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BETTY LOU'S BUGGY
42-37938 B-17G-20-DL
91/323-E OR-E

After the original Betty Lou's Buggy had been transferred, a second ship seems to have inherited the title. Jack Gaffney recalled flying home to the States after the war had finished in a ship called Betty Lou's Buggy. The record shows that the plane was 42-37938. It had been assigned to the 91st.Bomb Group on 30th March 1944, was listed as 'War Weary' by 6th December, but went on to survive the war. What form the nose art took is not known but presumably it followed a similar theme to the original. The photo on the preceding page is often associated with this later plane but the date of that picture, 12th March 1944, makes that association incorrect.

On 19th April 1944, on the mission to the FW assembly plant at Eschwege near Kassel, the plane was attacked by a wave of enemy fighters Machine gun fire and 20mm hits soon brought flames licking out from the laden bomb bay until extinguished by the engineer/top turret gunner, M/Sgt. George Parks. Further hits wounded the, Navigator and copilot and the plane fell into a flat spin with pilot, Thomas Gunn, struggling at the shattered controls in a cockpit which was so thick with acrid smoke that he was forced to open the side window to peer out and see where the horizon was. Finally she leveled out at around 15,000ft. enabaling the pilot to regain control and the bomb load to be jettisoned somewhere in the vicinity of the target. Damage assessment established that most of the instruments were shot out and the rudder cables severed, there was a large hole blown through the tail fin, one turbo was out and an engine damaged, elevators and ailerons were also damaged and fuel leaked from he main left wing tank. Although the damage was severe, it did not prove to be fatal for the plane or crew and, closely escorted by their little friends, Thomas Gunn's crew made it back to Bassingbourn more than seven hours after taking off.

At this stage in its career the plane appears to have been unnamed and it was 6th of May before it flew another sortie, to Sottevast. The following day the mission to Berlin was scheduled but was aborted due to the failure of a supercharger. It was another three weeks before another mission was scheduled for the plane and it took off for Dessalu with Lt. Maxwell's crew on board but it was once again aborted due to an oil leak. The squadron history contained a telling note: "This plane has taken off five times and has a record of three abortives which have been caused by many things, but all the pilots have claimed it is slow. The Squadron CO personally flew it and found t to be defective, so until it makes a better showing on a test flight, he has grounded it for combat operations."

Only two further combat missions have been recorded for the plane and both may be erroneous. There is conflicting data in the records that indicates that the 324th Squadron flew a #938 to Munich on llth and 12th July. Other data indicates that this refers to aircraft 42-31938 but this may be as a result of a slip of the clerk's finger in typing the serial number. In any case, by 6th December the ship was listed as AWar Weary' and on 6th February 1945 as 'WW-SO'.

How or why the name Betty Lou's Buggy came to be applied to this aircraft is a puzzle as no link can be found between Arvid Malvik's crew and his ship. However, crew chief Jack Gaffney clearly recalled flying home to the USA in June 1945 in a ship named Betty Lou's Buggy. This was the plane he made that trip in together with pilot Harold Gertsen and 18 other men, leaving Bassingbourn for Valley in Wales on 8th June. After flying to Rejkovic and on to Goose Bay, they eventually landed at Grenier Field, New Hampshire, where they left the plane to be ferried on to the scrap yard and smelter's furnace.