HELL'S HALO
42-5804 B-17F
91/323 OR-R

Originally part of the 96th Bomb Group’s complement, this Vega-built B-17F was transferred to the 306th Bomb Group on 6th August 1943 and a little over a month later, on 11th September, joined the 91st’s 322nd squadron. Flying with this squadron, and later with the 323rd, “Hell’s Halo” led the group on six occasions to some of the toughest targets there were: Anklam, Emden, Bremen, Cognac, Kiel and finally Oschersleben on 11th January 1944.

Lt. Col. Milton was the command pilot that day with Capt. Leroy Everett’s crew. Bombardier Larry O’Neill recalled “We left the field with six 500 pound demolition bombs and a bomb bay tank full of gas. Over Holland, the enemy fighters made their first pass at us and they kept it up for at least three hours, all the way to the target and back. All their attacks were from the front and all were aimed at my ship. Long before the target we had our No.3 engine shot away and on the bomb run our No.2 was shot out. Capt. Everett let them windmill rather than feather them and we held in formation with just two engines.”

Repeated attacks after bombing knocked out radio equipment, ruined the navigation compartment and made a shambles of the cockpit. Nearly fifty years ago, in a PRO report, O’Neill had recorded “25 fighters came right through our formation on the bomb run…they blew a hole the size of a No.2 bathtub right in the floor of the nose…we had a fire on board too and, God, how I hate fires in and airplane.” A 20mm shell had struck a large oxygen bottle and the resultant explosion set the cockpit ablaze, set off some red flares and started another fire in the nose. Still over the target, Col. Milton was wounded by 20mm fragments but continued to act as copilot and helped to guide the ship back for nearly four hours and over 500 miles.

Larry O’Neill continued his recollection, “We feathered the two engines before landing. The brakes were shot out so we had to make a crash landing but the pilots did a swell job. The plane itself was junked”. They landed at a B24 base at Hethel swerving off the runway to narrowly avoid a collision with a Liberator parked on the ground. It was O’Neill’s 13th mission and Col. Milton’s too.

Larry concluded, “I assume that Tony Starcer did the artwork on this plane. He was the only one doing this type of art when I was there. He did the art on the back of my flight jacket and I know I paid him what I thought was princely sum at the time - about $25.00. I still have that jacket with the bombs painted around the insignia.”

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