Lockheed/Vega-built B-17F-30-VE, serial number 42-5942, named “Sky Shy/Wenatchee Special,” was shot up by flak, lost two engines on the Stuttgart mission of September 6, 1943, and crash landed near Ulm, Germany while trying to reach Switzerland.

Lockheed/Vega-built B-17F-30-VE, serial number 42-5942, named “Sky Shy/Wenatchee Special,” was shot up by flak, lost two engines on the Stuttgart mission of September 6, 1943, and crash landed near Ulm, Germany while trying to reach Switzerland. “Sky Shy” was assigned to the 563BS and on her fifth combat mission in the 388th, flown by F/O Byron A. Bowen’s crew which was on their 7th combat mission. Flight engineer SSgt. David E. Weisner was killed in action, radioman Sgt. Joseph H. Redmond was killed on the ground by angry German civilians after safely parachuting, and the remaining eight aircrew, including Bowen, 2nd Lt. Warren W. Woods (Co-pilot), 2nd Lt. Arthur E. Copeland (Navigator), 2nd Lt. Edward W. Hasson (Bombardier), SSgt. Theodore J. Czygier (Ball Turret), SSgt. Harold E. Richards (Right Waist Gunner), SSgt. Albert H. Smith (Left Waist Gunner), and SSgt. James Frankenfield (Tail Gunner) became POWs. Co-pilot Woods broke a leg in his parachute landing and spent three months in a German hospital before being sent to a German prison camp. (Courtesy Dick Henggeler)