YANKEE DANDY
42-29916
B-17F 91/323 OR-L

Very little has been established about the service record of this Boeing-built B17F that arrived at Bassingbourn on 7th June 1943. It only lasted about six weeks with the group before going down on a mission to Kassel. Unfortunately, the mission records for the 323rd Squadron for this period are rather inadequate and only give details of the pilots who flew and no indication of which planes were involved. The 323rd Squadron flew a total of 13 missions between the date this ship arrived and the date of its loss but it is extremely unlikely that Yankee Dandy would have made every one of those missions. If it had, it would certainly have proved to be 'unlucky 13' for the ship when it went down on 30th July.

Harold Holden was copilot on the crew of Bob Miles and he clearly remembered the plane. "We kicked around several names for our B 17 before deciding on Yankee Dandy", he recalled, "as another Fort was already called Yankee Doodle Dandy. I had suggested then a The 'Sooner Schooner' since that is a name well known in Oklahoma but the other crew members also had their own preferences. The name Yankee Dandy was simply painted in yellow on each side of the nose. There wasn't any fancy artwork that I recall. I did read a letter from my wife asking if we had named the plane 'Jolly Roger' so I guess that was another name we had considered."

A study of Harold's mission list indicates that Yankee Dandy flew missions to Villacoublay on the 10th July, to Hanover on 17th, Heroya on 24th, Hamburg on 25th July. The Miles crew also flew a second mission to Hamburg on the following day but Harold noted, "As I recall the second mission to Hamburg was in a different plane, name unknown, while Yankee Dandy was being fitted with, perhaps, a new wing and other repairs from the first Hamburg raid."

The Miles' crew were on board again on 30th July and on that day, Yankee Dandy crossed the target, the Bettenhausen Fieslerworks at Kassel, but did not make it back to the coast. Between 50 and 75 enemy fighters hit the formation en route to Kassel and over the target area intense flak peppered and sliced through the 91st formation.

Harold Holden recounted what happened, "Before take off, Bob suggested we trade seats as we were flying 'Tail End Charlie', off the left wing of the next to last B17. Bob thought that while he was flying he could do a better job of formation flying so I was in a position to be pilot in command when we had two engines shot out, two crew members killed and four others badly wounded.

Dropping way back from the formation, I yelled into the intercom to bail out, setting off the alarm bell at the same time. We were Over Holland at the time and the fighters were lining up for the kill. I think most of them took a shot at us but someone from our plane shot down one Hun because he was below me in a Parachute. After landing, Dutch loyalists told Harold that the German Pilot had landed smack in the Rhine. I thought I would too, had I not started slipping my chute. I was still slipping it when I landed in the muck at the edge of the river. In so doing, I broke my leg in three places and tore up my right knee, but at least I was alive!" Yankee Dandy crashed into poiderland at Berkel-Zoetermeer, near Rotterdam. Tail gunner Frederick Maynard and waist gunner Earl West lost their lives but the other eight men on the crew did survive as prisoners of war.

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