Jack Gaffney was also Crew Chief to this Douglas-built B17G which he named and embellished with a beautiful piece of nose art. One of the pilots which flew the ship intended to rename the plane as "Peggy" after his wife but he never got round to it before moving on to another Fort. Another pilot who flew the plane was less than enthusiastic about it, complaining that it was "sluggish and had trouble maintaining position in the formation". He suspected it had an fundamental airframe fault and as a consequence the plane had its ball turret removed at the end of October 1944. His test flight of the modified "Sunkist Sue" was no milk run -- it was to the infamous Merseburg on 2nd November and the formation came under severe fighter attack. His crew claimed five enemy fighters during the ensuing melee. A fuller analysis of this mission can be found in "Merseburg: Blood, Flak & Oil". On 29th January 1945, flown by James Ashlock's crew, "Sunkist Sue" lost an engine over the Niederlahnstein rail yards and lagged behind the formation. Finding safety at an emergency field on the continent, Ashlock's crew left their plane there and returned by ferry flight to England. It did eventually return to Bassingbourn but does not seem to have flown any further missions before returning to the USA in June 1945.

Known Mission List

Date	Pilot	Target	Notes
25 Jul 1944	J R Lyons / L R Marlett	St Lo (tactical)
28 Jul 1944	J R Lyons / L R Marlett	Merseburg (Taucha)
29 Jul 1944	J Oates / N K Gehret	Merseburg
31 Jul 1944	Basinger	Munich
5 Aug 1944	R R Goldsmith	Nienburg
7 Aug 1944	R R Goldsmith	Sens-Bourron-Marlotte
9 Aug 1944	R R Goldsmith	Elsenborn
14 Aug 1944	H A Cannary	Metz-Frascaty airfield
15 Aug 1944	D F Gibson	Ostheim
16 Aug 1944	R R Goldsmith	Halle
25 Aug 1944	R R Goldsmith	Neubrandenburg
26 Aug 1944	J K Werthman	Gelsenkirchen
27 Aug 1944	J K Werthman	Heligoland (Berlin recall)
5 Sep 1944	R R Goldsmith / C H Davis	Ludwigshaven
8 Sep 1944	H W Chouinard / R L Nickola	Ludwigshaven
9 Sep 1944	J J Ondrovic / J G Welch ? P J Limm	Ludwigshaven
10 Sep 1944	V B Maghee	Gaggenau-Sindelfingen
11 Sep 1944	L C Marpil / F Adams	Lutzkendorf
13 Sep 1944	R R Goldsmith / C H Davis	Lutzkendorf
19 Sep 1944	R R Goldsmith / A R Reaume	Hamm
21 Sep 1944	S E Rice / G D Bowker	Mainz
26 Sep 1944	R R Goldsmith / C H Davis	Osnabruck
27 Sep 1944	D F Gibson / L M Clymer	Cologne
28 Sep 1944	S E Rice / G D Bowker	Cologne
3 Oct 1944	N K Gehret / C H Davis	Nurnberg
6 Oct 1944	J J Ondrovic / J J Welch	Neubrandenburg
7 Oct 1944	J J Ondrovic / J J Welch	Ruhland-Freiberg-Wurzen
14 Oct 1944	J J Ondrovic / J J Welch	Cologne
15 Oct 1944	J J Ondrovic / J J Welch	Cologne
17 Oct 1944	J J Ondrovic / J J Welch	Cologne
19 Oct 1944	C C Whitesell / W R New	Karlsruhe & Kreunach & Speyer
22 Oct 1944	J J Ondrovic / J J Welch	Brunswick
2 Nov 1944	J J Ondrovic / J J Welch	Merseburg	(TT)(WG) damaged Fw190 x2 -- a/c flew w/o ball turret
6 Nov 1944	H E Kirby / E M Gaston	Hamburg
16 Nov 1944	F B Foster / L B Ellis	Aachen area
25 Nov 1944	W T Carter / L B Ellis	Merseburg
29 Dec 1944	E S Alexander / J J Kane	Wittlich
5 Jan 1945	R R Sullenberger / G E Shoup	Coblenz
17 Jan 1945	R Potters / H Haynie	Paderborn
21 Jan 1945	R Potters / H R Haynie	Aschaffenburg
22 Jan 1945	E O Johnson / D J Shoemaker	Sterkrade	Minor BD
28 Jan 1945	R Potters / W W Jones	Cologne
29 Jan 1945	J Ashlock	Niederlahnstein	Landed on continent and left there - returned later

 

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© Ray Bowden 5 September 2026