Assorted Ground Crew images and stories
447th BG ground crew repairing engine
Sgt George L. Lehto, from Virginia, Massachusetts, tends to one of the Wright Cyclone engines of a 447th Bomb Group B-17 Flying Fortress.
M/Sgt Wedvick, from Del Passo Heights, California, inspects the heavy battle damage to the radio compartment of a 447th Bomb Group B-17 Flying Fortress after the 7 March 1944 raid on Berlin.
M/Sgt Wedvick of the 447th Bomb Group inspects a damaged B-17 Flying Fortress. A censor has obscured some of the instruments Wedvick is examining.
Sgt James C Hill, from Phoenix, Arizona, is at work repairing the very large hole torn in the fuselage of the radio compartment of a 447th Bomb Group B-17 Flying Fortress after the 7 March 1944 raid on Berlin. The radio operator was thrown out of the aircraft without his parachute by the attack.
Lt. Giddings (sitting), section control officer from West Hartford, Connecticut, instructs M/Sgt Wedvick, a repair inspector from Del Passo Heights, California, on which 447th Bomb Group aircraft to visit for the day. At this airbase, it would be inspectors such as M/Sgt Wedvick’s decision after visiting any damaged aircraft that came back from a raid whether or not they would be repaired and returned to duty or scrapped.
A group of fitters in a travelling repair workshop for B-17 Flying Fortresses, photographed whilst in the area of the 447th Bomb Group.
A group of fitters at work riveting and patching over the flak holes in the fuselage of a 447th Bomb Group B-17 Flying Fortresses that had been on the 8 March 1944 Berlin raid.
Two PFC servicemen, Andy Sarantakes from Boston, Massachusetts on the left, and Albert W. Silbowitz from Brooklyn, New York on the right, have a small break while repairing 447th Bomb Group B-17 Flying Fortresses.
PFC Al Holmes and Pvt Harry A. Schulzer of the 447th Bomb Group work on a B-17 Flying Fortress.
S/Sgt W.A. Rehbein, from South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, works on the travelling repair workshop’s precision lathe, used while the workshop was in the vicinity of the 447th Bomb Group.
The Aircraft Status Board of the 3rd Bomb Division repair section, of which the 447th Bomb Group was a part. This board contained the details of all aircraft of all 3rd Bomb Division Bomb Groups being repaired by the workshops.
PFC Clifford D. Johnson (left) from Stonington, Connecticut and Cpl M.A. Roxin from Rochester, New York, at work with a rivet gun patching up a 447th Bomb Group B-17 Flying Fortress that was damaged on the 8 March 1944 Berlin raid.
PFC Daniel Kalney (left) from Ogden, Utah watches Cpl Joe O’Leary from Syracuse, New York work with a pair of shears trimming flak holes in a 447th Bomb Group B-17 Flying Fortress that was damaged on the 8 March 1944 Berlin raid.
Pvt John Rumney from Baldwin Park, California finishes the work on the engine covering of a 447th Bomb Group B-17 Flying Fortress.
Nicholas J Gough in Spring of 1945 with Wolf Wagon with 50 mission marks and a darkened area added to the nose art.
Bill Garner, Willie Burnell, Joe Zorn and Nicholas J. Gough. Photo taken at Rattlesden, likely after D-Day. AAM caption suggests this plane could be either Scheherazade or Wolf Wagon (but Scheherazade was OD, Wolf Wagon had mission tallies on left side)
Joe Zorn, Willie Burnell and Nicholas J. Gough. Photo likely taken in Summer of 1944. Armaments maintenance crews worked on the scary ball turrets as well as load bombs, and maintain all machine guns and bomb sights on their planes.
Some photos/information provided by:
Some information and/or images sourced from the American Air Museum database