Mugwump

B-17F, Serial 42-30066, named Mugwump, did and did not have a long history. On the one hand, it was among the first twenty B-17s that the 100th Bomb Group lost, but on the other hand, it was probably the last F model that served with the Bloody Hundredth to fly a combat mission. I will try to explain this apparent contradiction in the following paragraphs.

When the 100th Bomb Group at Kearney, Nebraska received its aircraft with which it was to move to Europe after training, 066 was among them, built in Block 85 as an F-series by Boeing in Seattle. Crew commander Lt. William Flesh, to whom the aircraft was assigned, was probably the one who named the aircraft. Although the meaning of the word Mugwump, which dates back to the vocabulary of the native inhabitants of North America, is ambiguous, in slang at the time it meant someone who could stand up to a dispute in such a way as not to anger the other side. The idea used to be caricatured as a bird sitting on a fence, with head on one side, and butt on the other... that this was the meaning of the name on the new B-17F is evidenced by the drawing of an ostrich, which was added to the inscription on the nose before the unit moved to Europe. It was certainly not the first name given to this aircraft, as the photos show a patch of fresher olive paint under the Mugwump inscription after the original name had been painted over.

How many Mugwump missions were flown by Flesh's cannot be determined from available records. It is certain that there were at least five during June and July.

August 17th, 1943, came and with it the raid on Regensburg. Lt. Flesh missed that mission. The reasons were… well, understandable given the stress the bomber crews were under and the way they usually diffused that stress, but nevertheless, difficult to excuse and certainly incompatible with the duties and responsibilities of a crew commander. So his men flew with a replacement pilot, Lt. Curtis L. Biddick. He had lost part of his crew earlier, during a raid on Le Bourget, and now he and his bombardier stepped in for the ‘unavailable’ pilot and bombardier of Flash's crew. They were assigned ‘Escape Kit’ (B-17F serial number 42-5860), on loan for the day from Lt. Edgar Woorward, who was in London for the funeral of his navigator, killed by flak two days earlier. Escape Kit was shot down before reaching Regensburg. Four men of the crew, including the pilot and co-pilot, were killed. The others were captured, many with serious injuries.

Flesh's Mugwump was borrowed by Lt. Charles B. ‘Crankshaft’ Cruikshank with his crew for the same mission. Next to him in the cockpit sat the Commander of the 418th BS, Maj. John C. ‘Bucky’ Egan. They led the second element of the lead squadron of the 100th Bomb Group. German fighters shot down both planes of Egan's element flying at his sides, prior to reaching the target, namely the already mentioned ‘Escape Kit’, flown by Lt. Biddick, and also ‘Picklepuss’, flown by Lt. Robert M. Knox. Mugwump was also seriously impacted. Her pilots were able to fly her to planned landing site in North Africa. However, damage was so severe that she had to be left behind in Algiers.

Before we get to Mugwump's next hand that was dealt her, let's go back to her original pilot. When Lt. William R. Flesh lost both his plane and his crew during the mission to Regensburg and served time for his crime, he returned to combat flying. He acted primarily as a substitute where needed. One of the ‘adopted’ crews was the men of Lt. Sumner Reeder, who was recuperating from wounds sustained in a raid on Stuttgart on September 6th, 1943 (see Horny II chapter). Flesh also flew with Reeder's crew as a pilot on November 5th, 1943 in B-17F 42-30088 ‘Squawkin Hawk’. Also on board that day was the lead navigator of the group, Capt. Omar Gonzales. Serious flak damage over Gelsenkirchen, and partial uncontrollability, made Lt. Flesh order the crew to abandon the plane. Only he and the co-pilot remained in the B-17. They flew the damaged but lightened ‘Squawkin Hawk’ back to England at ground level. It is difficult to judge today whether it was the calculation of the pilot trying to ‘get rid’ of excess load and thus increase his chance of return, incorrect judgment and subsequent decision, or pure concern for the lives of others. All these possibilities were the subject of whispers at Thorpe Abbotts.

Whatever led to the series of pilot decisions, the incident sparked further controversy at the base, and in the case of Lt. Flesh was the final straw, leading to his transfer to another group shortly after.

At this time, the 8th Air Force was being reinforced with new units, and the existing bomb groups were called upon to supply these new, inexperienced units with at least one experienced aircrew to assist their integration. It was said to be an opportunity for Bomb Group HQs to get rid of troublesome members. Lt. Flesh was transferred to the 482nd Bombardment Group at Alconbury in late November 1943, where he received training to fly B-17s equipped with Mickey H2X radars. At the end of January 1944, he was transferred to the 303rd Bombardment Group, where he returned to combat flying. It can be said that he used the new opportunity to fix everything he had done wrong with the 100th Bomb Group. He completed his operational tour with the 303rd Group and voluntarily began a second one. He added thirty-two more missions to what he had flown with the 100th Bomb Group. Some of them in the position of commanding pilot. He was then transferred again, this time to the 305th Bomb Group, and here as an experienced pilot and commander he flew an undisclosed number of other missions…

Meanwhile, Mugwump, which Lt. Flesh flew with his crew across the ocean in June 1943, was experiencing a different but no less turbulent fate. After the Regensburg mission on August 17th, 1943, she sat seriously damaged at Telegerma Base in northern Algeria awaiting repairs. After that, the B-17 returned to England, but not to the 100th Bomb Group.

In early 1944, the aircraft was assigned to the 803rd (Provisional) Group at Oulton Base in Norfolk, where it was equipped with electronic warfare equipment (Mandrel and Carpet systems for jamming German radars). In July, 1944 she was reassigned again, this time to the 388th Bomb Group at Fersfield, where the top secret Aphrodite project was underway. It involved guiding four-engine bombers, in the form of explosive-laden drones, to hard-to-destroy targets such as submarine docks, V-1 and V-2 launch pads, oil refineries, and the like. The project was not nearly as successful as it was expected to be. There were only nineteen Aphrodite missions between August, 1944 and January, 1945. Older, but reliable war weary bombers were modified into remotely controlled drones (castor), with which a two-man crew took off, secured a connection in the air for remote control with another bomber (mother ship), and left the airplane using parachutes. The lead aircraft then guided the drone to the target and returned. The vast majority of Aphrodite missions failed on their way to their destination for a variety of reasons. On October 30th, 1944, five B-17s took off, two drones, two mother ships and one escort aircraft, along with seven P-47s. The target was the submarine docks on the coast of Heligoland. One of the drones packed with explosives was an unnamed B-17F (BQ-7, to be more precise), which once carried the name ‘Mugwump’ and a drawing on its nose of an ostrich. The target could not be found due to bad weather, so the drones were directed to the Berlin area and their escort, including the piloted B-17s, turned back. The first drone crashed into the North Sea, while ex-Mugwump veered off course after losing contact with its mother ship, headed over Sweden and crashed south of the town of Trollhättan at around 1600 hours, leaving a huge crater. Apart from three engines, found a few hundred meters from the impact site, only small pieces of debris remained from the aircraft. The shock wave shattered windows in homes within a radius of more than five kilometers.