42-32004 B-17 Pride O the Yanks, Pride of the Yanks

The final flight of the J. L. Patrick crew

B-17 serial number 42-32004

"Pride O the Yanks"

Pride o the Yanks (aka: Pride of the Yanks)
with Andrecheck crew

View album

Crewmen on the Final Flight of "Pride O the Yanks".

Pilot

J. L. Patrick

Copilot

A. A. McDonnell

KIA in ditching

Navigator

J. F. Spear

KIA in ditching

Radio Operator

E. K. Bingham

Engineer

R. Rarick

Bombardier

A. Vuksta

Ball Turret

gunner

Frank L. Heiden

Waist Gunner

J. E. Ford

Waist Gunner

D. J. Harter

Tail Gunner

R. J. Rupe

KIA in ditching

The crew was assembled at Rapid City, South Dakota AAF (later named Ellsworth AFB)

Ellsworth AFB in 2011 (Rapid City AAB)

388th base / Knettishall Website (opens in new window)

RAF Knettishall, Wikipedia

Crew Facts
Name	J. L. Patrick Crew
Sqdr	560
Missions	9
Combat Duty length:	14 days
First mission	06 June 44 D Day
Last mission	20 June 44
Fate	Shot Down - ditched in the North Sea
MACR	5921

    Narrative:

Over Magdeburg, during the bomb run, they received severe flak damage.

They turned to return to England, feathered failed left engines one and two, then lost oil pressure and power on right wing number 3. With only 1 engine producing power, it was impossible to hold altitude and they had to ditch in the North Sea.
The last the other planes saw them, they were 7-8 miles out, but Frank says that they made it 20 miles from the coast before ditching. He says that Rupe, the tail gunner, never had a chance and was probably knocked unconscious when the tail slapped back down and other reports from Ford relate that Rupe was strapped in, in the proper ditching location.

Instructions: How to Ditch a B-17 at sea

Heiden said that the co-pilot, McDonnell was hurt and probably couldn't get unstrapped and out of the cockpit. A B-17 was estimated to float for as long as 2 minutes before sinking, but, usually, it was reported that they would sink in 30 to 45 seconds. Not a lot of time for crew members, injured, disoriented and in shock, to climb out and successfully evacuate.

There were 2 large 5 man life rafts on a B-17, but, according to Heiden, one raft was flak damaged, So they had 1 good 5 man raft for 6 people and put one wounded man in a "one man" raft and towed him with a rope. The plane ditched in the North Sea at 11:30 on the North side of the island of Terschelling. 10 hours later, at 21:30 (9:30pm) 7 crewmembers came ashore with a rubber lifeboat. It was Joseph Leon Patrick, Andrew Vuksta, Earwell Kay Bingham, Dale Arthur “Ricki” Rarick, Joseph Edwin Ford, Donald James Harter and Frank L Heiden.

They said that Frank paddled 20 miles back to the coast with the one paddle. "I sure wasn't going to let loose of that paddle!", said Heiden.
I think that Heiden said something about holding the rope for the guy they were towing, but I'm not sure that I can sort that out now.

In the ditching, they lost 3 crew members: the copilot: Alexander Angus McDonnell, the navigator: James Fenley Spear Jr. and the tail gunner: Robert Joe Rupe (pronounced "roop").

Aided by the wind, the current and one paddle - They made it to the Dutch coast.

According to Ford, when they made landfall, they sent one guy to find help and he came back with a couple German soldiers and a litter.

Heiden said that when they reached the beach, there were eventually Germans up the beach dunes and they were making hand motions and saying 'kommen sie, kommen sie hier!"

The cold and tired crew looked around and saw the minefield warning signs and said "Nein! nien! kommen Sie hier".
The Germans then pointed their rifles down at the crew and the crew carefully tiptoed with the wounded, up through the minefield. Maybe there weren't even any mines, but none went off.

They were interrogated and Heiden and the other two injured went to a german hospital. Heiden had a large cut on his head and a broken ankle that was never repaired. During interrogation, the Germans gave Frank a hard time as he was German, then after about 10 days, they gave up - that Heiden family stubbornness won out.
Eventually Frank Heiden went to Stalag Luft 4 and then to Stalag Luft VI and was part of the Black March.

I was talking to a friend who was an AIr Force brat and grew up in Europe. He said that the building where they were interrogated was still standing and in essentially WW2 condition.

Maybe my uncle Frank was pretty tough, but he said that the worst thing about being a POW was the boredom and lack of food.

Frank's wife said that she would look and see if he's got any ww2 pictures.

Frank was good friends with Ricki Rarick after the war.

Thanks to researcher Rene Bosma from NL. <rene_bosma21@hotmail.com>

Would like information and photos of crew and aircraft listed - Thanks -
marc@factorypro.com

These are the 4 aircraft the Patrick crew flew in their 9 combat missions, in 14 days, from June 6, 1944 to June 20, 1944.

We do not have a picture of:
42-37849
"their airplane" was Red X Darling / Miss Fortune

marc@factorypro.com

aircraft total 90 combat missions

Red X Darling survived the war

Patrick crew normally flew 42-37849 - they flew it 5 missions

Frank Heiden said that it was called "Red X" because she always had a long list of after and before mission "squawks" and "Darling" because she always got them back.

"Millie K" and Paul Kelly, Millie's husband
aircraft total 97 combat missions
Crashed on combat mission Sept 28, 1944 - MACR 9376

Patrick crew flew 42-37878 on 1 mission

Skipper and the Kids / Rough Deal
aircraft total 78 combat missions
Patrick crew flew 42-97286 for 1 mission

Delivered: Cheyenne 15/2/44; Kearney 4/3/44; Grenier 15/3/44;
Assigned: 398BG Nuthampstead 12/3/44;
Transferred: 560BS/388BG Knettishall 13/3/44;
detailed from Prestwick with special cargo (probably whiskey!) but lost way in poor weather, and crash-landed Isle of Arran, UK 11/12/44
Pilot: John Littlejohn; all killed.
Wreck not found until weeks later by a local shepherd.
Salvaged. 15/3/45
Source: B-17 Master Log - Dave Osbourne. http://www.8thafhs.com/db/get_one_acgroup.php?acgroup_id=29

*B-17G 42-97286, Skipper and the Kids, of the 560th Bombardment Squadron, 388th Bombardment Group flew into the eastern face of Beinn Nuis on the Isle of Arran on December 10, 1944 while on a flight from Knettishall to Prestwick.
http://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/pages/scotland/scotland42-97286.htm

Pride O the Yanks
aircraft total 61 combat missions
Patrick crew flew 42-32004 for 2 missions
Ditched in the North Sea June 20, 1944 with the J. L. Patrick crew on board. 7 survived the ditching and were captured.
Heiden had little love for the Pride O the Yanks.

Joseph Leon Patrick crew info
Joseph Leon Patrick Pilot Stories? pictures? email MaryAnne: Patricks.lionskeep@gmail.com			"Paw Patrick said he got this from his crew in prison." MaryAnne (Patrick)	Joseph L. Patrick
				Joseph L. Patrick
Alexander Angus McDonnell Second Lieutenant Co-pilot lost in ditching		additional information: War Memorial.- Columbia.University Angus A McDonnell	Telegram to ma Patrick from Angus McDonnell's family... His co pilot killed in action/ ditching.
James Fenley Spear Jr. Navigator		click pic for full size registration card (thanks Rene Bosma)	(thanks for finding this pic - Rene Bosma)	more info? JL_Patrick_crew information and photos
Earwell Kay Bingham also "Kay Bingham" Radio Operator				(Earwell) Kay Bingham from 1947 Gila Junior College at Thatcher, Arizona, USA
Engineer		Ricki Dale Rarick
Andrew (nmi) Vuksta Bombardier AAF serial number 15323475 State Ohio County Mahoning Place of enlistment Ft Hayes, Columbus, OH enlistment date October 23, 1942 civilian occupation welder birth Nov 6, 1922 death July 1, 1972 Burial: Saint Joseph Catholic Cemetery Alliance Stark County Ohio, USA
Frank L. Heiden Ball Turret gunner		POW records - Stalag Luft IV		JL_Patrick_crew information and photos
Joseph Edwin Ford Waist Gunner	POW #2508 Housed in Lager A, Stalag Luft IV Was part of the "Shoe Leather Express" POW forced relocation march. 86 days walking across Europe Veteran's History Project interview http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/bib/25952 Needs someone to visit the Library of Congress in Washington, DC		Joseph E. Ford	Joseph Edwin Ford JL_Patrick_crew information and photos
Donald James Harter Waist Gunner				JL_Patrick_crew information and photos
Robert Joe Rupe Hometown: Jackson County, Missouri sn 37506804 Staff Sergeant Tail Gunner	additional information www.388bg website Robert Joe Rupe Dutch Gravesite information adoptiegraven-database.nl			have more info? JL_Patrick_crew information and photos

Missions flown by the Patrick crew 14 day Timeline
First Mission of the Patrick crew 42-37878 Millie K (named by another crew - Paul Kelly's wife) "Normandy Beach Invasion" Mission 133: D Day Tuesday, June 6, 1944 The Patrick crew flew their first bombing mission on June 6th, 1944 on this plane. They only flew the "Millie K" once. According to Ford, the their primary target was obscured with clouds and they bombed the secondary, railway targets - to prevent Germans reinforcements and supplies from reaching the beachhead. link to Mission #394, #395 and #396 details First hand account as related by Joseph Ford to daughter, Judy "I flew my first mission on d-Day, June 6th, 1944. The first mission included every bomber that could fly. we were supposed to drop bombs on the beaches where the defending guns were. Since the day was overcast, we had to drop bombs by using instruments, which were not very reliable. We only had 20 minutes to bomb before our troops started landing on the beach. Fear of dropping bombs on the invading troops delayed the bombing for about 30 seconds. All bombs were dropped behind the beach and did very little good (I think he meant little good on the defending Germans). The planes returned to base, loaded up with bombs and took off again. I can clearly remember what I saw as we crossed the English Channel. You would not believe the number of ships and boats that were in the channel. You could tell by the wake that some ships were coming and some were going. Also, there were planes below us that were pulling gliders. It was something to behold. We dropped our bomb load on a bridge (or railyard) to delay the Germans from bringing up reinforcements. As we returned to base we were no long in groups. Every plane was on his own. For some reason, we had flown too far West. We were supposed to be over England, but all we could see was water. The pilot got onto James Spear, the Navigator, but he seemed to be confused and did not know where we were and we were beginning to run out of gas. They fuel each plane with just enough gas to get us to our mission sit and back to the base. I guess they saw no need in losing a lot of gas if a plane was shot down. Finally, an island appeared ahead and then the coast. We were on the West coast of England when we should have been on the East coast. We were way off our planned path of return. Our gas gauge was now showing empty when we finally saw the airfield just ahead and what a beautiful sight that was. British planes were in a landing pattern, but our pilot just cut in ahead of them. and set down on the runway. This was almost our first and our last mission. We got fueled up the next day and flew back to base."	"Millie K" B-17
Patrick crew = no fly Wednesday, June 7, 1944
42-97286 Skipper and the Kids aka. Rough Deal Mission 2, Patrick crew Mission 135 "Tours, France" Thursday, June 8, 1944 from other crew, Joe Payne http://joepayne.org/Joe_Payne.html MACR http://b17-heros.50megs.com/MACRDetail.html Last Mission http://b17-heros.50megs.com/MissionDetail.html aircraft http://b17-heros.50megs.com/AircraftDetail.html crash report http://www.aircrashsites-scotland.co.uk/boeing_b-17g_nuis02.htm crash http://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/away42-97286.htm model http://www.bramptonscalemodelclub.fsnet.co.uk/ww2%20aviation.html
Patrick crew = no fly Friday, June 9, 1944
Patrick crew = no fly Saturday, June 10, 1944
42-32004 "Pride O the Yanks" Their third mission, Patrick crew Mission 137 "Pontaubault, France" Sunday, June 11, 1944
42-37849 "Red X Darling" aka "Miss Fortune" Their fourth mission, Patrick crew Mission 138 "Amiens, France" Monday, June 12, 1944 Heiden said that the "Red X" was because she always had multiple "X's" on the squawk sheet after every mission.	"Red X Darling" was considered "their" airplane We need a photo. marc@factorypro.com
Tuesday, June 13, Patrick no fly - no missions 388th scheduled - 7th day into their tour
42-37849 "Red X Darling" aka "Miss Fortune" Mission 5, Patrick crew Mission 139 "St. Trond, France" Wednesday, June 14, 1944	"Red X Darling" was considered "their" airplane We need a photo. marc@factorypro.com
42-37849 "Red X Darling" aka "Miss Fortune" Mission 6, Patrick crew Mission 140 "Beauvoir, France" Thursday, June 15, 1944	"Red X Darling" was considered "their" airplane We need a photo. marc@factorypro.com
Tuesday, June 16, Patrick no fly - no missions 388th scheduled - 10th day into their tour
Wednesday, June 17, Patrick no fly - no missions 388th scheduled - 11th day into their tour
42-37849 "Red X Darling" aka "Miss Fortune" Mission 7, Patrick crew Mission 141 "Bremen, Germany" Sunday, June 18, 1944 - 12th day into their tour
42-37849 "Red X Darling" aka "Miss Fortune" Mission 8, Patrick crew Mission 142 "Cognac, France" Monday, June 19, 1944
42-32004 "Pride O the Yanks" Mission 9, Patrick crew Mission 143 "Magdaburg, Germany" Tuesday, June 20, 1944 9 missions and only 14 days into their tour. Ditched in the North Sea.
Thanks Rene Basma

Looking back from bomb bay bulkhead. The "Putt-Putt" APU (auxilliary power unit for emergency electrical power when starting the first engine) behind fire extinguisher	A "tombstone". During landings, ditching or crashing, some of the crew were seat belted against these sheets of plywood. The rest of the non-pilot crew were strapped in, in the radio room.

link:

http://www.388bg.info/servlet/Controller?pageType=detail&id=388-C351&dataType=Crew