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front end and the radio operator’s compartment.
The radio operator and one of the waisy gunners
were killed by flak shrapnel. The oxygen line was
damaged. Murphy decided to continue attacking
the designated target. To leave the safety of the
formation at this point would have been tempting
fate way beyond reason. Few crews that found
themselves alone in such a situation managed to
return home safely. Just after laying her eggs, Lily
took another heavy hit. Flames erupted from the
right inboard engine and the right landing gear ex-
tended. The plane began to vibrate violently. There
was nothing left to decide and Murphy began to
carefully leave the formation. At least the surviv-
ing crew members who would leave the aircraft
would be less likely to be endangered by the other
aircraft still in formation and also, an explosion,
a good possibility by then, would be less likely to
damage friendlies. The crew members were more
or less successful in getting out of the burning
plane. While Thomas Murphy and Alvin Barker, in
the position of co-pilot, were trying to hold the
plane together so that they could eventually bail
out, the fuel tank near the number three engine
exploded, killing those who had not yet gotten out
of the plane.
Piccadilly Lily went down off Wesermünde, north
of Bremen, taking with her five crew members.
One more died after unsuccessfully attempting
to bail from the stricken aircraft. The 100th Bom-
bardment Group lost a total of 7 crews and aircraft
that day.
Bernie Lay, who flew on Lily to Regensburg on
August 17th, 1943, built a sort of memorial to her
and Thomas Murphy when, in the script for the
famous 1949 film ‘Twelve O’Clock High’, and the
book of the same title, he named the central plane,
piloted in the film by Gregory Peck, Piccadilly Lily.
Variant 2: Capt. Thomas E. Murphy crew351st Bomb
Squadron, 100th Bomb, Thorpe Abbotts, Great Britain,
21 September 1943
Variant 2: Capt. Thomas E. Murphy crew351st Bomb Squadron,
100th Bomb, Thorpe Abbotts, Great Britain, 21 September 1943
Capt. Thomas E.
Murphy was killed
along with three
other men of his
crew in a raid on
Bremen on Octo-
ber 8, 1943.
Capt.
Alvin L. Barker,
Operations Officer
of the 351st BS,
died as a Com-
manding Pilot with
the crew of Capt.
Murphy.
Murphy’s crew with Piccadilly Lily in her later form in
the second half of September 1943.
Twelve O’Clock High movie poster.
INFO Eduard
Speciál B-17F / The Bloody Hundredth 1943
34
June 2024