Identification of airplanes over Holland

Hi,

I have a photograph of planes PROBABLY taking part in the food dropping over the Netherlands. There are three planes visible and I scanned them seperatly. The photograph is small. But I hope somebody is still able to identify them as detailed as possible.





Note the open bomb bays. Problably dropzone Hilversum.

thx

 

Think it might be 350th Squadron, SerNo 338414 "Heaven Sent." I messed with the photo in a photo program and thought I could make out 414.

Good Link:

http://www.100thbg.com/index.htm

 

I Confirm the 100th Bg. However I can't find this Operation listed in the "Heaven Sent" Operation list

 

Squadron is either 350th or 418th, (LN, LD) since they're the only ones in the 100th BG who ever had B-17s with Y and Z as the aircraft code. (Those were the two I could make out). I'm going back over the photos again with a better program on a different computer.

 

Couldn't be Heaven Sent. She was shot down over France and wasn't salvaged and returned 'til May 30th. Chowhound ran from 29 Apr to 08 May

 

Thanks guys so far!
I can only tell that this photograph comes from a set of ww2 photographs in a ww2 scrapbook. The picture is probably taken on may 7th or just before it. I conclude that because the pictures all seem to be taken by a one and the same prof photographer during the 7 may liberation of Hilversum in Holland.

I also could only make out Y and Z. Thought the other was F or E, but I am not 100% sure.

My scanner goes to 600 dpi. Which is the resolution these pictures were scanned with. I don't think it will help to let someone else with a better scanner do it again in higher res. The photograph is to small.

I will see if I can make some 'enhanced' quality scans. But I think it will not do much good.

 

You'd be surprised what an office supply store like staples or office max can do for you. They have scanners that would blow you away.

 

Any chance the serial on the tail can be made out? This would positively ID the aircraft.

 

I do not think a higher res scanner will show us more detail. The photograph is only 4 inches wide and each plane is far less than an inch on the photo.

But I will visit a friend soon who has a better scanner with more dpi. If that results in better pictures, I will post them.

Thx very much so far!

btw, the other pictures (planes not identifyable) can be seen here...

First a THEN-NOW picture:




More in detail:

http://ww2propaganda.eu/test/hil3a.jpg
http://ww2propaganda.eu/test/hil3b.jpg
http://ww2propaganda.eu/test/hil3c.jpg

The view of the town is Hilversum. The tower in the back (with just recognisable a plane over it) is the cityhall tower of Hilversum. The Germans had it camouflaged as a watchtower. So you can just see the nets around it. The other picture is taken from the same street of a plane comming just over.

Both planes are heading for the dropping fields.
I reconstructed the flight path from the plane and found that it ended exactly at the known dropping field in Hilversum.

And of course I included a complete view of the photograph from my initial question. Remember, all the photographs are VERY small.