CHENNAULT'S PAPPY
42-3172
B-17F
91/323 OR-R/X

Before joining the 9lst. on 25th September 1943, this F model served with the 306th Bomb Group for six weeks. During that period she carried the name Miss Patricia but in late June heavy battle damage resulted in the plane being sent to the Air Force Service Command for major repairs. It was a further three months before the plane was fit for combat again and was transferred to the 91st.on 25th September where it is believed that it acquired the new name of Chennault's Pappy.

Clare Chennault was the famed American flyer whose revolutionary pre-war theories about the use of air power had won him many admirers and critics. His subsequent exploits in China with the much publicized volunteer Flying Tigers, flying their P-40 fighters, assured him a place on the cover of Life magazine, on August 1942, and inspired many admirers within the ranks of the USAAF.

Originally starting her life with the group as aircraft 'R' of 323rd Squadron this was later changed to 'X'. The nose art was simplicity itself and comprised of two lines of yellow lettering on each side. Twenty-three missions are recorded with the 323rd Squadron including four trips to Bremen and three to Frankfurt. There were no easy options in the autumn of 1943 and Chennault's Pappy began its combat career the hard way with a raid on Anklam on 9th October followed five days later by a strike on Schweinfurt. On both occasions the pilot was Warrington

Dalton and it was the only two occasions he would fly the ship into combat. Charles Samuelson took over the plane for its first strike on Bremen on 26th November and flew nine further missions in the aircraft. As the missions of the Eighth Air Force got longer and longer, striking deeper and deeper into the heart of the German war machine, Chennault's Pappy became outclassed by the newer Fortresses arriving in the UK. Their extra wing tanks gave them a considerable increase in striking range and the earlier B-17Fs could not reach these distant targets. Seven months after arriving in the group, Chennault's Pappy was finally sent back to Air Force Service Command, this' time to be made ready for the trip back to the USA on 13th June 1944.

"Story taken from Plane Names & Fancy Noses, by Ray Bowden"