LUCKY 13
B-17
91/323 OR

Nothing is known about this aircraft except that it was believed to have been assigned to the group's 323rd Squadron. There were at least two other Fortresses assigned to the 8th Air Force that are known to have carried a similar title, one in the 384th and another in the 94th Bomb Group. No links with the 91st have located as yet for either of these B-17s but it is likely, with such a popular sentiment for a title, that there were other possibilities.

There were at least two B-17Fs assigned to the 91st whose serial numbers ended with #13 and for which no name has yet been attributed. One, 42-29813 was assigned to 322nd Squadron but the other, 42-31513, was aircraft "S-Sugar" of 323rd Squadron. This latter must be considered a possibility for the identity of "Lucky 13". If that is the case then lucky she was not! With just one mission credited on 3rd March, and that had been aborted, the aircraft landed at Bassingbourn after a training flight in early April with an uncontrollable engine fire. It was abandoned by Lt.Kuehl's crew and burned out on the tarmac. It was at Bassingbourn for only six weeks.

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