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EMEIGH
42-39815
B-17G 91/323 OR-N

Mario Mattie was the crew chief on Chuck Giauque's "The Eagle's Wrath" and after that plane was shot down on the Schweinfurt raid, he was given another B-17 to keep in flying order.

The newly arrived Fortress was in the hangar at Bassingbourn being prepared for combat. Since there had been no flying crew yet assigned to this most recent replacement, Mario decided he would name the plane himself. "Deciding to name the plane was easy," he wrote, "I decided to name this Fort after my home town in Pennsylvania: Emeigh! (pronounced Amy)."

"Amy is a girl's name," continued Mario "so I thought I had better get a pretty girl painted on the nose. Our squadron artist, I don't recall his name, said it would be best if I gave him something to show what I wanted for the nose art. He didn't want to paint anything freehand. From a magazine I took the drawing of a young woman with beautiful full legs. It was an advertisement for Mojud Hosiery, thus the beautiful legs. The sweater was white and the skirt was navy blue." In December Mario Mattie said his good-buys to Emeigh and returned to the States to attend Flight School. By that time Warrington Dalton had taken over the plane on a regular basis and went on to complete twelve missions in it. Emeigh lasted about five months before going down on her 23rd mission, to Oschersleben on the 22nd February 1944. Captain Dalton and his crew had taken the ship to Gutersloh on the previous day to bomb the airfield but was not flying on the 22nd. It was Ken Sutherland's first mission in Emeigh and it would be his, and the aircraft's, last. Heavy cloud cover over the target meant that the formation was forced to divert to other targets in and around the cities of Marburg, Bunde and Magdeburg. The Luftwaffe fighters intercepted in force and pressed home determined attacks with considerable aggression and left over 30 bombers burning on the ground before the day was over, four from the 91st and another ditched into the sea. Hit by flak at about 12.OOhrs, Ken Sutherland was forced to feather the number one propeller. Almost immediately, swarms of MelO9s attacked and as the group increased speed and tightened their formation Emeigh was gradually left behind. One 500Ib bomb remained hung up in the bomb bay after the load was salvoed to lighten the ship and the struggling Fort was subjected to repeated attacks. Two enemy fighters came in on individual passes: the first poured machine gun fire and 20mm cannon shells into the plane killing the engineer, copilot and tail gunner and wounding two other crew men. As the survivors prepared to bail out of the waist door, the second Mel09 attacked and ripped into three other men. The pilot stayed at the controls to try to keep the plane steady and give the survivors a chance of bailing out but just as the wounded waist gunner S/Sgt. Fred Tabor leaped from the waist, Emeigh turned over and went into a spin. Although he saw no other chutes, the navigator and bombardier did survive -1/Lt's. Frederick McBride and Leslie Price, also became prisoners of war. Seven men died.

"Story taken from Plane Names & Fancy Noses, by Ray Bowden"after the load was salvoed to lighten the ship and the struggling Fort was subjected to repeated attacks. Two enemy fighters came in on individual passes: the first poured machine gun fire and 20mm cannon shells into the plane killing the engineer, copilot and tail gunner and wounding two other crew men. As the survivors prepared to bail out of the waist door, the second Mel09 attacked and ripped into three other men. The pilot stayed at the controls to try to keep the plane steady and give the survivors a chance of bailing out but just as the wounded waist gunner S/Sgt. Fred Tabor leaped from the waist, Emeigh turned over and went into a spin. Although he saw no other chutes, the navigator and bombardier did survive -1/Lt's. Frederick McBride and Leslie Price, also became prisoners of war. Seven men died.

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