Sorry Missileer. It's not the Belle.

Originally Posted by The Cooler King

Sorry for the delay fellas.

What was the name of the first B-17 to complete its 25 mission tour of duty?

Hell's Angels from the 303rd Bomb Group, completed 25 missions on the 13 May 1943 six days before the Memphis Belle.

Bingo! Contrary to popular belief, it wasn't the Belle. Hell's Angels was the first to reach that mark and they didn't go home after their 25th mission. They went on to complete another 23 missions, bringing the total up to 48, before the crew went back to the states. The 303rd Bomb Group would later name itself after the plane.

A little off topic maybe but, does anyone know of an on line or otherwise resource for crew member listings of B-17s? My Dad was an 8th AF navigator on one called Hell's Belles. I have found some info on a Hell's Belles that crashed in France but that one was not his.

Originally Posted by DTop

A little off topic maybe but, does anyone know of an on line or otherwise resource for crew member listings of B-17s? My Dad was an 8th AF navigator on one called Hell's Belles. I have found some info on a Hell's Belles that crashed in France but that one was not his.

Try this site, DTop.
http://www.armyairforces.com/

Originally Posted by DTop

A little off topic maybe but, does anyone know of an on line or otherwise resource for crew member listings of B-17s? My Dad was an 8th AF navigator on one called Hell's Belles. I have found some info on a Hell's Belles that crashed in France but that one was not his.

Was it this one by any chance? http://www.457thbombgroup.org/Fate/RLP123A.HTML

Or this one? http://hellsbelle.com/_wsn/page2.html

Originally Posted by DTop

A little off topic maybe but, does anyone know of an on line or otherwise resource for crew member listings of B-17s? My Dad was an 8th AF navigator on one called Hell's Belles. I have found some info on a Hell's Belles that crashed in France but that one was not his.

I can only find reference to three Hell's Belles:

1) Hell's Belles: Part of 401st Bombardment Squadron of the 91st Bomb Group was shot down/crash landed on 3rd December 1943.


2) Hell's Belles II: Part of 384th Bomb Group was shot down over Chateaubriant, France, on September 16, 1943.

3) Hell's Belles: Part of the 457th Bomb Group crash landed on July 12th, 1944 in Switzerland.

Thanks Monty but he said his B-17 was not shot down although it may have been after he left. He also mentioned that it didn't have any nose art. I only wish I had thought to ask more details while he was still with us but he never seemed too interested in delving into a lot of details about his time during the war and I respected that.

I realise you probably have already done this but have you considered a general search of the web using his name as many groups have websites detailing crews aircraft etc. and lately (the last 12 months or so) there has been a lot of interest in developing these sites so they are constantly being updated. This is how I contacted several people my father served with during WW2.

Edit:
Also found a Hell's Belle with the 487th Bomb Group they apparently switched from Liberators to B-17s in 1944 there is no data on the aircraft (just the name) or crew however their website appears to have a crew search function.
http://www.487thbg.org/roster/487thAircraft.htm

Thanks again, it's been a while since I have done any research into this so I'm hoping more info may be available now.