[SIZE=+3]Two B-17s Collide And Stick Together in Flight[/SIZE] ----- [SIZE=+2]An Amazing Story About Surviving a Mid-Air Collision Between Two B-17s After a Raid to Hamburg, Germany [/SIZE] ----- [SIZE=+1]By Ralph Kinney Bennett [/SIZE] ----- [SIZE=+3]T[/SIZE]omorrow morning they'll lay the remains of Glenn Rojohn to rest in the Peace Lutheran Cemetery in the little town of Greenock, Pa., just southeast of Pittsburgh. He was 81, and had been in the air conditioning and plumbing business in nearby McKeesport. If you had seen him on the street he would probably have looked to you like so many other graying, bespectacled old World War II veterans whose names appear so often now on obituary pages. Read the rest here: Two B-17s Collide And Stick Together in Flight
Details on the two crews and a painting of the two aircraft locked together: 2nd Lt. Glenn H. Rojohn 1st Lt. William G. MacNab
Indeed, good find, Kyt and thanks for sharing, Spidge. Interesting to note on the painting that the bottom B-17G has the Cheyenne tail turret and the top aircraft has the earlier design AND is in olive drab. It is quite likely the top aircraft was quite a veteran with the 100th BG. Edit: If I'm reading the 100th BG links that Kyt posted, the RoJohn crew was on its 22nd trip and the MacNab boys were on about number 19. I have no idea if the 100th BG is relevant but I'll check my copy of Bishop's Fortresses of the Big Triangle First for details of the aircraft.
Excellent website, this 100th BG site. Have found out more details about the "top" B-17 involved in the piggyback incident. I did a search on her serial number and came up with this. Amazingly, she was actively flying missions in February 1944 which means she was active for at least 10 months. Given the crew mentioned in the link named her etc, it could be assumed that she was a new aircraft in February. This crew flew 20 missions in her and were given a new aircraft in late May/early June. Shilayee kept flying till December 31. 2nd Lt. Mark V. Wilson - great pic at the link. Partial excerpt from link: "Shilayee was no ordinary airplane, Early on our pilot, Mark Wilson, had the ground crew paint white side walls on the tires. Mark said he wanted the plane "to look sharp" and it did. Ernest Lovato painted the Irish name on the nose and the crew's flight jackets because Wilson counted six or seven Irishmen on his crew. Its number was 2317, it's call letter, 'A" for Able'. On the fuselage was 'XR' for the 349th Squadron. It was in February, 1944, as a replacement crew in the 349th Squadron, that we first met Shilaylee. We flew our first mission in her on February 29th to Brunswick, but it was the missions to Berlin on March 3, 4, 6, and 8 that really broke us in. We got hit so often that the ground crew were grateful for our white side walls. If Mark dropped the wheels down early, it was a sign we were in trouble. The ground crew saw the white wheels and got ready in advance for a lot of work. Shilaylee was a great plane; it brought us back 20 times. On May 24, we did not fly in Shilaylee because it had a mechanical failure. We flew to Berlin in 'Hard Luck' or 'old 413', the ground crew called it, and on that mission I earned my Purple Heart. After I got out of the hospital our crew was reassembled, and since we were near the end of our tour, we were given a new plane. On June 5, when we were over Boulogne in our new plane, the aircraft on our right wing was hit by flak and drifted into us. In the crash we lost our co-pilot, navigator, and bombardier. Mark Wilson and I ended up as POWs in Moosburg Stalag 7 until Patton liberated us on April 29, 1945 Note: On 5 Jun 1944 the Wilson crew was flying a brand new silver B-17G 42-107095, XR-F since they were now a lead Crew. Shilaylee was Lt Wilson's aircraft prior to receiving this new plane.
It occurred to me earlier that the "Square D" of the 100th BG would have nothing to do with the First Bombardment Wing/First Bombardment Division (91st BG etc) because their BG designators were triangles...hence "the big triangle first". Sigh.
