Us Official Photographs

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER-Five hours after the other ships in the group

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER - Five hours after the other ships in the group had returned from a bombing mission over Oldenberg, Germany, April 8,44, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress "Carolina Queen" piloted by Lt. Leslie A. Bond, of Chickasha, Okla., came sliding home in a flawless belly landing. Unable to lower the ship's wheels to normal landing position, Lt. Bond was compelled to circle about until what is believed to be the first successful tool-passing job in the ETO was accomplished. Lt. Col. Conway S. Hall of North Little Rock, Ark., deputy group commander, piloted the Fortress from which special tools used to jettison "Carolina Queen's" ball turret, were passed by cable to a crewman standing in the radio hatch of the latter ship. Patterned after the successful aerial refueling stunts of old endurance fliers the wartime version was enacted. With tools so unusually provided, "Carolina Queen" ball turret was able to be loosened and finally dropped over the English Channel. Lt. Bond returned to base and brought his ship in for a perfect toboggan landing, made easier on both pilot and plane by absence of obstructing fuselage straining under turret. Only damage was bent propeller and skinned undercarriage and it will be in the air very shortly.