The Return of the Hard Seventeen.

[EDanaII]

I just wanted to share this with our friends in Amiga Land, especially you over there in Europe. :-)

In two weeks, my father, a couple siblings, a nephew and I are traveling to Grimbergen, Belgium, where my father will be honored for his service in WWII. The B-17 that he served on crashed there 62 years ago during the Battle of the Bulge.

I've used a monogram B-17F kit to recreate the plane. This plane will be given to my father once we arrive in Belgium. For any who are interested, here's My Album's Page. Just click on the link titled "The Return of the Hard Seventeen" for both photos of the old and new plane.

Enjoy.

Ed.

[EDanaII]

There were actually nine members in dad's crew. I don't know why the ninth person doesn't appear in the photo. That, of course, still leaves one gun position unfilled. And that is answered by the fact that dad, as waist gunner, manned BOTH the left and right waist positions.

See what a hero he was! He actually fought for two men. You're right, of course, by that time we had achieve total air superiority. The Luftwaffe was all but destroyed. I do not say that lightly, BTW, since that war was a real tragedy for all sides.

As to the beer, unfortunately, except for my nephew, none of us drink. Naturally, I've told the journalist that's been helping us with all this that we're willing to fake it so as not to insult anyone. How can we not? Considering all they are doing for us.

This is all hush hush, and anyone reading who actually happens knows my father -- it could happen, right? -- is forbidden to tell him, but they are actually planning a meeting with the mayor of Grimbergen and a flyover of the crash site. It should be fun.

Ed.

[EDanaII]

Well, I just got back from my trip to Belgium yesterday and all I can say is... "Wow!"

More than twice the number of people expected (50 instead of 20); non-stop "thank you's" from everyone, including us; newspaper, radio and television coverage; representatives from the Belgian air force and the American embassy present.

And, after all was said and done, people that had watched the news coverage from the night before thanked dad before and after we boarded our return flight home, including the pilot.

So, like I said... "Wow!" Who would have thought someone deserved so much attention for simply crash landing in a field some 62 years ago.

I'll post pictures if anyone is interested, once I get them all together.

[EDanaII]

@ Doobrey

Yep. That's the plane. Two engines lost over the target, attempted to make an emergency landing in Grimbergen, only to have a third engine fail, crash landed in a field not more than a mile from the Grimbergen Abbey.

Not much left of the field at Deenethorpe either. One runway now used by an autogyro club. We visited Deenethorpe on the 13th, it rained all day.

Interesting about the Mitchell. We visited a unique little museum in Belgium called Broken Wings that specialized in the wreckage of WWII planes.


@ Blobrana

It's a good site for 401st information. I used it to help recreate my father's plane. It's not 100% accurate though as it lists my father as an engineer when he was just the waist gunner. That's OK though, we don't mind the promotion.

Ed.

[EDanaII]

Well, I think it's good you've acquired an interest in nose art, even if in passing. History lives for as long as we can remember it. :-)

Now, I wish the nose art on my dad's plane was as cheeky -- pun intended -- as the planes your link listed but... maybe his other planes were more interesting. Time to dip into the archives again.

Ed.

[EDanaII]

All right, for those who are interested, no pictures to post yet, but on my Albums Page. I added four new images at the end of the list. They are the images of the Invitation and three newspaper articles concerning the trip. All are in Flemish, translation are provided. The translations are a work in progress.

Let me know if you have any issues access the site, some people do and some don't. Not sure why, but any clues are welcome.

Ed.

[EDanaII]

All right, for the voyeurs out there, I've updated my Vacation's Page.

Few explanations are provided, I'm still working on those.

Ed.

[EDanaII]

Thank you, Doobrey, especially for letting me know about the connection issue. Going through Anonymous.org suggests that, maybe, my router is rejecting some addresses? I'm not sure about this one, but that does give me some clues.

Ed.

[EDanaII]

In case anybody is still interested, I finally received the Belgium news report of our trip. Here's the Ring TV's (Belgium) Television coverage of our trip. It's modest, but it's still 2 minutes more fame for my father.  

Enjoy.

Ed.