Piccadilly Lily
By the time Waltham’s own Lt. Thomas E. Murphy, a former transport pilot, touched down on June 8th, 1943 with his crew in their new B-17F ‘564’ at Thorpe Abbots, the 8th Air Force had eleven months and 61 bombing missions under its belt. Still, at that point, the Bombing offensive against Germany was in its infancy and toughest was yet to come. And one of its greatest symbols would be Murphy, his crew, and their B-17.
The aircraft was christened ‘Piccadilly Lily’ and a pinup nude with a glass in her hand and a halo above her head were painted on the right side of the nose. The name was inspired not only by the well-known song ‘Lily from Piccadilly’, but also by girls with big hearts who waited in the streets leading from London's Piccadilly Circus for the return of Allied airmen and soldiers, especially American, to help them better endure the hardships of war.
Two weeks after arriving in England, the 100th Bomb Group was fully ready for combat. Piccadilly Lily also took part in the first two missions, but these were not credited because they were diversionary rather than bombing tasks. Confirmation of participation in these diversionary missions, nicknamed ‘Decoy’, later appeared on this aircraft in the form of two painted ducks mission markings. These missions were intended to lure German fighters over the North Sea, after which the main attack force of the 8th Air Force headed for the Ruhr region.
Three days later came an actual bombing mission to Bremen. A baptism of fire befitting a unit soon to be nicknamed ‘The Bloody Hundredth’. Murphy and his crew with Piccadilly Lily played their role. The unit paid the price of three B-17Fs.
On Thursday, August 17, 1943, the 100th Bomb Group took off on its 16th mission that was become the first milestone in the ill-fated unit's reputation, as well as the reason for the unit's first of two Distinguished (Presidential) Unit Citations that the 100th BG received. The targets of the famous "Double strike" mission for the 100th BG were the aircraft factories at Regensburg followed by a landing in North Africa. It was the 14th mission for Murphy's crew, and Lily’s thirteenth. In an almost last minute decision, the unit's operations officer made a change when a ‘trainee’ observer from 8th Air Force Headquarters, Lt.Col. Bernie Lay, was reassigned from the crew of ‘Alice from Dallas’ to co-pilot ‘Picadilly Lily’. During the mission, the 100th BG lost nine aircraft, ninety men. ‘Alice from Dallas’ was one of the lost B-17s. Piccadilly Lily was brought safely to Algiers by her pilot Thomas Murphy.
Bernie Lay submitted a report to headquarters about the horror experienced and the heroism displayed during the battles over Regensburg, in which, among other things, he nominated all the crew members of the 100th BG participating in the Regensburg mission for the DFC and the commanding pilot of the low squadron, Maj. Gale W. ‘Bucky’ Cleven, for the Medal of Honor.
Through September 21st, 1943, ‘Lily’ flew only two more missions. Among the reasons were the difficult repairs to damage that the aircraft endured during the course of its missions. Flak over Paris on September 15th, 1943 severely impacted the underside of the aircraft, tearing off half of the bomb bay doors. Meanwhile, Thomas Murphy's crew was nearing the end of its operational tour. When ‘Lily’ and her ground crew were photographed on September 21st, 1943, she was painted with fifteen bomb mission markings, two ducks and eight swastikas symbolizing downed enemy fighters.
On the afternoon of October 7, 1943, Murphy's crew were notified that they had been removed from flight status, although they still had two missions left to complete their tour. The officers of the crew were notified of their pending promotions, evidently being considered for promotion to command positions.
Thomas Murphy was to become the assistant executive officer of the group, while other officers from the crew were to go to the headquarters of the 13th Combat Wing or the 3rd Bombardment Division.
The next morning the crew were nevertheless woken up to quickly replace another, who had originally been slated to fly Piccadilly Lily that day, despite their being grounded. It was October 8th and the destination was, as with Lily's first mission, Bremen.
Before taxiing to the final take-off point, for an unknown reason, Capt. Alvin L. Barker, Operations Officer of the 351st Squadron joined the crew as its 11th member, despite being medically excluded from flying. He sat in the co-pilot's seat. Lily was to be the lead machine of the lower box formation.
One of the ground crew, Sgt. Ken Lemmons (one of the key characters depicted in the Masters of the Air series) recollected:
Murphy leaned out of the cockpit window and I saluted him. He motioned for me to remove the chocks so that he could began to taxi. Smiling his lopsided smile, he saluted me and then closed his window and went to work. We moved over the flight line as the bombers taxied into position. As usual, the officers were up on the Control Tower to observe take-off. For once, the weather was great. The sun shone brightly and there was only a slight breeze. The pilots would take off every thirty seconds and begin the intricately choreographed moves required to form hundreds of bombers into a coherent group. Spiraling upwards, the squadron would form up first, and then the group would assemble…
About ten minutes after crossing the continental coast, the stream of bombers was attacked by Luftwaffe fighters. The crews observed distant combat of German aircraft with a group of P-47s, isolated attacks by Bf 110s and Fw 190s concentrated on the 390th Bomb Group, without inflicting major damage.
Suddenly, however, a group of German fighters struck the formation of the 100th Bomb Group with enormous force. They attacked from the front, slightly to the left. Within moments, after colliding with an Fw 190, one B-17 exploded. As her fireball, consuming metal and crew, headed for the ground, a second ripped at the seams while another left the formation with an engine engulfed in flames. Many of the remaining B-17s were damaged to one extent or another.
As the formation approached the target, all hell broke loose yet again. This time it was a barrage of heavy flak. Piccadilly Lily received hits through her 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 extended. The plane began to vibrate violently. There was nothing left to decide and Murphy began to carefully leave the formation. At least the surviving 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 Bombardment 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.