In his book, Wild Blue, Stephen E Ambrose quotes a gunner, Sgt Erling Kindem of the 742nd sqn who was on a Feb '45 mission to Vienna, (page 215). “A ‘phantom’ B24 joined the formation. The pilot said he was from the 55th, who weren’t flying that day, also, the B24 had no tail markings. P51’s of the 99th escorted the B24 away”. Apparently nothing more was heard of this. Has anyone looked into this & can tell me more? Many thanks, Pete
Checkout this link it may help
Thanks for that, the only likely candidate on there seems to be ‘Sky Pirate’, # 42 - 78106, A B 24 operated out of Croatia. Does anyone else know what happened to that aircraft? Or was it another B -24?, I’ve found around six operated by the Luftwaffe.
The subject of enemy operated aircraft has been of interest to me for years, I’m not sure why, but I find it fascinating.
There is more to come on this subject. I have been researching the Sky Pirate as my Uncle was one of the gunners. They landed with low fuel in Croatia in Feb '45. The aircraft number in the above post appears to be wrong but I don’t have my notes handy. I have heard that the B-24 and the P-38 were destroyed a few days later by another P-38. If this is true, the timing is wrong for the Liberator being operated by the enemy for more than a day or two. I will follow up and appreciate any further information.
JA
That was a pretty good book!!!
In some other book I read, it was said that this happened occasionally, they were flown by Germans who would report to the AA the critical information…heading, altitude
Enemy operated aircraft is an interesting subject. “Strangers in a strange land” vol 1, NOT vol 2, by squadron signal publications is a good read for this. Lot’s of cool stuff in that book. I cant really help on the B-24 question though.
I do remember reading about a captured P-38 (by the italians) shooting down a B-17, she was’nt flown for very long, the crappy italian fuel killed the lightnings engines.
EDIT: Just went through my book, it lists B-24G-10-NT 42-78106 as being assingned to the 460th BG unknown BS, German code NF+LF, no nick name, captured 9 june 44 at Fussach germany. Hope that helps.
Joe Baugher collaborates this info with the USAAF records.