I guess I'll start with the backstory here, my mind is racing like crazy at the moment...

My grandfather was a B-17 pilot in WW2. The plane was nicknamed Flak Magic.

On one mission they got hit by so much flak they had to do an emergency landing in a field in Sweden.

Periodically over the years I've done internet searches to see if I could find out more about the plane, it's crew, it's missions, and maybe if I got really lucky even some kind of mention of my grandfather. Never had much luck, found plenty of text lists of plane names, crew names, etc but that was about it. My Grandfather died in 1996, and he never talked much about it.

I did this again today, and oh boy did I get the shock of my life: I found a PICTURE OF THE PLANE IN THAT FIELD WITH MY GRANDFATHER STANDING THERE. (I'm posting the link at the end of this post)

He was the pilot (David Russell McGuire)

I was only about 90% sure it was indeed him, but after showing it to my mom that became about 99%. She's quite a photoshop expert so she's going to try and enhance the image so we can show it to my grandmother - SHE will for sure be able to confirm 100%.

I used to hear of certain sights being described as "breathtaking" and never really understood that - I certainly never saw anything in this world that literally made me take a breath or take my breath away. Upon seeing this photo I experienced "breathtaking" for the first time in my life.

Back to photo details - my grandfather is the guy in the middle of the top photo. I have no idea about the uniform he's wearing, I do know that the Swedes gave them clothes. I don't know if this photo is the same day as the emergency landing or not.

Can anyone here at SimHQ tell me anything about the uniforms these guys are wearing?

Going for an even longer shot can anyone translate the telegram, or tell me of a way to do so? Maybe download a Swedish keyboard and then manually type the stuff and then throw it into some translator online?

Me and my mom are waiting until Thanksgiving to show this to the rest of the family since everyone will be there (30+ people). It's going to be a Thanksgiving everyone will remember for life, and it would just be incredibly awesome if I could come up with more information about this photo.

30+ family members and myself intensely thank anyone in advance if they can help...

Link: http://www.forcedlandingcollection.se/USAAFe/USAAF136-441007-flakmagic.html

That's is vary nice find. The past staring back at you.


I often wonder if I will ever run across any photos of my Grand father in Burma or even my Mom from Vietnam.

Wow that is a great story

Wow... Simply amazing. What a find!

Wow this story just got even more crazy. Just got off the phone with my mom (we only communicated via email earlier) and she was telling me about a very strange related incident that happened a few weeks back.

Seems my brother about 5 years ago managed to find some kind of "crash report" online about that B-17. No pictures or anything, just some document.

That document got transferred to a newer computer a while back and was buried in some backup folder.

Well in early October there was a planned blackout on her street for some transformer replacement or something, so she turned the computer off and left the house for a few hours.

When she got back the computer was ON, nobody else had been in the house, and that document was opened up on the screen. She has NO idea how this happened, but the REALLY crazy part? This happened on October 7th. The same date they had to take that airplane down.

Now we're like "WTF, are we going to see his ghost this Thanksgiving or something?!?"

If this isn't the weirdest day of my life it's top five for sure...

So what I've found out so far is the hats these guys are wearing might be Swedish uniform. So that got me thinking maybe it's not my grandfather in there, except for two things:

1. I do know that they were given clothes by the Swedes.

2. The resemblance is strong enough that my mom was pretty well convinced it was him.

I'm wondering if the Swedes would have given any American a hat with a marking like that though - on one hand I'd think "no way", but on the other hand this was 1944, and it may have been pretty cold at the time...

But, for all I know that could be American clothing being worn there, need to research further...

Great story Zamzow!

Just had a quick look at the photo and the uniforms indeed look like the ones used here in Sweden at the time. I will help you translate the telegram tomorrow when back home. Here are quite a few Swede's around SimHQ so maybe someone beats me to it...

/KC

Great story and good luck tracking the history down.

I tried to OCR the telegram in Swedish and then translate but no dice

**************************************************

4 ----------- LDE - . - In " . Mi'loet - * bi- Nodia - NaOD -e" American " fly - small " " transpnrtomsmi ' " Tomorrow "
10/10 to Tranas to ' from there . Buses depart for Gramm where amerümn -

71 ' .

331013 5111793311ch moaning '= * 01' transmrteimü source .. following .... pL'211 ... stop .. Konm .

tingehfen from Sövdcborg (101 man) departure ' from there at 0809 with ongomst to

? folmö 0957 departure from Malmö 1235 ankomt Tranas 1721 stop 2 breakfast : in ___________ "
" " ( " 1" A ) " " e , x ';' Raa
cr Ronneby 1108 arrival Växsjö 1403.3.ng '3 o ; Vämjö 1410 orücomst Alvestagatan 1505
? men - " Alvestawlñzzl - in - ti - l - ' Tranas - " 1721 --- kontingcntcn ' ' receive' luncimorgär " " in "" "
rust 51:09 From Växsjö resigns kontingontcn (9 male) at 1410 over Alvestagatan acc



No. 1211100131 : They stop at Jönköping ditched Americans. have utomoaáato
I. Mullsjö stop Trananoi'ten of I : ontinçonten from Sövâcborg . and , __ijggbymgndagü
In __ . . _ . in . I _ . . _ . ' . ('T ' ' | , . ' Ll ' . 1 _' __ . 1 ' . In. . _ | '. '|' ... '.' ..... '.' > , . u'II .. , ... | | .. | | .. | | | | | | . | n | ' | | vllunl gluuulltuclllli.IHINH " " nuiluuu ' "" "' " '. ' . | ' . '. ' '' ..... H I

ms of miloaü other * by the manager for fl \ . '>' * vupn0t auspices step Följobefêü

we . )

according IIörrkszst dept K Now 49:35 : iv 8/8 1044.

Well thanks for the effort, and thanks to KeyCat too!

My mind is peppered with questions about those uniforms - it would seem to me a violation of protocol to clothe some Americans with their own military uniforms, but on the other hand this is WW2 we're talking about and we all know many "protocols" were violated back in those days... (if not even today too)

Then there's the possibility that this was all the Swede's HAD to offer in terms of clothing at that time and location, who knows...

But at least the airplane itself and location is genuine. That much I have established, and that was far, far more than I ever expected to find on the internet.

Now I'm wondering exactly why they had to land - I can't see any serious damage to the airplane, but I guess flak could easily take out something critical without really showing in a picture like that...

Wish my grandfather was still alive to ask - I did, as did others when he was alive, but you quickly learned not to bother asking about it...

But maybe if he saw this picture he'd start telling stories...

Man!

That B-17, #43-37674, has been flown 30 times by different crews:

http://351st.org/loadlist/search.php?type=a&ac=43-37674

Awesome ColJamesD - according to that link my grandfather's mission in that plane was the last one for Flak Magic - I did find out elsewhere it was scrapped in 1945.

Strange though, the plane didn't look all THAT damaged....

But obviously something crazy had to have happened. My grandfather, talk about one tough SOB, he had this condition with his esophagus that could have been cured with surgery, and he had the money, but instead he'd go in once a year and have a tube shoved down there so they could "straighten it out".

He did that for decades, right up to his death.

Oh, he also used to decline Novocaine shots for dental work to save money.

I could never be that tough.

I watched him die, literally watched him that night.

When I asked what it felt like he said "It reminds me of going on a mission"...

No way he'd just go land a plane like that over "panic"...

I think you can write the Pentagon and ask them what happened to his plane.

After 68 years, I doubt the information is classified anymore.

It's amazing how much materiel we built during World War 2:

http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1943_2.html

http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/usafserials.html

Each serial number is an aircraft!

I might just do that.

I did see online somewhere today (I've been on the most epic internet search session of my life today!) that the plane was scrapped in Arizona in 1945. That would match up with his fateful mission being the last time that plane flew - at least for a mission anyway.

But you never know - maybe that thing IS still around somewhere...

Zamzow, have you checked the MACRs (Missing Air Crew Report)?

Here is an example,
http://www.398th.org/PDF/History/MACRs/MACR_11146_398th_600th_19441126_Zimmer.pdf

OT but notice the .50MD was made by Frigidaire.

Telegram looks like travel plans for the crew.

Missing air crew report - that is precisely the document my brother dug up around 5 years ago.

I'm getting a copy of that sent to me this weekend.

But thanks much for the tip!

How about this link, http://www.8thafhs.com/db/get_one_acgroup.php?acgroup_id=49

Will given mission details.

There are bigger cases of it, but this is the best "crowdsourcing" incident in my life.

SimHQ rules!

Thanks much for that link KraziKanucK, got this there...

401BG / 615BS Mission Report - This was a maximum effort for the 8th Air Force with the 401st B.G. putting up 51 B-17's. Most of the targets for this day were oil refineries, and the one the Group went after was the big one at Politz. Briefing was at 0410 hrs with all aircraft becoming airborne by 0809 hrs. The 401st furnished three 12 aircraft Squadrons comprising the 94th "C" Group and 12 aircraft for the High Squadron of the 94th "B" Group plus PFF aircraft. The Group Leader was Lt. Col. W.T. Seawell flying with Capt. D.A. Currie. The Low Squadron Leader was 1st Lt. B.C. Konze of the 615th. Although much cloud cover was encountered along the route to the target, weather over the primary target was clear, with the exception of smoke generated by an exceptionally effective smoke screen in operation over the synthetic oil plant at Folitz. Bombing was done by visual means and the Lead Bombardier had much difficulty in synchronizing on the assigned MPI's because of the smoke cover. Some crews observed that bombs struck in the approximate area of the assigned MPI's. The aircraft were in flak for nine minutes from Stettin to Politz. The flak was moderate but extremely accurate and five aircraft were lost, although two did make it to Sweden. In addition to the missing aircraft, three others received major flak damage and 40 received minor flak damage. Casualties included 45 missing in action, four lightly wounded in action and three seriously wounded in action. At least four of the five ships that were lost were lucky in that two crews were made POW and two crews went to Sweden. The 615th loading list was as follows: 42-102674 Grimm, 42-31983 Callaway, 43-38125 Stegemann, 44-6146 Cooper, 43-37551 Duckworth, 42-31730 McKay, 43-38159 Oas, 42-102468 Dow, 43-38077 Haskett, 42-107113 Sullivan, 42-97737 Konze, 43-38425 Udy.
source: 615th Bombardment Squadron History www.401bg.org

You should be able to make a history of all your grandfathers missions.