B-17 Fifinella of the 322nd BS 91st BG. Fifinella flew 54 sorties before being lost on 13th August 1944 on a tactical mission in support of the Allied ground forces. The target was a railway bridge at Le Manoir, France, and 1Lt Thomas Smiths crew flew the plane as element lead. It was the 16th mission the crew had flown in Fifinella. Just prior to bombs away the ship took a direct flak hit in the cockpit and fire broke out as oxygen bottles exploded and hydraulic fluid fed the blaze. Smith held the plane steady, staying with the formation to bomb, then turning sharply upwards and away before peeling off to the left. In the next four minutes Fifinella dived several times, leveling off between each dive. Two chutes were seen to tumble from the aircraft which went into a steep dive close to the ground before being lost from view. FIFINELLA 42-107030 MIA 13 August 1944 (P) 1st Lt Thomas P Smith, Jr. (KIA); (CP) 2Lt Joe Vukovich (Evaded); (N) 2Lt Alexander W Calder II (Evaded); (B) 2Lt Robert E Bell, Jr. (P.O.W.); (TT) T/Sgt Charles F Sturgeon (P.O.W.); (RO) T/Sgt Delmar C Spears (P.O.W.); (BT) S/Sgt Jess W Britton (Evaded); (WG) S/Sgt Calvin M Seiler (Evaded); (TG) S/Sgt Leonard Rogers (Evaded).
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 22:58:57 +0000
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