Little trivia?

[Wingnut_0]

Easy trivia for ya.  The last sentence just a little tricky.

In August of 42 the 1st ALL American B17 raid took place over Occupied Europe.  Who was the pilot of the Lead Aircraft, who not only piloted the plane to drop the first bombs on Occupied Europe by ALL American bombers but also piloted a plane that dropped one of the last bombs that ended the war.

Bonus question:  Name both planes this pilot was in for these missions.

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Wingnut
Luftjagerkorps
 

The quality of the box matters little.  Success depends upon the man who sits in it  -  Baron Manfred von Richthofen

[This message has been edited by Wingnut_0 (edited 01-23-2001).]

[Mathman]

The pilot's name was Paul Tibbets, and his plane on the August 17, 1942 raid was Butcher Shop and everyone knows the name of the plane he flew in 1945, Enola Gay, when he dropped the bomb on Hiroshima.

What do I win?  

[Jekyll]

From memory, I think the first plane you are referring to was his B-17F, the 'Red Gremlin'.

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=357th Pony Express=
Aces High Training Corps

[Wingnut_0]

   

Originally posted by Mathman:
The pilot's name was Paul Tibbets, and his plane on the August 17, 1942 raid was Butcher Shop and everyone knows the name of the plane he flew in 1945, Enola Gay, when he dropped the bomb on Hiroshima.

What do I win?    

Ding ding ding...we have a winner..(and u don't win a thing math..lol).

Didn't think it was a super hard question but surprised at the 1st guess was right...hehe.  Will have to find something harder next time  

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Wingnut
Luftjagerkorps
   

The quality of the box matters little.  Success depends upon the man who sits in it  -  Baron Manfred von Richthofen

[This message has been edited by Wingnut_0 (edited 01-23-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Wingnut_0 (edited 01-23-2001).]

[Jimdandy]

It's WAY to ironic not to be ture. LOL!

I got a couple for you.

Gene Rodenbury of Star Trek fame flew B-17's (Sorry Trek fans if I spelled it wrong).

Smokey Yunik of automotive racing fame flew B-17's.

Jimmy Stewart flew B-17's.

[This message has been edited by Jimdandy (edited 01-23-2001).]

[Guppy35]

Actually Gene Roddenberry flew B24s in the Pacific.

Jimmy Stewert flew 18 combat missions as a pilot in B24s with the 453rd BG.  Walter Mattheau was also an enlisted man in this particular group

Tom Landry was a B17 co-pilot with the 8th AF.

Clark Gable flew a number of missions in B17s early in the war.

George McGovern flew B24s with the 15th AF

Barry Goldwater flew B24s

Rod Serling was a paratrooper with the 101st in WW2.

Eddie Albert was in command of a landing craft during the Tarawa invasion

etc etc  

Dan

[Guppy35]

BTW

The first all B17 mission was on August 12, 1942.  The lead plane was a B17E named Butcher Shop and was flown by Colonel Frank Armstrong in the pilot's seat and Major Paul Tibbets as his co-pilot.

I've got a wonderful print on my wall of Tibbet's B17F, "The Red Gremlin" signed by Tibbets, but that wasn't his bird on that first bombing mission and he wasn't the lead pilot


Frank Armstrong, was one of the main inspirations for the character of General Savage in the book "12 O'Clock High" by Bernie Lay and Sy Bartlet.

Armstrong had been given the job of rejuvinating the "hard luck" 306th BG

Dan

[Guppy35]

Should have proofread my post better.  That was August 17, 1942

Dan

[Ozark]

hehe...nice info.  

I got to talk to Eddie Albert 12 years ago about operating the landing craft. That was great fun for me.

[Jimdandy]

 

Originally posted by Ozark:
hehe...nice info.  

I got to talk to Eddie Albert 12 years ago about operating the landing craft. That was great fun for me.

That's cool Ozark! I watched a documentary a few years ago and he was on there. He talked about it. He saw some pretty bad stuff.

[Jimdandy]

Thx for the info Guppy35.