B-17F «Hell's Angels»

On May 13th, 1942, the B-17F «Hell's Angels» (#41-24577) became the first heavy bomber to complete 25 combat missions in the European Theater. It was assigned to the 358th Bomb Squadron, 303rd Bombardment Group (H) and flew from RAF Molesworth. After completing her 25th mission, «Hell’s Angels» remained in theater until 1944 and flew a total of 48 mission without any injured crewman or abort. «Hell’s Angels» returned to the United States in January 1944 to tour various war factories. Unfortunately after the war, “Hell’s Angels” was sold for scrap in August 1945.

The B-17 was not named when Captain Irl E. Baldwin and his crew flew her from Kellogg Field, MI to England. On their B-17s 4th or 5th mission, Captain Baldwin remarked on interphone that he was thinking about a name. He asked: «How about 'Hell's Angels' from the movie of that name?». One of the crewman, commenting on the mission being flown stated, «This is the closest to hell that angels will ever get!» The crew then agreed that Hell's Angels would be a good name for their B-17.

At 48 missions the crew and her ground crew of six men were selected from the Eighth Air Force to return to the U.S. for a tour of the war factories. On hand for the sendoff ceremony was Ben Lyon, then a Lt. Col. in the USAAF on the staff of Gen. Ira Eaker, commander of the 8th AF.

On this tour Hell's Angels, both as an airplane and as a Bomb Group, became famous all over the entire United States. The crew told hundreds of thousands of war workers of the trials and hardships of the early days of daylight bombing missions and pointed out the patches that covered the old Fort from nose to tail. They were very proud of the fact that no member of its aircrew was ever wounded in action.

Although this record was surpassed many times by many aircraft during the later years, Hell's Angels was the champion of the early days and will always be the champion in the eyes of the 303rd.

A typical crew of a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber consisted of 10 men. The commanding officer was the pilot, and the executive officer was the co-pilot; these two officers received equal training, and their difference in status was largely only due to the luck of the draw. The bombardier was also an officer, manning the chin turret during flight but taking control of the entire bomber during the actual bomb run, even flying the aircraft at that time, via the connection between his Norden bomb sight and the auto-pilot system. The navigator, another officer, kept the aircraft path during the flight and manned the cheek guns when attacked. The flight engineer, a non-commissioned officer, was trained in the basic mechanics of the entire aircraft, and manned the top turret when attacked. The radio operation, a non-commissioned officer, handled communications and served as the first aid giver when necessary. Finally, the four remaining crew member, all non-commissioned officers, manned the ball turret, left waist gun, right waist gun, and the tail gun; although these bombers were durable, to call them «fortresses» was a exaggeration, thus the gunners served an important role in the defense of these actually vulnerable bombers.

☁️ Source: ww2db.com / www.303rdbg.com / www.afhistory.af.mil