Old 666
| Old 666 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Only known image of Old 666. | |
| Other name(s) | Lucy |
| Type | Boeing B-17E Flying Fortress |
| Manufacturer | Boeing |
| Construction number | 2487 |
| Manufactured | 1941 |
| Serial | 41-2666 |
| In service | 1943-1944 |
| Fate | Scrapped, August 1945 |
Old 666, B-17E 41-2666 was a World War II B-17 Flying Fortress Bomber which was assigned to the United States' 43rd Bomb Group in 1943 and was the aircraft piloted by Lt. Col. (then Captain) Jay Zeamer on the mission that would earn him and 2d Lt. Joseph Sarnoski each a Medal of Honor, and every other member of the crew a Distinguished Service Cross.
History
B-17E 41-2666 was built at Boeing Plant 2 Seattle, Washington in March 1942. After being transferred to Minneapolis, it was flown to Hawaii in May 1942 for delivery to Australia as a replacement for the war-weary Fortresses that had survived the Japanese attacks in the East Indies and Philippines. Initially unassigned, it was attached to the 435th Squadron of the 19th Bombardment Group in mid-May. Some time in June it was equipped with a trimetrogon camera array used in high-altitude topographical mapping. The system used images taken from multiple Fairchild K-17 cameras, equipped with 6” Bausch & Lomb “Metrogon” lenses, arranged in a fan array to create a broad mosaic of the target area. While usually configured in the nose section, in 666's case the array consisted of a single camera mounted underneath the radio compartment pointing straight down, with the other two cameras mounted aft of the waist windows, directly opposite one another, on 30° angles below the horizontal axis.
On June 26, 41-2666 was assigned to the 8th Photo Reconnaissance Squadron, which provided reconnaissance for the Fifth Air Force. Due to their proximity to one another in Townsville, Australia, the squadron was frequently attached to the 435th. It was with the 435th that it flew its first mission on June 8, 1942, to Lae, a Japanese-held town on the coast of New Guinea. In July, '666 suffered an unusual accident in which a life raft somehow inflated while in flight, blew out a waist window and damaged the tail of the aircraft. The accident began the plane's reputation as a "Hard Luck Hattie," suffering frequent damage on its various missions. In December 1942, after being transferred to the 403rd Bomb Squadron of the 43rd Bomb Group, '666 was badly shot up after a mission to Rabaul, suffering hits to a gas tank and oil cooler, with the left aileron and right elevator controls plus the main rib in the right wing shot out as well.
It was after this mission that '666 likely sat for some time, but stories of the aircraft being scrapped at the end of the Port Moresby runway and used for parts are highly exaggerated. Such a specialized and much-needed aircraft would never sit for long, and in fact '666 had already been restored to flight status by early April 1943, most likely by the 8th Photo. Contrary to decades of myth and misconceptions, it could not have been restored to flight status by Jay Zeamer and his crew, since according to the 8th Photo squadron diary and Zeamer's own flight log, '666 was flown on multiple missions by the 8th before Zeamer's crew flew it for the first time. That occurred on May 18, 1943, after '666 had been transferred to the 65th Bomb Squadron of the Fifth Air Force at Seven-Mile Airstrip, located at Port Moresby, New Guinea.
It is true, according to Zeamer, that it was his photographer/side gunner, George Kendrick, who had served with the 8th Photo prior to joining the 403rd, who brought Zeamer's attention to the aircraft when it came into the 65th. By then Squadron Executive Officer, Zeamer had '666 towed to a revetment where he and his crew, nicknamed the "Eager Beavers" for their constant volunteering for missions, upgraded the aircraft to suit their own purposes. Interested in increasing their mapping work, Zeamer wanted a fast and formidable aircraft. To that end, he and his crew stripped over two tons of weight from the interior of the plane, replaced all four engines, and installed sixteen .50 caliber machine guns in the aircraft, including a pilot-controlled .50 mounted to the bombardier's deck in the nose inspired by his good friend Ken McCullar's "Black Jack." (References to nineteen .50s include the spare guns that Zeamer carried for replacing any .50s that jammed in combat. It was easier, faster, and therefore safer to dump a jammed gun than attempt to free the jam in the heat of battle.) While the sheer number of guns on '666 was notable, what made it truly unique was the crew's installation of twin .50s in both waist positions, a fact corroborated by three other members of Zeamer's crew. Notoriously difficult to engineer, no other B-17 in the Pacific is known to have been so equipped.
It is a misconception that '666 was the crew's sole aircraft. On the contrary, most of the missions attributed to Zeamer's crew in '666 were in fact flown by the crew in other B-17s used regularly for combat in the 403rd and 65th Bomb Squadrons, Zeamer's respective assignments while in the 43rd Bomb Group. While occasionally used for combat, '666 was, after all, primarily a reconnaissance and mapping aircraft, and it was only in that capacity, and only three times on missions (the other two times were test hops), that the Eager Beavers flew it.
Mapping mission
The last of these was the June 16, 1943, mapping mission to Bougainville Island for which Zeamer and the Eager Beavers became the most highly decorated air crew in U.S. history.
Originally requested in April 1943 but repeatedly delayed by inadequate weather conditions, the mission called for a single B-17 to map the west coast of Bougainville Island, almost six hundred miles from Port Moresby, in support of a planned invasion of the island later that year. Of particular interest was Empress Augusta Bay; charts of the reefs and beaches were vital for a marine landing. Mapping runs demanded straight and level flight for the duration to avoid blurring of the photos, and this mission would require a twenty-two minute run over actively hostile territory. The combination caused Fifth Bomber Command to call for volunteers rather than simply assign a crew.
Unsurprisingly, Zeamer and the Eager Beavers volunteered immediately, but it wasn't until mid-June that favorable weather conditions in the target area at the necessary time of day, 0800 local, occurred. 8th Photo attempted the flight on June 15, but camera failures gave Zeamer and crew their opportunity the following day. Zeamer and the crew worked late into the evening to finish final preparations of 41-2666 for the mission, including additional fuel tanks in the bomb bay. Sometime after midnight, according to Zeamer, he received a telephone call in his tent from Fifth Bomber Command ordering the crew to add a reconnaissance of Buka airdrome, located on tiny Buka Island off Bougainville's northern tip. Zeamer forcefully rejected the order both then and the following morning when it was hand-delivered by jeep as '666 was taxiing for take-off around 4 a.m. Zeamer was unwilling to risk the success of the mapping run by flying a recon over a hostile base just prior to commencing it, especially with two substitute crewmen; his regular copilot and flight engineer had been grounded with malaria. The regular belly turret gunner was temporarily promoted from assistant flight engineer to flight engineer in the top turret. His replacement in the belly turret was the squadron armaments chief, flying his first combat mission.
Zeamer's reluctance to fly the Buka recon was tested when they arrived at their starting point for the mapping run half an hour early. With the sun still too low for proper photography, Zeamer was faced with either killing half an hour over the ocean or doing the recon. He put the question to the crew—he wouldn't make the decision for them—and the response was quick and expected. It made no sense to leave it to another crew when '666 was already essentially over the target. Decision made, Zeamer headed northeast to circle around to head over Buka airstrip before beginning the mapping run down the Bougainville coast.
As they began the recon, the crew reported eighteen Japanese aircraft either taxiing or taking off. Zeamer began the mapping run, hoping that they could finish the mapping run before the enemy aircraft could reach their mapping altitude of 25,000 feet. It was indeed close. Two passes from below with just a few minutes left proved ineffectual, but with about a minute left, the crew observed five Zeros coordinating into a multi-pronged attack on the plane from below, with two approaching from the rear and three fanned across the front from the 10:00 to 2:00 positions. In the past, drawing on his experience with the 22nd Bomb Group prior to joining the 43rd, Zeamer would turn into approaching fighters, inside their line of fire, eventually rolling them almost completely over by the time they reached Zeamer's B-17. Zeamer saw that he couldn't execute such a maneuver in this case, however, without exposing '666's belly to one or two of the three coordinated fighters across his front. Aware that they were now over Empress Augusta Bay, the single most important objective of the mapping mission, Zeamer kept his course, planning to fight it out.
The first pass proved fatal for bombardier Sarnoski, who was mortally wounded by a 20mm shell from the fighter at 10:00, which also injured badly injured the navigator, who was struck in the head, neck, back and side. This same Zero also put at least one 20 mm shell in the side of the cockpit. It was almost certainly these hits that delivered a grievous wound to Zeamer's left thigh, sent shrapnel into the assistant flight engineer's legs in the top turret, and struck the oxygen lines behind the cockpit, starting a fire. Almost simultaneously, the Zero at 12:00 put a 20mm shell through the Plexiglass nose that struck Zeamer's rudder pedals, bending them and destroying the instruments on his side of the instrument panel. Zeamer's feet were pulled back under the seat, exposing his calves, which were riddled with shrapnel, and he was also struck in the right wrist, leaving a nasty wound that pulsed blood onto his steering wheel as he continued to pilot the aircraft. Crew accounts conflict, but Zeamer reported seeing Sarnoski, blown from his bombardier's seat with a horrible gash in his side and another in his neck, re-mounting his seat and fending off another fighter approaching from the ten o'clock position, described by crew members as a twin-engine fighter matching the description of a Kawasaki Ki-45 heavy fighter.
Having finished the mapping run and now needing oxygen, Zeamer immediately dove from twenty-five thousand feet to eight-to-ten thousand, estimating his altitude from a change in manifold pressure since the altimeter had been destroyed. At this point, a fifth crew member was wounded, the radio operator, as a pursuing Zero drove over the top of the diving B-17. After the precipitous dive, both the wounded assistant flight engineer and navigator, who Zeamer would later describe as looking like a beet with his blood-covered head and face, successfully extinguished the oxygen fire using only their hands and rags.
Leveling out, Zeamer continued to pilot '666 despite excruciating pain and continued blood loss. Zeros began lining up on either side of the stricken B-17. Correctly assuming all of its forward guns were now inoperable, the Japanese began circling around, one by one in turn, to approach '666 from the front, a technique they had developed early in the war once they discovered how weakly protected early B-17s were from the front. Fortunately this allowed Zeamer to now utilize the technique he'd been unable to use against the coordinated first pass, banking hard inside the firing angle of each approaching Zero, allowing his rear gunners unfettered access to their foes. This continued until finally, low on ammunition and fuel, forty-five minutes after the initial attack, the last of the remaining Zeros to return home. While the crew reported destroying five fighters, Japanese records claim none were actually shot down, with one ditching early in the engagement and only three being damaged by Eager Beavers fire. In a letter Zeamer does not dispute those records, but does claim that when the engaging squadron in those records, 251 Kōkūtai, is reported as having returned to base, '666 was still being attacked, which would explain the crew's insistence that they were attacked by more than eight enemy aircraft. So far, at least, no records have been found which would lend evidentiary support to Eager Beavers claims. Interestingly, none of the crew statements given in support of Zeamer's Medal of Honor specifically state that they were attacked by more than eight fighters, only that they saw around eighteen enemy aircraft "taxiing or taking off" as they passed over Buka airdrome. Obviously not all of these fighters necessarily took off.
Once in the clear, the substitute copilot, who had amazingly escaped injury, instructed the wounded assistant flight engineer to pilot the aircraft from the right seat while he took stock of the damage and tended to the wounded. (This was not unprecedented for the crew, as Zeamer had directed all of his crew to receive at least basic training on all crew positions.) In all, five members of the crew were wounded (accounts of the copilot being injured surprised him and his family). Sarnoski, three days from returning home, died en route with his head in the lap of the tail gunner, who had become a close friend. Based on a heading obtained by the radio operator, wounded in the neck, '666 headed for the airstrip at Dobodura on the east coast of Papua New Guinea, as it was obvious Zeamer could not make it back over the Owen-Stanley mountains to Port Moresby. Even so, Zeamer managed to avoid unconsciousness to advise the assistant flight engineer until the copilot was able to return to his seat. After another three hours to Dobodura, the copilot made what he considered one of the best landings of this career despite lacking both flaps and brakes, executing a flawless ground loop to bring the aircraft to a stop after a hot landing which used up most of the six thousand foot runway. In the confusion after the landing, medics believed Zeamer to be dead, stating, according to Zeamer and the copilot, "Forget the pilot. He's dead." After an angry correction, Zeamer and the rest of the crew were treated at Dobodura and then returned to Port Moresby the following day. Some accounts report five cannon holes and almost 180 bullet holes being counted in 41-2666 after the battle. It is a reasonable estimate, but no corroboration from the crew or in official records has been found.
For the completion of the mission despite the certainty of attack and their respective sacrifices, Sarnoski and Zeamer received the Congressional Medal of Honor, with the remainder of the crew receiving the Distinguished Service Cross, second only to the Medal of Honor in status. It is only the third time in history that two members of the same crew have been awarded the Medal for the same mission. When combined with the decorations received prior to the 16 June 1943 mission, Zeamer and the Eager Beavers remain the most highly decorated air crew in American history.
After the war
With the arrival of B-24's by mid war most B-17Es were either converted into unarmed transports or scrapped. Old 666 was returned to the United States in February 1944 and was salvaged at Albuquerque in August 1945. This mission was featured on the History Channel show Dogfights, episode title "Long Odds".[1]
References
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Old 666. |
- ↑ "Long Odds (episode)". Dogfights (TV). The History Channel. January 19, 2007.
- Gamble, Bruce. Target: Rabaul. Zenith Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0-7603-4407-1