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Nose art painted by Sgt Frank Stevens
100th Bomb
Group (Heavy)
Thorpe Abbotts, England
PICCADILLY LILLY II
B-17G 42-37800 351st Squadron
This was the replacement aircraft for an earlier similarly named B-17F
which was shot down on 8th October 1943. "Lilly II" took off for its first combat
mission on 5th November 1944 and completed 32 successful sorties before
over-running the runway on take-off on 27th June. Having sliced across a road and
drainage ditch before ending its run on a field, the plane was too badly damaged
to be repaired.
Frank Stevens painted a beautiful nude (one of the few seen at Thorpe Abbotts)
on the right side of the nose. It was a considerable improvement on his earlier
version painted on "Piccadilly Lily" which had been the Fortress flown to
Regensburg with Beirne Lay who later immortalised that plane when he wrote
"Twelve o'clock High".
© Ray Bowden
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