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THE VILLAGE FLIRT
42-29739 B-17F
91/323 OR-M

Before joining the 91st Bomb Group this "F" model served with two prior owners. Initially assigned to the 95th Bomb Group at Alconbury, the plane flew two combat sorties in May 1943 but suffered from friendly fire on the latter of these. The airplane's horizontal stabilizer was severely damaged by fire from an aerial gunner and returned early with its ball turret also inoperative. Although the plane remained with that group until early August, it flew no further combat missions.

On 4th August, the aircraft was transferred into the 306th Bomb Group where it received the title of "Wolf Pack" and a fine piece of nose art on the left side which featured a cartoon wolf chasing a standing nude. Its combat record with the 306th is not known but the plane did not stay with them long before being transferred to the 91st. Nor is it known if the plane arrived at Bassingbourn on 11th Septeember still sporting its "Wolf Pack" artwork. If it did, then it was quickly changed to "The Village Flirt" and Tony Starcer lost no time in painting a figure in a flowing skirt onto both sides of the nose.

"The Village Flirt" went on to complete thirty missions with the 91st, more than half of them, 18, under the command of David Bramble. The first two missions with the group were flown by Joseph Seykora's crew, on the 16th and 23rd September - on both occasions the target was Nantes in France but the second trip ended early with an abort and no credit for the sortie. Bramble's crew took over the plane and their first mission in it was to another French target, Meulan-les-Mureaux, a suburb of Paris. Inclement weather caused the mission to be aborted and all the group's aircraft returned with their bomb load. Other missions followed including five to Bremen, all with David Bramble's crew. The first of the raids on Bremen, 8th October, placed Bramble in the copilot's seat of "The Village Flirt" while Lt.Col.Monroe Melton took command of the ship.

On every mission that David Bramble flew in "The Village Flirt", except the above mentioned Bremen raid, his copilot was Philip Mack. "The airplane was painted by Tony Starcer," he recalled. "As to the naming, I have to confess it was done by another crew. They didn't have the plane very long, the pilot was hospitalized and never returned to duty. Our crew discussed naming an aircraft and agreed that we didn't want an offensive name or artwork. Vulgarities were out. We also agreed that we didn't want to incite the enemy in the event we had to crash land in Germany. We had heard that one crew in another group had named their ship "Murder Inc." and were treated badly when they came down in a populated area of Germany. This B-17F to which we were assigned met our criteria perfectly.

On the nose was a beautiful lady with bright red hair, fully clad in a flowing skirt. The color of the girl's dress was white and, if I remember correctly, the waist ribbon was pink. As to her hair, it was more of an auburn hue. Most of the crew had their flight jackets painted, I did, and I believe Tony Starcer painted these as well as the nose art on both sides of the ship."

Phil Mack continued, "Only one crew member painted the name of a loved one on the "The Village Flirt", that was our navigator Quentin Ellis. He had a girlfriend named Rena. Quentin and Rena got married after he returned to the States. Our radio sign changed but mostly it was "Street Clock-M-Mike" but with a name like mine it came over the air a "M-for-Mack" more often than not."

The last mission the Bramble crew flew in their plane was on 30th January, to Brunswick. Various other crews filled out the mission tally until 20th February when 2/Lt.Raid took "The Village Flirt" to Aschersleben with the group's 'B' formation. It was the first day of the 8th Air Force's "Big Week", the beginning of a series of strategic operations aimed at the airframe and assembly plants for the Luftwaffe's fighters. The German fighter assaults were not heavy but made good use of the haze and pressed home their attacks, knocking down one 91st Fort. The flak experienced by the formation was described as being meagre inaccurate on the way in and moderate accurate over the target. It was certainly accurate enough to cause major damage to "The Village Flirt" and to seriously wound the bombardier and ball gunner. It was the plane's 30th sortie and, although it brought the crew home, it was the last combat mission the plane would fly.

Patched up and repaired, the plane remained at Bassingbourn until 5th April 1944, at which time it was transferred to the Air Force Service Command and returned to the States. By now new aircraft were arriving in the theatre with long range fuel tanks and B-17G chin turrets. But, unlike many of her contemporaries , the story did not end there for "The Village Flirt". After the war was over, Philip Mack became a pilot for an oil company and on 3rd June 1946 he stopped at Weir Cook International Airport, Indianapolis to refuel. He picked up the story, "I landed to the east and there on the north parking ramp was a familiar sight. At first I thought someone had copied the artwork and reproduced it. Afterwards, when I had a chance to walk around the airplane, I could see it had the original serial number visible. The airplane looked different of course, without its guns bristling from the windows, or the top turret sticking up from the cabin, or the ball turret hanging down below. There were no tail guns either. I walked around and looked for some holes I remembered. They had all been expertly repaired. Some of the patches looked more like inspection access panels."

Phil discovered that the plane was then operated by the Civil Aeronautics Administration (now FAA) for tests on a new instrument landing system. He continued, "This system, when developed, became the ILS that is used by every major airport in the world today. So the "Flirt" continued to make its contribution to aviation even after a brilliant wartime service."

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