Date:	Sunday 5 December 1943
Time:	08:30
Type:	Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress
Owner/operator:	613th BSqn /401st BGp USAAF
Registration:	42-39825
MSN:	6568
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 10
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	village of Deenethorpe, Northamptonshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Take off
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Deenethorpe/AAF Sta.128 (UK)
Destination airport:

Narrative:
On 5 December 1943, during VIII Bomber Command Mission 149, 452 B-17s and 96 B-24s were dispatched to attach French airfield but few could bomb due to bad weather.
1. 216 B-17’s were dispatched to La Rochelle/Laleu, St Jean D’Angely, Paris/Ivry, Paris/Bois Colombes airfields; none hit the planned targets due to weather; 1 B-17 was damaged beyond repair and 1 damaged.
2. 96 B-24’s were dispatched to Cognac/Chateaubernard Airfield; 2 hit St Nazaire; 1 B-24 was lost and 7 damaged; casualties were 2 WIA and 10 MIA.
3. 236 B-17’s were dispatched to the Bordeaux/Merignac air depot; 1 hit the target; they claimed 12-5-5 Luftwaffe aircraft; 8 B-17’s were lost and 19 damaged; casualties were 1 KIA, 4 WIA and 50 MIA.
These missions were escorted by 34 P-38’s and 266 P-47’s plus 36 Ninth Air Force P-51’s; 1 P-47 was lost (pilot MIA).
________________________________________________

The B-17 listed above as damaged beyond repair was the B-17G 42-39825 "ZENOBIA – EL ELEPHANTA" of the 613th BS, 401st BG, piloted by 1st Lt. Walter B. Keith. It was the 3rd war mission of the 401st BG, that sent 22 B-17s to attack a ball-bearing plant in the northwest suburb of Paris according the group report (contrary to what is liste in the USAAF chronology above). Still the target picture included in the same report shows the Hispano-Suiza aero-engine factory at Bois-Colombes (that included a ball-bearing works). The group took off at 0830 hrs.

While taking off from Deenethorpe airfield for a raid on a Paris airfield (it was the 3rd mission of the 401st BG) it was caught in the preceding aircraft’s wing tip vortices. Depending of teh sources it stalled or failed to lift off the runway. It careered across a few feidls before skidding through a farmyard of the village of Deenethorpe and coming to rest against an empty cottage. The uninjured crew vacated the burning aircraft and warned the villagers of an impending explosion. Fire crews and colleagues rushed to the scene, and the two remaining injured crewmen were safely pulled out. Emergency responders evacuated all nearby civilians, thus no one was injured when the aircraft’s bomb load (twelve 500 lb bombs) exploded twenty minutes later, blasting the aircraft and the nearby fire tender to pieces and destroying or severely damaging most of the buildings in the village. The explosion was so enormous, it was heard nine miles away.

Crew:
2nd Lt Lt. Walter B. Keith (pilot)
2nd Lt Wardlaw M Hammond (co-pilot)
2nd Lt Carl T Floto (navigator) WIFA
2nd Lt John J King (bombardier) WIFA
T/Sgt William D Woodward (engineer/top turret gunner)
T/Sgt Benjamin Z Musser (radio operator)
Pvt Walden D Cohen (ball turret gunner)
Pvt Harold J Kelsen (right waist gunner)
S/Sgt David N Hadsell (left waist gunner) WIFA
S/Sgt Robert V Kerr (tail gunner)

If all ten crew survived the crash, the crew was then split up due to injuries to several of them. The navigator and the bombardier were both in the aircraft nose and were seriously injured, spending some time in hospital. Hadsell had a mild knee injury.

http://401bg.org/Archive/Document/Mission/Report/003.pdf
https://aviationtrails.wordpress.com/tag/deenethorpe/
http://www.americanairmuseum.com/aircraft/7207
http://www.usaaf.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=667
"Bloody Skies: U.S. Eighth Air Force Battle Damage in World War II", by Nicholas A. Veronico. ISBN 978-0-8117-1455-6 (picture of remains page 24)
http://401bg.org/forum/yaf_postst606findunread_Deenethorpe-Village-Crash--Newsreel-found.aspx#post2838
http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/AARmonthly/Dec1943O.htm
http://paul.rutgers.edu/~mcgrew/wwii/usaf/html/Dec.43.html
"Mission 376: Battle over the Reich, May 28, 1944", by Ivo De Jong. ISBN 978-0-8117-1159-3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deenethorpe
http://www.maplandia.com/united-kingdom/england/east-midlands/northamptonshire-county/deenethorpe/

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
03-Sep-2011 02:24	Uli Elch	Updated [Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
06-Dec-2017 10:49	Laurent Rizzotti	Updated [Time, Operator, Other fatalities, Location, Source, Narrative]
22-Mar-2020 19:33	DG333	Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Operator]