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SWEET
17
The
Spirit
of
St.
Louis
42-97276
B-17G
91/323
OR-S/B
 Arriving
at
Bassingbourn
on
7th
March.
1944
this
silver
Boeing-built
B17G
survived
more
than
a
full
year
of
combat
in
the
freezing
skies
over
Northern
Europe.
Named
by
her
first
crew,
whose
pilot
Alexander
Thomas
hailed
from
St.
Louis
Missouri,
Sweet
17
sported
an
unusually
austere
piece
of
nose
art
for
one
painted
by
Tony
Starcer
whose
reputation
as
an
artist
had,
by
this
time,
been
well
estabished.
The
Spirit
of
St.
Louis
was,
of
course,
the
name
of
Charles
Lindberg's
famous
plane
in
which
he
had
made
his
pioneering
flight
across
the
Atlantic
single
handed
in
1927.
Many
of
the
young
and
inexperienced
aircrews
that
took
off
from
the
east
coast
to
fly
across
thousands
of
miles
of
featureless
sea
must
have
felt
as
though
they,
too,
were
taking
that
first
pioneering
flight
into
the
unknown.
Sweet
17's
first
mission
was
not
flown
by
the
Thomas
crew
but
by
that
of
1/Lt.
Benjamin
Bruce.
He
took
the
ship
to
Brussels
in
occupied
Belgium
on
1Oth
April
to
bomb
a
coking
and
chemical
works.
It
was
not
until
the
fourth
mission,
on
18th
April
to
Oranienburg,
did
Alexander
Thomas
fly
his
Sweet
17
into
battle.
It
was
the
first
of
14
missions
he
would
fly
in
the
plane
including
two
trips
to
Berlin.
Almost
exactly
one
year
after
its
first
combat
sortie,
Sweet
17
flew
its
last
mission
of
the
war
to
Neumunster
on
13th
April
1945.
By
then
the
veteran
Fortress
had
flown
more
than
84
missions
with
at
least
36
different
crews.
One
crew
that
flew
the
ship
in
late
December
and
through
January
was
John
Flynn's.
Sitting
beside
Flynn
was
George
Kesselring
and
he
recalled
several
missions
in
Sweet
17,
the
first
was
Christmas
Eve
to
strike
airfields
at
Frankfurt.
In
his
diary
he
described
the
mission
as
"horrible"
As
a
consequence
of
the
instrument
takeoff
in
poor
weather
and
the
accurate
flak
they
encountered
over
the
target.
Landing
back
at
Bury
St.
Edmunds
they
spent
the
night
there
before
returning
to
Bassingbourn
the
following
day.
The
first
day
of
the
New
Year
saw
George
Kesselring
back
in
the
seat
of
Sweet
17,
this
time
heading
for
Kassel.
"A
plane
blew
up
on
takeoff
all
killed,"
he
wrote,
"
Two
planes
collided
over
the
Channel,
one
ship
went
down
in
flames.
There
were
eight
chutes
but
poor
kids
couldn't
possibly
last
more
than
10-15
minutes.
The
other
ship
ditched
and
life
boats
were
seen."
This
was
a
398th
Bomb
Group
plane
and
six
of
the
crew
were
rescued.
George
continued
"Flak
on
entrance
into
Denmark.
Couldn't
bomb
primary
so
went
to
secondary.
On
second
pass
over
target
-
flak!
We
got
5
different
bursts....
shot
out
glycol
system
in
No.
2
engine
-
couldn't
feather.
Just
missed
the
No.
4
gas
tank.
A
hole
3
inches
in
diameter
within
8
inches
of
ball
turret.
A
hole
2
inches
in
diameter
about
one
foot
below
my
seat!!...
fighters
were
seen
but
none
attacked
our
group".
It
was
a
rugged
mission
and
George
concluded
"What
a
day,
what
a
way
to
start
the
New
Year!"
Sweet
]7
was
repaired
and
patched
and
sent
back
into
action
five
days
later,
again
with
Flynn's
crew.
But
as
the
plane
climbed
away
after
takeoff,
to
assemble
for
the
mission
to
Cologne
on
6th
January,
a
fire
started
in
the
top
turret.
Quick
action
by
pilots
Kesselring
and
Flynn
turned
the
fully
laden
ship
around
and
brought
it
back
to,
Bassingbourn
without
too
much
damage.
There
was
another
mission
in
it
on
the
10th
and
then
on
14th
January
George
noted
"We
caught
flak
at
the
front
lines
and
were
under
fire
for
15
minutes.
Longest
and
most
accurate
flak
encountered....
our
No.
2
wing
ship
blew
up..."
He
continued.
Flynn
had
4
holes
close
to
him.
One
grazed
his
hand
-
I
thought
he'd
had
it!
Three
holes
in
right
wing,
two
in
left
wing,
chunk
out
of
prop,
hole
in
waist
upper
turret....
worst
mission
yet!!"
One
month
later,
after
several
more
missions
for
both
Kesseiring
and
Sweet
17,
he
was
back
over
enemy
territory
in
the
ship
again
on
14th
February.
"Boy,
what
a
mission!"
he
wrote,
"Just
about
wilted
when
we
saw
the
target
.......
The
target
that
day
was
Dresden
but
a
combination
of
high
winds,
navigational
errors
and
towering
smoke
from
RAF
night
bombing
took
the
formation
to
Prague
instead.
"We
went
over
the
target
and
started
back....
found
ourselves
about
150
miles
off
course.
We
had
gotten
very
little
flak
over
the
target
but
we
were
running
short
of
gas.
We
finally
came
to
our
lines
(Rhine
River)
and
started
to
get
lots
of
flak.
John
caught
a
piece
in
his
right
thigh
that
came
up
under
my
seat
Curtiss
got
John
down
from
the
cockpit....
I
kept
Russell
in
the
cockpit
just
in
case....
I
dropped
out
of
formation
and
leaned
out
the
mixture
to
save
gas....
decided
to
land
at
the
nearest
available
field."
They
made
it
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