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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 Com-
mander 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 al-
ready mentioned ‘Escape Kit’, flown by Lt. Biddick,
and also ‘Picklepuss’, flown by Lt. Robert M. Knox.
Mugwump was also seriously impacted. Her pi-
lots 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 pri-
marily as a substitute where
needed. One of the ‘adopt-
ed’ crews was the men of Lt.
Sumner Reeder, who was re-
cuperating from wounds sus-
tained 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 un-
controllability, 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 sub-
sequent 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 rein-
forced with new units, and the existing bomb
groups were called upon to supply these new, in-
experienced 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 train-
ing 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 re-
turned 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 vol-
untarily 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 ex-
periencing 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 Nor-
folk, where it was equipped with electronic war-
fare equipment (Mandrel and Carpet systems for
jamming German radars). In July, 1944 she was re-
assigned again, this time to the 388th Bomb Group
at Fersfield, where the top secret Aphrodite proj-
ect 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 Aphro-
dite missions between August, 1944 and January,
1945. Older, but reliable war weary bombers were
modified into remotely controlled drones (cas-
tor), with which a two-man crew took off, secured
a connection in the air for remote control with an-
other bomber (mother ship), and left the airplane
using parachutes. The lead aircraft then guided
the drone to the target and returned. The vast ma-
jority of Aphrodite missions failed on their way to
their destination for a variety of reasons. On Oc-
tober 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 subma-
rine 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 car-
ried 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.
B-17F 42-30066 LD
-
U ”Mugwump“, Lt. Charles
B. „Crankshaft“ Cruikshank crew, Maj. John C.
„Bucky“ Egan, 418th Bomb Squadron,
100th Bomb Group, Thorpe Abbotts,
Regensburg mission, 17 August 1943
A former Mugwump, B-17F s/n 42-30066, in the markings of the 96th Bombardment Group
at Snetterton Heath. It carries special antennas under the fuselage for electronic warfare.
Spring 1944. (Joseph Denver Collection, via Dennis Sauter)
Aircraft s/n 42-3271 is certainly one of the most
attractive B-17Fs flown by the 100th Bomb Group
with its nose art. This B-17 was not among the
unit’s original aircraft with which it moved over-
seas to the European theater. The same can be
said of her crew, who gave her the name.
The aircraft served for a month with the
91st Bomb Group at Bassingbourn and arrived
at Thorpe Abbotts as reconditioned on the 5th of
July, 1943. The crew of Lt. Robert L. Hughes arrived
nine days later and was the first ‘spare’ crew of
the 351st Bomb Squadron. The plane was assigned
to them the very next day. Additional training with
the group and waiting for their first combat mis-
sion took longer than the young crew would have
liked, which didn’t happen for a month.
One of the ground crew members, Cpl. Frank
Stevens, painted a scantily clad lady in high rid-
ing boots and an American hat on the nose of the
airplane, sitting on a bomb with the decorative
inscription ‘Nine Little Yanks and a Jerk’ below.
There are two versions of the origin of the name
of the aircraft and its meaning. The first talks
about the fact that the ten-member crew under
Lt. Hughes was made up of nine boys from the
North (Yanks) and only one from the South (Jerk).
That was Sgt. Buntin, waist gunner. It came out of
the friendly teasing among the members of the
same crew. The other interpretation is that “Jerk”
meant “dork, dunce, dumb...”. Just exactly where
the truth lies is difficult to determine. The mem-
Text: Jan Zdiarský
Color profiles: Michal Fárek
Photos: 100th Bomb Group Archives
Title photo: Robert L. Hughes’ crew with Nine Little
Yanks and a Jerk.
The B-17F on hardstand at Thorpe Abbotts.
NINE LITTLE YANKS AND A JERK
B-17F-40-DL 42-3271 EP
-
L
Speciál B-17F / The Bloody Hundredth 1943 INFO Eduard
69
June 2024