New content

25-05-2009

Check out The Crew, Leonard Rogers Visit, Yankee Lady and Crash Site, Today sections for updated content

Welcome to the Porcupine Mountains B-17 Site

31-01-2009

I have compiled photos and information from many sources during this research. Every effort will be made to acknowledge the submitted materials to their rightful donors, Feel free to email me with corrections and/or omissions.
I am always looking for new material regarding the crew, the plane, or the crash. If you have anything, pictures, information....whatever, feel free to pass it along. It would be greatly appreciated.

All original photography and content are the property of Jeff Benya, 2009.
Special thanks to the crew members and their families for helping me with this project.
Original crew members and their families may copy anything from this site without permission. All others, drop me a line and I'll be happy to work with you.

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If you want to visit the crash site:
I WILL NOT give coordinates!! If you read this site, you will find all the info you need to get there.

Remember: The wreck is considered an historic artifact and protected by the state. It is ILLEGAL to remove anything from a State Park. DO NOT REMOVE anything from the crash site.
Take only pictures, leave only footprints.

Two months after the Michigan crash, crew #3349 flew their first completed combat mission over Bordeaux, France aboard Fifinella, a B-17G, 42-107030.

Rare color picture of Fifinella, B17G 42-107030. The names of the crewmen in the picture are unknown.
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Fifinella was a female gremlin designed by Walt Disney. During World War II, the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) asked permission to use the image as their official mascot and the Disney Company granted them the rights. Fifinella put in appearances on WASP flight jackets and in many variations on the noses of bombers. Only one B-17 was named after her,
B-17G, 42-107030.

Close-up of Fifinella nose art, painted by Tony Starcer
Photo Courtesy of The Flying Fortress Pub and Grub

Fifinella undergoing repairs at the 91st Bomb Group base in Bassingbourne, England (the distinctive "FIF" of Fifinella can be seen just under the prop hub)
Photo courtesy of the Spears family

Fifinella flew 54 sorties before being lost on 13th August, 1944 on a tactical mission in support of the Allied ground forces. The target was a railway bridge at Le Manoir, France, and 1Lt Thomas Smith's crew flew the plane as lead. It was the 16th mission the crew had flown in Fifinella and most of the crew’s 20^th mission. Just prior to bombs away the ship took a direct hit in the cockpit and fire broke out. Smith held the plane steady, staying with the formation to bomb.

Pilot Thomas P. Smith, Jr. was killed in action but kept the plane going long enough for the rest of the crew to bail out safely. Charles Sturgeon, Delmer Spears, and Robert Bell were taken prisoner and remained POWs until war’s end. The rest of the crew were rescued by the French underground and found their way back to England.

The 91st Bomb Group website shows a sequence of pictures taken by the French underground, believed to be the final moments of Fifinella