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DEMO DARLING
42-39774
B-17G
91/323 OR-R/0
 A
camouflaged Vega-built G model assigned
to the 91st Bomb Group at Bassingbourn
on 18th October 1943, serving initially
as aircraft "AR" and later as
"0".
The
nose art on the port side was painted
by Tony Starcer and showed a bikini girl
ringing a tiny bell, astride a large demolition
bomb. Above the long row of mission markets
were five yellow swastikas denoting enemy
fighter kills claimed by the crew. One
of these was for an Fwl90 shot down by
a gunner on the Register crew over Frankfurt
on 2nd March. This crew was flying in
Demo Darling for the first time and went
on to complete another seven sorties in
the plane, including two raids on Berlin.
They would have made it a third time but
were forced to abort on 6th March, the
8th Air Force's first successful raid
on the German capital.
The
plane had initially been assigned to the
Thompson crew and they flew its first
combat mission to Gelsenkirchen on 5th
November and continued to fly Demo Darling
on nine more raids. Captain Karl Thompson
led the high squadron to Oschersleben
in Demo Darling on llth January. She survived
that epic running battle with the Luftwaffe
and would fly more than 26 combat missions
to some of the most hotly contested targets
in Germany. The most desperate mission
was to Oschersleben and Bunde on 22nd
February, under the command of William
Reid. Severely battle damaged, the plane
returned to Bassingbourn with one dead
and one wounded after fighters had hit
the ship from head on.
Carl
Riser's crew was the last to fly Demo
Darling into combat on 13th April when
the 8th Air Force hit Schweinfurt yet
again. Three weeks later, on 3rd May 1944,it
was transferred to Air Force Service Command.
"Story
taken from Plane Names & Fancy Noses,by
Ray Bowden"
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