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| "Utterly Devastating"- name decided at the end of PFF training in March 1944. This was John Hortenstine's (navigator) favorite saying. SN 41-28714 Radio Call letter was H B-24H Pathfinder Manufactured at Douglas Aircraft, Tulsa OK Natural metal finish Assigned to 8th AF on 19 Mar 1944; 564th BS/ 389th BG They actually had three PFF planes. The first, HSH 41-28673 A YO, was scrapped after they were sent out for their first mission after finishing PFF training. They were told to fly to the base of the group they were to lead the night before the mission. This would have been evening of March 22, for a mission on March 23 and Dale says that they were to lead the 453rd BG, which was based at Old Buckenham.. Immediately after landing the control tower turned off all the landing lights and Grandad couldn't see where to steer the plane. The left landing gear ran off the edge of the runway and into some mud and was sheared off. Luckily the plane didn't explode from all the leaking gas. No one was hurt. After that, all PFF planes were sent out early the morning of a mission. That was a brand new PFF plane that had never been in combat and it had to be scrapped because the damage was so extensive. The second PFF plane they flew was HSH 41-28714 H YO. They flew this plane on their missions on April 1, 8, 13 and 18 as well as on April 12 when the Loading List is marked "Early return." 41-28714 went on to fly many more missions. After Grandad flew it for the last time on Apr 18, 1944, it was flown by the following 389th crews: Capt. R. Lamb (Apr 22) 1st Lt. L.J. Litwiller (May 13) 1st Lt. A.P. Tolley (May 25) 1st Lt. G.C. Douglass (Jun 2, 3, 5, 6, 11, 20, 21, 24 & 28) 41-28714 was transferred to 489th BG at Halesworth during the summer of 1944 before being ultimately declared war weary and salvaged by BAD #3, Langford Lodge, Northern Ireland. At some stage, it was given the name CYCLONE. Their third PFF plane HSH 41-28784 F YO is, of course, at the bottom of the English Channel about 30 miles off of Great Yarmouth. |
| Utterly Devastating |
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| The Planes They Flew with the 389th BG |
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| This picture is what we believe the plane looked like with the PFF radar dome extended. The plane was not officially named by the Locke crew; a later crew named it CYCLONE at some point. This drawing was made by Ingemar Melin. |
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| To see a picture of the real Cyclone taken in September 1944 |