A Boneyard In The Philippines?

[Steve Birdsall]

I’m trying to wrap up my research on the veteran B-17F Flying Fortresses that served in the Southwest Pacific and were last heard of in the Philippines at the end of World War II.

There were five that I know of:

41-24353 Cap'n & The Kids Delivered June 11, 1942, flown to Australia by Lt James T. Murphy and assigned to 63rd BS, 43rd BG. Regular pilot was Captain Edward W. Scott, Jr, one of the pioneers of skip-bombing tactics. The aircraft's final mission with the 63rd BS was on October 18, 1943 as "weather ship" for an abortive Rabaul mission. In the course of more than 80 missions she had been credited with eight enemy vessels sunk and ten Japanese fighters shot down. She was transferred to 54th Troop Carrier Wing in November 1943 and modified at the 4th Air Depot at Garbutt Field, Townsville. Assigned to the 69th TCS, 433rd TCG on February 23, 1944 she served as an armed transport until August. Cap'n & The Kids was then assigned to Eighth Army commander General Robert L. Eichelberger, who renamed the B-17 Miss Em’ for his wife, Emaline. Major Charles Downer picked up the airplane at Townsville on September 11, 1944 and flew up to Hollandia a few days later. Downer flew Miss Em’ for the last time on August 6, 1945, to Nichols Field at Manila. 41-24353 was finally scrapped at Tacloban, Leyte in April, 1946.


41-24358 Lulu Belle Delivered June 11, 1942, flown to Australia by Captain Franklyn T. Green and assigned to 63rd BS, 43rd BG. Transferred to 54th Troop Carrier Wing as an armed transport in November 1943 and modified at the 4th Air Depot at Garbutt Field, Townsville. Her original navigator was Lt Roger Vargas and he recalls seeing the plane at Nadzab on November 12, 1944. By then she had been stripped back to shiny bare metal and was being used as a staff transport by 5th Air Force Headquarters. Salvaged in Manila in September 1945.


41-24381 Panama Hattie Delivered June 19, 1942, flown to Australia by Lt Folmer Sogaard and crew and assigned to 63rd BS, 43rd BG. Transferred to 54th Troop Carrier Wing as an armed transport in November 1943 and modified at the 4th Air Depot at Garbutt Field, Townsville. Last recorded location was Clark Field in July 1948.


41-24403 "Blitz Buggy" Delivered June 26, l942 and assigned to 30th BS, 19th BG at Mareeba, Australia. Passed on to 65th BS, 43rd BG late 1942 and regularly flown by Lt Glen Lewis and his crew. Sometime during January 1943 the original name was painted over and replaced with a painting of a cheerful Uncle Sam and a new name, The Old Man. The 43rd Group was converting to B-24 Liberators squadron by squadron, and the diminishing band of B-17s was gathered in the 63rd Squadron. The Old Man flew a number of missions with the 63rd during July and August 1943, her last a strike against Wewak on August 18 with Lt William Crawford. General Ennis Whitehead, commander of Advon, Fifth Air Force, acquired The Old Man as a personal transport. General Whitehead's original pilot was Captain John Glyer, a veteran of the 43rd BG, followed by Captain Waldo Schauweker and finally Captain Glenn Ream. The Old Man never returned home, and the last record shows it at Clark Field in July 1948.

41-24537 Talisman Delivered July 30, 1942, flown to Australia by Lt William E. O'Brien and assigned to 63rd BS, 43rd BG. When General George Kenney invited Allied commander General Douglas MacArthur to observe the paratroop invasion of Nadzab in New Guinea, Colonel Harry Hawthorne, commander of the 43rd BG, organized what Kenney called the "brass hats flight". Hawthorne carried General MacArthur with him in Talisman. Later stripped of paint and renamed USASOS War-Horse and used as personal transport by Maj Gen James L. Frink, Services of Supply commander in the Southwest Pacific. Salvaged at Tacloban, Leyte in September 1945.

Another stripped-down B-17F was named Well Goddam and was reportedly used by General Paul Wurtsmith as his personal transport while he commanded V Fighter Command. It may have gone with him to Thirteenth Air Force. I’ve never been able to identify it by serial number, but there are only a couple of possibilities. I’m trying to verify the connection to General Wurtsmith and find photos of him with the aircraft.

Does anyone have any records of an aircraft “boneyard” on Luzon or Leyte, or an organized scrapping operation? I’m hoping to find photographs of these aircraft at their final resting place. Or maybe a B-17 tail will turn up the background of a photo of something else. I need a lucky break, but as Scott once said, good stuff does keep turning up.

[17]

I dont know of scrapping operations but we all know of the p-38s buried at Clark.I would imagine that planes were probably disposed of in this manner as this happened everywhere after the war over seas.