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GD Howell
1/30/2007 6:15:59 PM | Looking for info or pics of 2 b17s flown by 614th. "Mountain Dew" and "The Chaplain". Both were flown by G.L.LaFevor crew. This info disputes flight records shown on this sight, but was recently relayed to me by a living crew member. " Mountain Dew" exploded on the runway at Deenthorpe 6/12/44 and was replaced by "The Chaplain.
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Donald Byers
2/1/2007 10:11:17 AM | Mountain Dew is listed in the B-17 Nose Art Directory by Wallace Freeman however The Chaplain is not and may not have been official recorded. The book indicates no known picture of Mountain Dew. Our new website is located at http://www.401bg.org
Don Byers
Lubbock Texas
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Ed Logan
2/5/2007 10:23:14 PM | Dear Mr Howell Did "mountain Dew" explode on runway 26 ??? There was a B17 that did explode on runway 26 around the time mentioned by you
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Donald Byers
2/7/2007 10:57:56 AM | You might ask your crew member is they returned with their payload from their mission. There was no mention of a serial number for the aircraft lost this day. Don Byers
Flying Control Notes:
Briefing took place at 0220 hours. At 0400 hours Operations was advised of a 45 minute delay. All 36 operational aircraft were off by 0639, and by 1142 all had returned safely--36 aircraft having landed in 36 minutes.
At 1544 hours, after the aircraft had returned, Operations was notified that fragmentation bombs being unloaded from an aircraft in Dispersal Area 2 had exploded. Seven men were killed and seven injured in the accident.
Mission Debriefing
Aircraft on Mission: 36
Aircraft Lost
Over Continent: 0
Other: 0
Mission Summary:
The 401st led the 94th Combat Wing with 36 B-17's. Two of the three Squadrons were able to drop their bombs within 1,000 feet of the MPI, with excellent results. The third Squadron was prevented from releasing its bombs when another Group passed below just as the point of release had been reached and had to return to base with its bombs. It was this chain of events that led to the disastrous accident back at Deenethorpe when the fragmentation bombs were being unloaded.
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GD Howell
2/8/2007 11:25:16 PM | Mr Stanford does not know the serial number, but confirms that the crew of Mountain Dew were unable to drop their load of fragmentation bombs and returned to base with them.
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gd howell
2/8/2007 11:28:00 PM | Unable to get the info on which runway this happened on. I can only relay that the bombs were armed in route to the target and then were unable to drop and returned to base with full load. Fragmentation bomb exploded killing up to 7 ground crew and destroying the plane.
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