Page 71
bers of Hughes’s crew themselves later down-
played the reasons by explaining that later the
‘jerk’ of the crew was always someone else and
everyone took turns wearing the title. Once, radio
operator T/Sgt. Boyle, when he forgot to retract
the trailing wire antenna and dragged it along the
ground on landing, and another time, ball turret
gunner T/Sgt. Horace Barnum forgot to unload the
guns in the ball turret of the borrowed Piccadilly
Lily after landing. The crew was playing this inno-
cent game of seeing who would be the jerk for the
current mission.
On October 14th, shortly after the disastrous
missions to Münster and Bremen, in which the
100th Bomb Group lost 19 aircrews, the second
mission to Schweinfurt, known as ‘Black Thursday’
or ‘the Second Schweinfurt Mission’, took place.
The weakened Hundredth could contribute only
eight aircraft and crews. These were incorporated
into the formations of the other two groups of the
13th Combat Wing. One of the planes flying with the
95th Bomb Group was Nine Little Yanks and a Jerk
with Robert Hughes and his crew. In the IP area,
the final waypoint before achieving target acquisi-
tion, the lead aircraft of the 95th Bomb Group was
hit by flak and disappeared from the formation.
Immediately afterwards, a B-17F named ‘Heaven
Can Wait’ was hit as well, flown by Lt. Keel, flying
right next to Hughes. After several moments, the
out-of-control aircraft turned sharply towards
Hughes’ B-17. A quick reaction from the pilots in
Nine Little Yanks and a Jerk resulted in a sharp
left turn suppression, creating space for Keel’s
Fortress. But at the same time, they fell out of
their formation and found themselves much lower
and alone. At that moment, the bombardier saw
the target directly in front of him. Flying over it
alone was a big risk. Contrary to regulations, the
crew unanimously agreed to go ahead and attack
the target. Bombardier Lt. Elliott adjusted his Nor-
den bombsight a thousand feet lower, the pilot set
a fixed course, altitude and speed, and the Elliot
began aiming. The bombs, released at 14:54, hit
the target, which the pilot and bombardier had
carefully studied during pre-flight preps, dead
centre.
After leaving the target, they took a steep left
turn to rejoin the 95th Bombardment Group, which
was still settling into formation after being pelted
by flak earlier.
The event had an impact on the headquarters of
the 3rd Bomb Division. Lt. Hughes and Lt. Elliott
were called in to General Curtis LeMay. Lt Hughes
recalled:
‘This was to be an experience for me,
I had never seen so many ‘Eagles’ in one room.
I had never been out of formation over a target be-
fore. When all of the representatives from all of the
groups were assembled, the critique was called to
order and we had just been seated when General
B-17F 42-3271 EP
-
N „Nine Little Yanks
and a Jerk“, Capt. Robert L. Hughes
crew, 351st Bomb Squadron, 100th
Bomb Group, Thorpe Abbotts, January
1944
Nine Little Yanks and a Jerk in flight formation. The left side of the fuselage bears
marks where the aircraft identification letters were overpainted in their original
position, necessitated by the change in national insignia from Type 2 to Type 3.
This change was specified on 29 June 1943 (Specification Number 24102-K,
Amend #3), but typically not applied until August 1943. The white identification
stripe on the rudder was later painted over.
LeMay asked, ‘Will Lt. Hughes from the 100th Bomb
Group come forward.’ When I stepped upon the
stage he said, ‘Will you tell this group what you
did yesterday?’ I related how we had been forced
to dive for our lives and how that when we recov-
ered the target upon which we had been briefed,
lay dead ahead. How all the men volunteered.
The fact that we had a perfect bomb run and that
Lt. Elliott pickle-barreled the target. General Le-
May asked how I knew that we had pickle-bar-
reled the target, I informed him that I had studied
the strike photos and the fact that our aircraft,
‘Nine Little Yanks and A Jerk’, was designated
strike photo aircraft for the 100th BGH, to which
he responded, ‘That is right gentlemen, ten bombs
MPI. ‘ Stepping up to the strike map he pulled the
butcher paper away to reveal an enlarged strike
photo, showing the strike. His next comment was,
‘The Lieutenant should have a Commendation.’, to
which the reply came from the back of the room
in clearly enunciated words, ‘The SOB should be
court-martialed for breaking formation!’’
The one who expressed his opinion in this way was
Col. Bud Peaslee, who led the mission to Schwein-
furt. Many years later, Hughes and Peaslee be-
came very good friends.
Almost the entire crew was able to complete
their operational tour. However, one of its mem-
bers finished their innocent game of ‘jerk’ a little
earlier. The previously mentioned T/Sgt. Joseph F.
Boyle claimed two downed Me 410s during a raid
on the submarine docks at Wilhemshawen on No-
vember 3rd, 1943. At the same time, he damaged
the vertical tail surfaces of his own aircraft with
about 10 rounds, likely bestowing upon him the
Hughes’s crew flew for the last time in their air-
craft on January 7th, 1944 to Ludwigshaven. Nine
little Yanks and a Jerk was damaged many times
during her service with the 100th Bomb Group and
spent considerable time in repairs. Therefore, only
28 missions were flown between July, 1943 and
January, 1944.
Lt. Hughes completed his operational tour with
a raid on Berlin on March 4th, 1944. Most of his
crew did so less than a month earlier. He flew at
least 18 of his 25 missions in Nine little Yanks and
a Jerk.
After the end of combat flying, Lt. Hughes briefly
tested and flew the personal planes of President
Roosevelt and Gen. Curtis LeMay.
‘jerk’ label for the day. It could’ve been consider-
ably worse, and two days later, it was. On a raid to
Gelsenkirchen, an 88mm flak shell exploded close
to the aircraft and one small piece of shrapnel
narrowly licked the edge of his flak vest, pene-
trating his heart and killing him instantly.
On November 26th, the commanding pilot of the
351st Bomb Squadron, Capt. John ‘Lucky’ Luckadoo,
flew on Nine little Yanks and a Jerk as co-pilot.
At least one mission with this aircraft was also
completed by the legendary Lt. Frank E. Valesh.
On January 4th, 1944, during a raid on Kiel, en-
gine No. 2 was hit by flak, and the propeller was
revving the engine above the permissible limit.
At the same time, fuel consumption increased
enormously. With what gasoline remained in the
tanks, Valesh made an emergency landing at the
base at Leconfield.
On January 24th, 1944, a young crew borrowed
the plane for a training flight. During landing, the
left undercarriage leg retracted spontaneously
and the aircraft was damaged. Since the unit was
already receiving new B-17Gs at the time of the
crash, it was decided that this old ‘F’ would not
be repaired. She was therefore transported to the
technical depot of the unit, where she was used
as a ‘hangar queen’ - a source of spare parts for
other repaired aircraft, before her remains were
finally scrapped.
Nine Little Yanks and a Jerk was one of the few
B-17Fs serving with the 100th Bomb Group to have
flat perspex glazing in place of the astrodome.
It was a remnant of the original service with the
91st Bomb Group, which had a number of its air-
craft modified in this way. Three ceiling windows
in the nose were also unusual for the Hundredth.
B-17F 42-3271 EP
-
N „Nine Little Yanks and a Jerk“, Capt. Robert L. Hughes crew,
351st Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group, Thorpe Abbotts, January 1944
Capt. Robert L. Hughes. “Big” Frank Valesh, one of the 351st Bomb Squadron’s
legendary pilots, also flew at least one combat mission
with Nine Little Yanks and a Jerk.
Speciál B-17F / The Bloody Hundredth 1943 INFO Eduard
71
June 2024