Honoring the past: Barksdale Airmen restore B-17G for Eighth AF museum

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. John Gordinier
  • 2d Bomb Wing Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. --  Barksdale Airmen, volunteers and contractors are busy preserving, restoring and painting a B-17G Bomber aircraft now and through the upcoming months for the Eighth Air Force Museum in honor of Maj. Gen. Lewis E. Lyle, who flew many missions during World War II in B-17's.

General Lyle, assigned to the European Theater during WWII, flew 69 combat missions as first pilot in a B-17.

"General Lyle was an aviator's aviator," said Gary Miller, Eighth AF museum director. "He was the most decorated in the 8th AF and he later (became) a general with Strategic Air Command. If you had to pick a hero of 8th AF, it was him...flying 72 combat missions over Germany.

"Our B-17G is one of approximately 30 or so B-17's left in the world, and only about five of those are in flying condition," he continued. "Considering how rare it is, we must preserve and restore it. It will accompany the 303rd Group monument to General Lyle located next to the aircraft."

The idea is to preserve the aircraft to the best extent possible and replicate it as the one that was flown by General Lyle during a mission on March 22, 1944, said Master Sgt. Keith Baron, 2d Bomb Wing 8th Air Force museum restoration and maintenance superintendent.

"Our B-17G at Barksdale rolled off the assembly line in July, 1945, and it was the second to last made by Douglass Aircraft Company under contract with Boeing," Sergeant Baron explained. "This one was produced as bare aluminum with no paint on its skin. To save manufacturing time, very few B-17G's had paint. However, the "Miss Liberty" B-17G that General Lyle flew during the mission in 1944 had paint; and we are going to replicate that down to the tail number--42-31340."

Sergeant Baron said the museum preserves historical aircraft to remember the past; the history of WWII is slowly being shuffled to the back burner. The number of surviving WWII veterans is declining almost daily, and historical accounts of WWII are being given less and less space in history text books as new editions are being printed.

"It is very important that we preserve the remaining artifacts from that time period so that the stories and the sacrifices made are not forgotten altogether," Sergeant Baron explained. "One of our missions here in the museum is to do just that -- preserve and protect so that others may learn."

The historical mission the Barksdale B-17G is being restored from was a bombing mission to Berlin, Germany in WWII.

On March 22, 1944, 28 aircraft took off from Molesworth, England, to bomb the Ernest Heinkel aircraft factory at Oranienburg, Germany. The second target was the Friedrichstrasse Station in Berlin. The then - Lt. Col. Lewis E. Lyle, 303rd Bomb Group deputy commander, flies the B-17G "Miss Liberty" and is the aircraft formation lead.

Intelligence tells the team that the Ernest Heinkel plant is producing about 30 He-177s German aircraft per month and 8th AF wants to try and shut it down if weather permits. However, the weather didn't cooperate, and the team moved to their second target.

The aircraft dropped more than 1,000 65-pound bombs from 27,000 feet on Berlin. Colonel Lyle described the mission as "a darned good mission."

"We really hit Berlin," he said. "The fighters gave us more than good support today and we didn't see any German fighters. We didn't see the results of our own bombing until after we left the target. We were too busy dodging flak."

Colonel Lyle's co-pilot had something to say about the mission as well.

"We dropped our bombs near the river and they really hit something," said Colonel Lyle's co-pilot, Maj. Walter Shayler. "There was one big burst of red flame that shot thousands of feet into the air, clear through the clouds at 8,000 feet."

Nine hours after takeoff, all the bombers landed at Molesworth, England with mission success. Most of the bombers received flak damage, but that was considered usual over Berlin.

Two crewmen suffered frostbite, but no one was severely injured.

General Lyle continued his Air Force career and retired July 1, 1967. He passed away April 6, 2008 at the age of 92.

(Some information courtesy of 303rd Bomb Group historian and 8th Air Force museum)