Description
Original Vietnam War USAF 31st Fighter Wing Headquarters Lighter ‘SUPER ACE Japan’ 31st SFW Crest ‘Return with Honor’; Personalized to ‘Major H.M. McFann’ who was Lt. Col. Harry Miles McFann of Tulsa, OK (b. Jun 24 1918 – d. Jan 29 1997), WW2 Notable Pilot who was awarded the Silver Star and Distinguished Flying Cross for action taken aboard B-17 Paper Doll 96th Bomb Group during a bombing raid of Schweinfurt, Germany and appearing on the front page of Stars & Stripes under the headline ‘Navigator Flies Bomber Home with Pilot Dead Co-Pilot Hurt’ Oct 23, 1943 – Sir Winston Churchill personally congratulated Lt. McFann the day after; Good Issued / Used Condition as Photographed lots of thumb wear and light enamel damage as seen – functionality untested, Recent Collection Acquisition; Presented as Acquired (print of the obituary, unavailable online – acquired from The Union County Genealogical Society included, Stars & Stripes for reference, not included), Rare
– Excerpt from Air Force Magazine ‘Back to Schweinfurt’ by Barrett Tillman Aug 21 2018 –
STRUGGLING HOME
However, the Americans got little respite on the egress as some German fighter groups flew far from their bases in the Netherlands and northern Germany. 1st Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 2 flew 180 miles to the 3rd Division’s outbound track.
Generalleutnant Adolf Galland, commanding Germany’s day fighters, wrote, “We were able to break up several bomber formations and to destroy them almost completely. The approach and return routes were marked by the wreckage of shot-down aircraft.”
Some of the fallen Flying Forts had strayed far afield. A 305th BG bomber, Lazy Baby, landed wheels up in Switzerland. Far in the opposite direction, another Chelveston aircraft was shot down near Hamburg, apparently trying to make it to Sweden.
Even nearly home, losses continued. Almost out of fuel, the 303rd BG crew of the battle-damaged Cat-O-Nine Tails bailed out over England. All fliers landed within four miles of the crash, in a Risley resident’s backyard.
Paper Doll of the 96th Group, three months old, returned with a dead pilot and badly wounded copilot. The navigator was Lt. Miles McFann, a prewar private pilot who got her down at an RAF field. He recalled, “We could have bailed out, instead of risking a crash-landing. I suppose a lot of fellows wouldn’t want to take a chance on having a navigator act as pilot, but they weren’t sticking because of their confidence in me.
They all knew that [Lt. Robert] Bolick was dead inside that ship, and none of us was going to bail out and leave him in there. We just wouldn’t do it.”
Some 2,900 airmen flew the mission, of whom 648 were listed killed, wounded, or missing in action; a staggering 18 percent casualty rate.The 1st Division took the heaviest losses by far: as noted, the 305th BG wrote off 13 bombers while the 306th lost 12. In contrast, the entire 3rd Division lost 15.
Eighth Bomber Command listed 60 Flying Forts missing, plus five that crashed in England, with seven written off as “Category E,” or damaged beyond repair. All told, a horrific total loss of 72 bombers. Of the remainder, about three-quarters bore battle damage.
Aircrew gunnery claims were typically extravagant; understandable with multiple B-17s often engaging the same fighters. The original figure was an unrealistic 288, reduced to 186 “confirmed” fighters downed.
In fact, the Luftwaffe lost 53 aircraft with 29 aircrew killed or missing and 20 wounded. (Excerpt from Air Force Magazine ‘Back to Schweinfurt’ by Barrett Tillman Aug 21 2018)
