ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 78724
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| Date: | Saturday 7 October 1944 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  Boeing B-17G-5-BO Fortress |
| Owner/operator: | 351th BGp /511th BSqn USAAF |
| Registration: | 42-31192 |
| MSN: | 6306 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 7 / Occupants: 9 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Farabol, 34 km SSE Karlshamn (Blekinge) -
 Sweden
|
| Phase: | Combat |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Polebrook/AAF Sta.110, Northamptonshire |
Bombing mission over Pölitz, Poland. Two engines damaged by flak, fuel leakage. Decided to try emergency landing in Sweden. Emergency landing was commenced, but there were people on the field (picking potatoes). The Pilot throttled up the two working engines but the plane struck trees at the end of the field, crashed and caught fire, ammunition exploded.
Lt. Einer Peterson Pilot, 2nd Lt Duane A. Wilson Co-Pilot, 2nd Lt Benjamin F. Christensen Navigator, F/O William F. Rooney Bombardier, Sgt. Louis R. Candelaria Top Turret, Sgt. Lawrence E. Jensen Radio Operator (survived), Sgt. Robert W. Crawford Right Waist, Sgt. J. K. Blake Jnr. Ball Turret, Sgt. Lloyd G. Best Tail Gunner (survived).
The two survivors later "escaped" via Bromma airport together with some 100 aviators to England.
On this day Oct 7th 1944, a B-17G serial #42-31192 YB-R, from 351st BG at Polebrook, crashed in southern Sweden in a small rural place named Farabol.
Target for the day was the synthetic oil plants at Politz outside Stettin.
The aircraft was hit early by flak, and lost one engine. Still trying to reach the target it was shot up even more, and after dropping their bombs, the crew decided to try to reach Sweden rather than bail out. They limped over the southern Baltic Sea towards Sweden with only one engine running.
The crew were fresh, except the pilot. They had just arrived to England, and this was their first real mission. They had started out on one before, but the pilot aborted it due to experienced engine problems. It’s said he was grounded for this reason, and on this day they had a stand in pilot: 1st Lt Einer Petersen. This was his 25th mission.
Rest of the crew consisted of: co-pilot Duane Wilson; navigator Benjamin Christensen; bombardier William Rooney; engineer and top turret gunner Louis Candelaria; radio operator Larry Jensen; waist gunner Robert Crawford; ball turret gunner Jerry Blake and tail gunner Lloyd Best.
At this time of the war the crew on a B-17 were normally just 9 (instead of 10), since there was very little resistance of the Luftwaffe. So they had one waist gunner instead of two. On this day the other waist gunner James Smythe and the grounded original pilot Raymond Mueller, were not in the air. They both survived the war after completing their tours in 1945.
Over the Baltic Sea and Sweden this day it was cloudy.
On board YB-R they were unsure if they had crossed the sea or not because of this. Leaking fuel, and running low on it, they went down through the clouds to check the surroundings and found themselves over wide areas of forests. But they found one small spot of open fields and went in for an emergency landing.
Close to the ground it’s said that they spotted people picking potatoes, so they tried to gain height again, which resulted in a crash among the trees in the surrounding forest.
Witnesses accounted of a huge fireball, and a following fire and exploding ammunition. Radio operator Larry Jensen and tail gunner Lloyd Best were thrown clear from the emergency position for the crew in the radio room. Pilot, and co-pilot were killed instantly in the cockpit. Some of the other crew were also thrown out but unconscious. At least Jensen went in to the wreck and dragged out the rest of the crew, with assistance from the Swedish Home Guard.
Benjamin Christensen, Jerry Blake and William Rooney also survived the impact, but Blake and probably Rooney died on the way to the hospital. Christensen died later at the hospital. Sole survivors were Larry Jensen and Llloyd Best. They were interned in Sweden for three months after hospital, before returned to England and the USA.
Jensen became a teacher and Best a veterinarian after the war.
Both Jensen and Best made friends in the village of Farabol, and visited there in the 70’s. And later their sons as well. There are still parts of the aircraft around in Sweden, and among that the functioning radio that Jensen operated.
And still witnesses to what happened.
On this mission 17 heavy bombers from USAAF were lost. 8 of them made emergency landings in Sweden, and 5 out of these 8 were from the 351st bomb group.
Of the 142 bombers assigned to the mission, only 19 aircraft were undamaged.
I have been researching the events of YB-R and its crew, for quite some years, and this is the short story.
During this time I have only found one picture that is said to show pilot Einer Petersen, but it is not confirmed. Jensen and Best never saw Petersen since they were new, and it was dark when they boarded the aircraft. I have not found any photographs, except from the crash site, of B-17 YB-R #42-31192 which flew 54 missions.
Sources:
http://web.archive.org/web/20140709162944/http://www.flyghistoria.org:80/meeting_2010.htm
[LINK NOT WORKING ANYMORE:http://www.flyghistoria.org/images_minnesten/Farabol.htm]
JF Baugher
351st Bomb Group · Facebook
Ivar Kandell ·
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 14-Oct-2010 09:38 | Masen63 | Added |
| 01-Sep-2011 06:55 | Uli Elch | Updated [Cn, Operator, Phase, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 07-Sep-2011 15:12 | Uli Elch | Updated [Location, Source, Narrative] |
| 04-Feb-2012 09:23 | Nepa | Updated [Operator, Source, Narrative] |
| 05-Apr-2020 15:51 | Reno Raines | Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Narrative, Operator] |
| 15-Sep-2023 05:27 | emarches | Updated [[Operator, Departure airport, Narrative, Operator]] |
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