The Gremlin Gus emblem was designed by staff at Walt Disney for an animated movie which was based on Dahl's story but did not come to fruition. Gremlin Gus was an old but wise character allegedly married to a Fifinella. He has more recently reappeared in Disney's "Epic Mickey" adventure game for Nintendo's gaming console.

The 388th carried two similarly named Forts on its inventory. "Gremlin Gus II" survived at least 55 combat missions before being declared "WW" war weary and transferred out to be converted for the Aphrodite Project. This conversion involved the removal of the cockpit roof to create an open top to facilitate the easy escape of the pilots once the aircraft (packed with high-explosive) had been switched to remote control and aimed at the target. It was never actually used and in June 1946 was finally scrapped.

It flew it's first mission on 13 August 1943 to Bonn and as many as eleven of its early sorties were then flown by Lt Ralph Jarrendt's crew. Later Robert Olin took it for a further ten missions and the crew dubbed it "Olin's 69ers" (although no image has yet come to light to show if this was ever actually painted in the aircraft.

"Gremlin Gus II" survived numerous attempts to bring it down by the flak crews below. Ralph Jarrendt sustained hits on three consecutive raids in September '43 and Olin's took severe damage on 13 December and was hit again on the 30th. Patched up, it was taken by Lt Sande's crew on 5th January but received another beating from flak and 20mm cannon fire which was serious enough to put the plane out of action for the rest of the month. The final recorded mission was flown on D-Day to strike the invasion beaches in France.

Known Mission List

Date	Pilot	Target	Notes
13 Aug 1943	Cunningham	Bonn	R/E (NS) - oxygen (BT)
15 Aug 1943	R T Jarrendt	Merville-Lille
16 Aug 1943	D Karnezis	Poix-Abbeville
17 Aug 1943	R T Jarrendt	Regensburg
24 Aug 1943	R T Jarrendt	Bordeaux
27 Aug 1943	D Karnezis	Watten
31 Aug 1943	R T Jarrendt	Brussels
2 Sep 1943	E S Melville	Brussels
6 Sep 1943	R T Jarrendt	Stuttgart	Cat A - flak + emg
7 Sep 1943	R T Jarrendt	Watten	Cat A - flak
9 Sep 1943	R T Jarrendt	Paris	Cat A - flak + 20mm
26 Sep 1943	O C Ingebritsen	Rheims-Champagne	Cat A - flak
2 Oct 1943	R T Jarrendt	Emden
4 Oct 1943	R T Jarrendt	Frankfurt
9 Oct 1943	G K Penton	Gdynia	Cat A - 20mm
14 Oct 1943	A A Chaffin	Schweinfurt
11 Nov 1943	R T Jarrendt	Munster
13 Nov 1943	R T Jarrendt	Bremen
16 Nov 1943	R J Olin	Rjukan	(RW) gloves burned out
19 Nov 1943	R J Olin	Gelsenkirchen
29 Nov 1943	R J Olin	Bremen
5 Dec 1943	R J Olin	Bordeaux
11 Dec 1943	O C Ingebritsen	Emden
13 Dec 1943	R J Olin	Kiel	Cat AC - flak
22 Dec 1943	J A Wisehart	Munster
24 Dec 1943	R E Bohne	Maison Ponthieu (B) V-site	Camera a/c
30 Dec 1943	R J Olin	Ludwigshaven	Cat A - flak
4 Jan 1944	R J Olin	Munster	Cat A - flak
5 Jan 1944	J M Sande	Bordeaux	Cat A - flak + 20mm
4 Feb 1944	R F Reed	Frankfurt	Flew with 96BG
6 Feb 1944	R H Fisk	Romilly
8 Feb 1944	R J Olin	Frankfurt
20 Feb 1944	R J Olin	Posnan	Cat A - flak
21 Feb 1944	R J Olin	Brunswick
29 Feb 1944	W E Hulcher	Brunswick
6 Mar 1944	R H Thompson	Berlin	Cat A -flak
8 Mar 1944	R H Thompson	Berlin
15 Mar 1944	M T Stuart	Brunswick
16 Mar 1944	R W Owens	Augsburg
20 Mar 1944	R L Campbell	Frankfurt
22 Mar 1944	R H Thompson	Berlin
23 Mar 1944	R H Thompson	Brunswick	R/E (NS)
29 Mar 1944	G Montgomery	Chateaudun
8 Apr 1944	M P Soldato	Achmer
13 Apr 1944	R H Thompson	Augsburg
22 Apr 1944	J J Gabler	Hamm
8 May 1944	J J Gabler	La Glacerie
12 May 1944	G A Little	Brux	R/E (NS) - gas leak
13 May 1944	D G McArthur	Osnabruck	Cat A Flak + shell cases
19 May 1944	H E Maple	Berlin
24 May 1944	S Hanuschak	Berlin
25 May 1944	H E Maple	Liege
27 May 1944	A M Codding	Strausbug
29 May 1944	G Montgomery	Leipzig
6 Jun 1944	R M Rowe	French coast
25 Jun 1944			Transferred to Aphrodite project
24 Jun 1946			SALVAGED

 

© Ray Bowden 24 October 2020