[Paul Bellamy]

43-38733 SC-K "I'll Be Seeing You" panel found

by Paul Bellamy on Fri Oct 23, 2009 1:24 pm

I'm involved in a long-term project to identify sites where the AAF disposed of surplus materials in England during WWII, and we excavated part of one such site a couple of weeks ago.





Here is one of the stencilled panels recovered:



This is marked as belonging to B-17G-95-BO 43-38733, SC-K "I'll Be Seeing You" of the 612th Bomb Squadron, 401st Bomb Group.
'733 can be seen in the line-up below, second from the front.



On March 24th 1945, while bombing a Luftwaffe airfield in support of the Operation Varsity Rhine crossings, the 36 B-17s put up by the 401st encountered "deadly accurate" flak over the target.
18 of the 36 were damaged, 16 of receiving major damage.

One of these heavily damaged aircraft was SC-K, being flown by Lt C.J. Campbell and his crew, who were on their 29th mission.
Despite losing two engines over the target and having the elevator controls shot away, making the aircraft nearly uncontrollable, Lt. Campbell managed to nurse his plane back across the Channel to England.
Spotting Halesworth airfield near the coast, Lt. Campbell let down to land, but on final approach a third engine failed, which threw the plane into a spin and resulted in a crash just short of the runway.

Campbell and his Co-pilot Lt. P.W. Foy miraculously survived, but the remaining seven members of the crew perished in the crash:

Navigator:
Lt D.B. Gruhn

Togglier:
S/Sgt Joseph R. Pearlin, #11120564
Air Medal with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters and Purple Heart.
Buried in Plot C, Row 1, Grave 51, Cambridge American Cemetery, England.

Radio Operator:
T/Sgt G.M. Feo

Engineer / Top Turret Gunner:
T/Sgt C.F. Kartes

Ball Turret Gunner:
S/Sgt E. Sullivan

Tail Gunner:
S/Sgt C.K. Dalton

Waist Gunner:
S/Sgt H.M. Murray

Campbell and his crew in front of '733 on February 10th 1945, after returning from a mission to Dulmen, Germany:



Lest we forget

[donaldbyers]

Re: 43-38733 SC-K "I'll Be Seeing You" panel found

by donaldbyers on Fri Oct 23, 2009 6:30 pm

Is that the only thing found in that dig and where was it located at? Could you send me the pic of the aircraft lined up please. 43-38810 Mrs Knobby in the foregound.

Don

[Paul Bellamy]

Re: 43-38733 SC-K "I'll Be Seeing You" panel found

by Paul Bellamy on Fri Oct 23, 2009 8:58 pm

Hi Don,

From the two test pits dug, we recovered over 10 tons of aircraft parts, both discarded damaged components and unused spares.
Aircraft types covered B-17, B-24, P-38, P-47 and P-51.

As for the location, all I'm allowed to say at the moment is it's "somewhere in East Anglia", and more than two-hours drive from Deenethorpe.

E-mail copy of the photo on the way.

All the best,
Paul

[donaldbyers]

Re: 43-38733 SC-K "I'll Be Seeing You" panel found

by donaldbyers on Fri Oct 23, 2009 9:59 pm

Thanks for the info Paul,

First four are:

3-38810 SC-V Mrs Knobby
3-38733 SC-K I'll Be Seeing You
3-38541 SC-F Diabolical Angle
3-37790 SC-J Lady Luck

Can't read the remaining.

Don

[Paul Bellamy]

Re: 43-38733 SC-K "I'll Be Seeing You" panel found

by Paul Bellamy on Sat Oct 24, 2009 12:38 am

Thanks for the info Paul,

First four are:

3-38810 SC-V Mrs Knobby
3-38733 SC-K I'll Be Seeing You
3-38541 SC-F Diabolical Angle
3-37790 SC-J Lady Luck

Can't read the remaining.

Don

Looking at the fin letters, and assuming they are all 612th aircraft, I can expand your list a bit:

43-38810 SC-V Mrs Knobby (formerly IY-N, the IY still faintly visible on the fuselage)
43-38733 SC-K I'll Be Seeing You
43-38541 SC-F Diabolical Angel
43-37790 SC-J Lady Luck
43-38788 SC-T Heavy Date
44-6505 SC-N Satisfaction Guaranteed

The one on the far end of the line is a bit trickier to identify.
It looks to have the letter P on the fin, as it can't be F or T as both of those are already in the photo.
However, SC-P was 42-31891, which was an olive drab B-17G which survived the war and was scrapped at Kingman.
The last Fort in the photo also has a Cheyenne tail turret.

Ah well, if nothing else that's two more on the list.

All the best,
Paul

[ilbcnu2]

Re: 43-38733 SC-K "I'll Be Seeing You" panel found

by ilbcnu2 on Wed Nov 11, 2009 12:34 am

Hi,
I just found this site and was very curious about the "I'll Be Seeing You". This was my grandfather, Lt. Col Joe Cromer's plane. He was the pilot of the I'll be seeing you. In fact, that is my grandmother painted on the panel. After his crew departed from overseas did another crew just pick up where they left off? I would love to have info you can provide. Thank you very much, Holli Boulware

[donaldbyers]

Re: 43-38733 SC-K "I'll Be Seeing You" panel found

by donaldbyers on Wed Nov 11, 2009 4:41 am

Holli,

That would be correct when a crew returns to the states the aircraft would go to another crew. It would also happen when your grandfather was not flying another crew may fly the plane. I'll be seeing you flew a total of 48 missions until it "Sustained extensive flak damage and crashed while attempting a force-landing at Westhall, Suffolk on 24 Mar 1945 Rheine (236) ."

Contact me through historian@401bg.com and I can provide one contact you may be able to talk with
Don Byers
Group Historian

[Paul Bellamy]

Re: 43-38733 SC-K "I'll Be Seeing You" panel found

by Paul Bellamy on Tue Jul 27, 2010 12:36 pm

Stars and Stripes has printed an article on the excavations: LINK

All the best,
PB