"Lady V"

This battered B17G is Lady V of the 834th BS (red "R"). This plane made an emergency landing on April 10, 1945 at Venlo Airfield in the Netherlands. It remained there close to the former German control tower and was finally scrapped in August 1947. These pictures are provided courtesy of Dr. Hub Groeneveld who is researching the aircraft's history on behalf of the Historical Workgoup Venlo/Herongen Airfield.

Lady V is also known to have flown in the 833rd (4N-K) bomb squadron. Dr. Groeneveld would like help with his research and would appreciate any information describing the Lady V's career. In particular,

  1. Names of living crew members of Lady V, who are willing to give personal stories.
  2. Details of her flight in 8th AF mission #676 on October 14 1944, on which flight the crew made an emergency landing at Lille in France. Pilot on that day was Lt. John Hughes.
  3. Details of her last flight on 8th AF mission #962 on April 10 1945. The only details we have, is that she was hit and landed at Venlo Airfield. According to a Dutch witness, the plane landed on the main runway, coming from the East, with a lot of noise; no smoke or fire were observed, no fire brigade and no ambulance seemed to approach the aircraft in the memory of the witness.
  4. Any further information or contact addresses would help us very much indeed.

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(submitted by Dr. Groeneveld)


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