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Flak Shak

January 5th, 2010 Mike Leave a comment Go to comments

Recent correspondence from Charles L.  :

My grandfather was the pilot for the B-17 “Flak Shak” (42-97307) until it’s forced landing in Sept. of ’44 in which the plane was no longer flyable. He was also the last to fly Relcutant Lady in which his crew was forced to bail out a couple of weeks later. I know that many crews “shared” B-17s depending on which were flyable.

I have some files from an 8th Historian named Bill Varnedoe (who was also a navigator I believe) that documents crews, their missions, the B-17s they flew and on what dates.  I helped Bill piece together Flak Shak’s serial number and also sent him my grandfather’s crew photo for his records.  We have some other things from when my grandpa was in POW camp that are pretty interesting including a book in which different men signed, drew, and contributed stories and poems to.  Other than that, the pic below is all I’ve ever seen besides a drawing my grandfather did in the aforementioned book of the Flak Shak.

I cross-referenced the date of 8/27/44 with the pilots:  My grandfather flew a B-17 that day to Berlin called Texas Bluebonnet…why he would not have flown his plane, I do not know.  Ihlenburg was indeed flying Flak Shak. (prior to nose art it would seem)  Neat!  Three missions later the Flak Shak would make an emergency landing in a recently liberated Belgium.  I believe with only one functioning engine (I think they dropped the ball turret to lighten the load too).  The next day, the plane would not turn over at all.  I think it was at this time he removed the yoke.  My father would know more.
This gives me hope that there may be more pictures out there.  Keep up the great work with the site.  I look forward to seeing it come to fruition!
B-17_yoke_from_Flak_Shak
Yoke from Flak Shak (courtesy of Charles L.)
  1. mike
    June 23rd, 2010 at 09:01 | #1
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  2. Charles Lundsberg
    August 16th, 2010 at 08:26 | #2
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    Thanks – apparently there was more than one B-17 named Flak Shak (and a B-24). Just saw that the 17th even got as far as having a Flak Shak III.
    Looked over many of my grandfather’s letters to hom ewhen I visited my parents and found out that the nose art was painted on right before its last mission. Looks like my best bet is to see if anyone took pics of the plane grounded in Belgium.

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