|
|
HARASS
DRAGON
42-31372 B-17G
91/323 OR-P
Assigned
to the 91st Bomb Group on
20th December 1943, this
plane lasted less than one
month before being lost
to enemy action. It was
flying only its fifth combat
mission but appears to have
acquired two names within
that short service life.
The titles “Harass
Dragon” and “Malayan
Lady” are both attributed
to this plane although no
confirming photograph of
either has yet been located.
It is possible that it carried
different nose art on each
side or, perhaps more likely,
the artwork had no actual
lettering applied allowing
observers to attribute whichever
name was preferred. The
latter, “Malayan Lady”,
seems to have been the more
common preference and is
certainly the name that
appears most often on contemporary
documentation.
1/LT.Edwin Reid took the
ship on its first combat
mission on Christmas Eve
to bomb a V-weapon site
in the Pas de Calais region.
Reid also took the aircraft
to Ludwigshaven, twice,
on 30th December and 10th
January. Charles Samuelson
flew the plane on its only
other successful mission
to Kiel on 4th January.
Another mission, on 5th
January, was scheduled for
“Harass Dragon”
but mechanical failure prevented
the plane from taking off.
For its fifth and final
sortie, the Reid crew took
the plane to Oschersleben
on 11th January on a mission
that was to cost the 91st
five of its aircraft. Approaching
the target, No 3 engine
was lost and could not be
feathered so the pilots
had little option but to
pull out of the formation.
Once alone, fighters attacked
and, in their first pass,
both the officers in the
nose were wounded by 20mm
hits. The airplane went
into a sudden dive and fire
started to consume the crawlway
beneath the pilot’s
cabin. According to a later
report by Stringer Brayton,
copilot of an accompanying
plane, a german fighter
just clipped the right wing
of Harass Dragon with its
right wing and tipped the
bomber into a spinning dive.
Most of the crew was on
their 12th mission that
day and only three men survived.
"Story
taken from Plane Names &
Fancy Noses, by Ray Bowden"
|
