Hell's Angels | |
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General information | |
Type | Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress |
Manufacturer | Boeing Aircraft Company |
Construction number | 3262 [1] |
Serial | 41-24577 |
History | |
Fate | Sold for scrap, August 7, 1945 |
Hell's Angels was a Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress used during the Second World War. It was one of the first B-17s in the 8th Air Force to complete 25 credited combat missions in the European Theater. Ultimately, Hell's Angels would go on to complete 48 missions without any crewman injured or being forced to turn back. [2] [3]
Hell's Angels was often considered the first 8th Air Force B-17 to complete 25 credited combat missions. However, recent research by Mick Hanou, president of the 91st Bombardment Group Memorial Association and historian Jeff Duford, a curator at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, has confirmed that a B-17F of the 323rd Bombardment Squadron, 91st Bombardment Group, serial number 42-5077 and nicknamed Delta Rebel No. 2, completed 25 credited combat missions on 1 May 1943, becoming the first B-17 in the European Theater to complete the feat, two weeks before Hell's Angels.Delta Rebel No. 2, was shot down during the 12 August 1943 mission to Gelsenkirchen, Germany, with six of its crew captured as prisoners of war and four killed in action. [4]
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engined heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). A fast and high-flying bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater of Operations and dropped more bombs than any other aircraft during World War II. It is the third-most produced bomber of all time, behind the American four-engined Consolidated B-24 Liberator and the German multirole, twin-engined Junkers Ju 88. It was also employed as a transport, antisubmarine aircraft, drone controller, and search-and-rescue aircraft.
The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Forces Strategic – Global Strike, one of the air components of United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM). The Eighth Air Force includes the heart of America's heavy bomber force: the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, the Rockwell B-1 Lancer supersonic bomber, and the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress heavy bomber aircraft.
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The 91st Bombardment Group (Heavy) was an air combat unit of the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War. Classified as a heavy bombardment group, the 91st operated Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft and was known unofficially as "The Ragged Irregulars" or as "Wray's Ragged Irregulars", after the commander who took the group to England. During its service in World War II the unit consisted of the 322nd, 323rd, 324th, and 401st Bomb Squadrons. The 91st Bombardment Group is most noted as the unit in which the bomber Memphis Belle flew, and for having suffered the greatest number of losses of any heavy bombardment group in World War II.
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The 547th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was first activated during World War II as a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress unit. After training in the United States, it deployed to the European Theater of Operations, where it participated in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany, earning two Distinguished Unit Citations. Following V-E Day, the squadron moved to France and was inactivated there in early 1946.
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