was Warfield and the name of his B-17 was Messy Bessie. Also that he was in the 101st Bomb Group.
    I have searched all over the internet to a standstill. I am in a state of brain freeze because I just can't come up with something different to try or search for. I just can't find anyone or any info about the 101'st BG. Just by chance would anyone here know any links or info that might help me? Does anyone here happen to have any info on the bomb group?

    Fire_spit
     
  2. Erich

    Erich Alte Hase

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    Fire spit something is fishy about this......there ws no 101st bomb group that I am aware, at least not in the ETO. I have a listing of every bomb squadron in WW 2 so ask him what squadron he is in please. maybe he just got the numbering messed up as it has been a number of years.....

    I will help all I can and so will several other knowledgeable experten

    E ♪
     
  3. Erich

    Erich Alte Hase

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    I must be tired.........try here and post

    www.armyairforces.com

    they will gladly let ya know and check through the Pacific bomb groups because it sure isn;t one that flew over the Reich

    by the way your image is slick of a 55th fg P-51. is that you in the cockpit ? sweet !!
     
  4. Fire_spit

    Fire_spit Member

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    Thanks Erich,
    I will have to check with my friend. He has to have his numbers wrong because I do remember him saying that is Father did participate in the Normandy invasion. Exactly when or where??
    He is on vacation next week so it will be just a little time before I can get better and accurate info from him.
     
  5. Erich

    Erich Alte Hase

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    if he was in the 100th then this is very cool as today of all things there is a memorial going on in the Erzegebirge and over the weekend. 100th group flying close to the German/Czech border was massively assaulted by heavy Fw 190A-8's(sturm) and this was their first mission along with their proteective staffeln of III./JG 4 which flew the Bf 109G-6. to aid the US forces was the 55th fg and the 339th fg. A wild and ugly battle took place with many lives lost on both sides. i think I am wrong but at least 12 B-17's of the 100th were shot down and at least 2 B-17's from the 95th bg. September 11, 1944 has stuck out in my mind for several years until 2001 came along which marks an other deadly combat we would all like to forget.........
    back in Germany/Czech veterans from both sides are there to commemorate the battle and tributes to the fallen.

    www.lf.czu.cz/museum119

    run by good friend Jan Zdiarsky and team. One of the best aviation archaeology web-sites on the net. these young men have done some incredible digs to sort through the mysteries of this terrible date....

    E ~
     
  6. Martin Bull

    Martin Bull Acting Wg. Cdr

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    Hello Fire-Spit ; as Erich quite rightly says, there was no 101st... :(

    It'd be great to find out out which Group this man was with as I've visited just about all the old East Anglian B-17 bases over the years.
     
  7. Fire_spit

    Fire_spit Member

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    At the beginning of next week when my fried returns to work I will bug him to get me accurate info. It sounds like with the help of all of you in these forums I should be able to get a great wealth of info.
    He always told me 101,st but maybe I am getting the 'bomb group' wrong because there was everything from wings to squadrons, to etc...
    His Dad passed away quite some years back and he was one of the men that just never really talked about his service much..but he does have a book which is kind of like a year book. It has pages of pics of a lot of the different bomber crews. It is a really neat book to look through.
    I am sure this book would have all the specific info to help us out.
    I will post again here when I get some new info.
     
  8. pistonengine

    pistonengine recruit

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    Hi guys, last week I wrote down the name of "Messie Bessie" when I remembered my father relating a story about this aircraft. My wife saw it and asked my if I had some kind of girlfriend and I had to set the story straight!

    My dad, Frank S. Toll, was a truck driver for the 456 Sub Depot and ferried engines back and forth between the airfield maintenance facilities and the rebuilding facilities. His sense of humor was revealed when he said he would delight in watching little English cars scurrying off the narrow roads when they saw a big GMC truck barreling towards them. He remembered when the "Memphis Belle" landed at Thorpe Abbotts and was parked beside "Messie Bessie" and said the name inspired men to say that she was "shittin' bombs all across Europe". Later, when "Messie Bessie" was starting up to fly a mission, the pilot accidently pulled up the landing gear and the outboard engines ground their props down when they settled onto the hardstand. He used to grind camshafts for Curtis Wright before enlisting to "get into the action" and thought to himself about what kind of damage the engines were getting with such a maneuver and knew a trip to the rebuilding shop was coming up.

    I can't vouch for the accuracy here, just wanted to relate a story from my Dad told his boys who all thought he hung the moon. I have dozens of aviation books, over a hundred models (WW2 prop jobs, of course!) and my prize possession is his copy of "Contrails: My War Record". I was (and still am) awed by WW2 aviation and how such technology that spawned flathead Fords and such could produce the power and speed that came in those years.

    Dad passed away in "87 and there are so many things I want to tell and show him. I have a big garden that he would be proud of, and my small orchard would have inspired him to take it up and learn something from his boy. I miss you, Dad.

    Herbert M. Toll
     
  9. Skipper

    Skipper Kommodore

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    Messie Bessie was the 100th [​IMG]

    George Roth Crew - MESSIE BESSIE

    1st Lt. George L. Roth

    Is this the crew? iF YES it yes the George Roth Crew. Hope this helps. I added the links to the 100th bg site.One problem: This aircraft was shot down over Rouen in 1944 , so the dates wouldn't match .
     
  10. Trains13

    Trains13 recruit

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    I hope this message is not to late for your search.

    Today I met the last surviving member of the Messy Bessy, he said as he

    walked with a cane. He said all the other crew members passed on.

    He told me his story and he wrote a book .( Return Ticket )

    The My.By. crew had to use another B-17 that day called

    the Return Ticket on their 24th mission. The Messy Bessy was down for

    repairs from flak damage. A few weeks earlier the crew found out that

    the Air Corp changed the requirements from completed missions to 30

    before the could go back to the states.

    His name is Carl R. Carlson

    He is 87 years old today and was the right waist gunner on the Messy

    Bessy.

    The crew flew their last mission on the the Return Ticket and was hit by

    flack on a mission for a V-1 rocket airfield in June 44 over occupied

    France.

    He was captured by the germans and landed in Luft stalag 4 in Poland

    area, he only had reunited with a few of his crewmen,(pilot and naviagtor

    didn't make it). They spent about a year there with 10,000 other POWs.

    When he landed with his parachute he landed very hard on a

    hill and broke his left foot, no medical care at pow camp, had to leave

    boot on for a month to help it heal .... he kept a diary of his

    days and wrote a great book.
     
  11. Skipper

    Skipper Kommodore

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    Hi trains13, thanks for your information , I hope Firespit will read this too. Please send my regards to Mr Carlson , many here are still grateful for what what he did and his efforts are not forgotten.

    here is a link of pictures of Stalag Luft IV , maybe you'll have a chance to show these to Carl? Photos of Stalag Luft IV
     

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