Assorted Unknown Aircraft
There were a number of aircraft flown on missions with the 447th BG that could not be identified on the Formation Charts or Load Lists. These documents typically refer to the planes only by the last three or four digits of the aircraft number, like 42-31582 listed as 582.
In some rare instances, there are shortened numbers on the documents that do not match any of the planes on the 447th BG roster (or have yet to be determined). Other combinations might apply to two or three different planes.
For the listings on the mission pages, these will be referred to as UNK accompanied by notes (such as hardstand number, who was flying, other details) which may help lead to future identification.
Until then, this page will serve as a catch-all for these special planes.
Here are some examples that have shown up on our listings so far:
Flight listings for UNK
These lists are NOT limited to officially credited Combat missions, and may include Aborts, returns and non-takeoff occurrences as well.
447th Mission (Date) | Target | Pilot | Notes |
#99 (25-Jun-44) | Vercors, France Area #1 | Peterson, C. E. | Slated for 147, but changed to #096 (both 42-31096 and 42-32096 had already gone MISSING much earlier) |
#120 (04-Aug-44) | Arras – Ostend, Belgium | McRay, E. J. | switched to #092 but no HS so could be 3 options |
#185 (12-Dec-44) | Darmstadt, Germany | Bates, B. E. | #743-B HS-35 |