Posted:
By: Paul Bellamy
On: 04/23/2006
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According to Cliff Bishop's research, and the assigned aircraft pages of this website, the 401st had 4 Boeing built F-model B-17s assigned between Sept 1943 and March 31st 1944:
42-30227 B17-F-90-BO:
Received from 96th BG on 13/12/43, to Burtonwood 17/3/44.
Assigned to 613BS as SC-X. Too early to have been fitted with chin turret.
42-30855 B17-F-120(125?)-BO:
Rep a/c 22/12/43, assigned 3/1/44 613BS IN-N "Ol' Massa", still on ops as of 31/3/44. MIA 8/5/44 (Berlin).
42-30866 B17-F-125-BO:
Original a/c from formation, to 351BG 21/11/43.
42-30994 B17-F-130-BO:
Original a/c from formation, to 351BG 21/11/43.
135-BO was the first batch by Boeing to be fitted with the chin turret as standard, being redesignated B17-G-1-BO.
The chin turret was tested during the 115-BO batch, on a/c 42-30631, so possibly may have been retrofitted to aircraft after this batch, although it seems this was primarily done to Douglas-built aircraft.
In addition there was one B-17E allocated:
41-9107 B17-E (Boeing):
Received from 390th BG 6/11/43, "base hack" for general non-operational tasks, allocated variously to 612BS as SC-X and 613BS as IN-P, returned to 390th BG 29/8/44.
Hope this helps,
Paul Bellamy
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