Clonakilty - B-17 T'aint a Bird Memorial / Info

ARG member John Symons is looking for information regarding the B-17 "T'aint a Bird" which force landed at Clonakilty in Ireland. It setled on a huge flat beach near Inchadony and the crew were feted like heroes at Donovan's Bar (?) where there is a small museum about the incident and a plaque on the wall. It is thought that eventually, when they'd sobered up, the locals got them airborne again and they got back to their base in Britain.

Does anyone know more about the aircraft? Base? Crew details? Plaque photos? Any further info would be gratefully received.

Thanks

Some info here - suggests 95 BG on 7 April 1943. Acording to 'Mighty Eighth' they weren't operational until 15 April 1943 (Alconbury initially). Also suggests marsh landing - not beach.

homepage.eircom.net/~wrgi/tablecor.html

forum.armyairforces.com/m102090-print.aspx

According to Baugher's serial numbers site, T'aint a Bird was damaged in battle 10 Nov 43 but survived the war to be salvaged (scrapped) in June 1945. That 10 Nov date is suspect because 8th AF was not operational that day!

B-17F-25-DL 42-3090 incomplete service history

6/2/43: Delivered at Cheyenne Modification Center.
Allocated to 4th Bombardment Wing, VIII Bomber Command (94th, 95th and 96th Bomb Groups).
7/4/43: Force-landed Clonakilty, Ireland during delivery flight (USA - Marrakesh, N Africa - UK) by 95th Bomb Group crew.
17/4/43: Assigned to 334th Bomb Squadron, 95th Bomb Group (Alconbury) as BG-C.
2/5/43: Flown out of Clonakilty to Alconbury.
13/6/43: Mission to Bremen or Kiel.
17/6/43: Transferred from 4th Bomb Wing to 1st Bomb Wing. Assigned to 508th Bomb Squadron, 351st Bomb Group (Polebrook) as YB-N "T'aint A Bird".
26/6/43: Mission to Villacoublay, France.
29/6/43: Mission to Triqueville, France.
10/7/43: Mission to Villacoublay, France.
24/7/43: Mission to Heroya, Norway.
25/7/43: Mission to Hamburg, Germany.
26/7/43: Mission to Hamburg, Germany.
30/7/43: Mission to Kassel, Germany.
15/8/43: Mission to Flushing, Holland.
16/8/43: Mission to Paris, France.
17/8/43: Mission to Schweinfurt, Germany.
24/8/43: Mission to Villacoublay, France.
7/9/43: Mission to Brussels-Evere, Belgium. Battle Damaged.
10/11/43: Transferred to 2 BAD (Warton) or 2nd Combat Crew Replacement Center (Cheddington).
?/?/44: Noted as at 2CCRC.
18/6/45: Salvaged.

Clonakilty is aso mentioned as a C47 crash-site from 1943-4. See my post from 19-03-2009. A plaque is shown on a wall nearby.

airfields wrote:

Clonakilty is aso mentioned as a C47 crash-site from 1943-4. See my post from 19-03-2009. A plaque is shown on a wall nearby.

Not quite - the crash site was at Carrauntoohil, Co Kerry, which is about 50 miles north-west of Clonakilty (West Cork)

LINK

Ooops.... wrong again !! At least I got the right country.

From Fred Pearce

A plaque is on the O'Donvans Hotel, Clonakilty, West Cork, Southern Ireland