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B 17F 42-30146 belly landed Avedøre 29/7 1943.
The aircraft belonged to USAAF, 8 Air Force, 94 Bomb Group, 333 Bomb Squadron
and was coded TS-A.
T/O Bury St. Edmonds. OP: Warnemünde.
42-30146 was having engine troubles when outbound and after having reached the
Danish west coast it was decided to try to reach Sweden. The bombs were dropped
to lighten the aircraft which was now down to one good engine.
After a while the navigator 2.Lt Frank S. Pellegrino declared that they were
over Sweden and Pilot 2. Lt Ned Palmer started looking for a place to land. He
found a nice big field where he at 10:15 hours made a good belly landing with
little damage to the aircraft.
(RDAF)
The two above pictures shows the B 17
being dismantled
When the crew left the aircraft they found to their big surprise themselves
surrounded by Wehrmacht soldiers. It turned out that they had landed not in
Sweden but in occupied Denmark and that the field they had used was an exercise
ground for German soldiers.
The crew were: Pilot 2. Lt Ned Palmer, Co-pilot 2. Lt Eugene R. Snyder,
Navigator 2. Lt Frank S. Pellegrino, Bombardier 2. Lt Arthur E. Cooper, Radio
Operator/Gunner T/Sgt George A. Hamling, Engineer/Turret gunner T/Sgt Christos
Bassios, Ball turret gunner S/Sgt Vernon P. Rathbun, Tail gunner S/Sgt William
P. Clark, Flexible gunner S/Sgt Olin E. Brown, Flexible gunner S/Sgt Damon D.
Cottingham.
The officers were separated from the other ranks and
the two groups were sent to Dulag Luft in Oberursel for interrogation. They
spent the rest of the war as POW`s.
"Down and Go" at Kastrup
The aircraft was dismantled and taken to Fliegerhorst Kastrup near København for
repair.
It was painted in German colours and operated by the Luftwaffe until 9/2-1945
when it exploded at Stuttgaard-Echterdingen airfield just after take off killing
seven of the crew and ten passengers.
Sources: MACR # 202, LBUK, AS 3-409, “Strangers in a Strange Land” by H.H.
Stapfer.
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