MARGIE
43-38379 B-17G
91/323 OR-O
Assigned
to the group on 10th September 1944, "Margie"
survived to the end of hostilities in Europe having hauled
her load of bombs to many of the most dangerous targets
in Germany. The first sortie was to Lutzkendorf to bomb
the synthetic oil plant on 13th September with Cecil McConnell's
crew. McConnell went on to complete five more combat missions
in the plane including two as the deputy lead aircraft,
on Christmas Eve to Merzhausen and Kassel on New Year's
Day.
One
of the many crews who took the ship was that of John Flynn.
Railyards at Cologne were the target on the 3rd January
and sitting beside Flynn on that day was George Kesseiring.
George kept a notebook and after the mission wrote . "We
caut it again today - flak busted the plexiglass in the
nose and richocheted 6 times round the nose. Just missed
navigator and bombardier. Also a hole in plexiglass just
above pilot's head. The burst sounded like someone shot
off a shotgun in a silent room … don't the Germans
know its dangerous to have metal flying around in the air
that way!"
Of
the 25 different crews which flew Margie on operations,
it was Jack Brown who completed the most - 13 sorties, although
two were aborted for various reasons and were not credited
as missiions. The plane had already completed at least twenty
missions prior to their first, and abortive, sortie on 10gh
January. However, the official crew photo taken in front
of Margie does not reveal any mission markers applied to
the plane. It is highly likely that this crew was responsible
for commissioning Tony Starcer to paint the nose art and
that it had only recently been completed in January 1945
when the picture was taken. Finally, on 26th May the plane
returned to the USA, via Valley in Wales and is eventually
scrapped at the aircraft graveyard at Kingman, Arizona.
Many
years after the war was over, and the plane long since melted
back into aluminium ingots, an aviation archaeologist at
Kingman found the aircraft's load adjuster. In 1985 he presented
it to Tony Starcer in appreciation of a long friendship
and as a reminder of just one of the many airplanes he had
embellished with his artworks many years before.
"Story
taken from Plane Names & Fancy Noses, by Ray Bowden"
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