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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. --  Airmen, volunteers and contractors at Barksdale Air Force Base are busy preserving, restoring and painting a B-17G Flying Fortress for the Eighth Air Force Museum in honor of Maj. Gen. Lewis E. Lyle, a World War II B-17 pilot.

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

The aircraft being restored will be preserved to the best extent possible and replicated as the B-17G that General Lyle flew on March 22, 1944, said Master Sgt. Keith Baron, 8 AF museum restoration and maintenance superintendent.

Twenty-eight aircraft took off that day from Molesworth, England, to bomb the Ernest Heinkel aircraft factory at Oranienburg, Germany. The second target was the Friedrichstrasse Station in Berlin. Then-Lt. Col. Lewis E. Lyle, 303rd Bomb Group deputy commander, flew the B-17G "Miss Liberty" and was the aircraft formation lead.

Intelligence told the team that the Heinkel plant was producing about 30 German He-177s per month. Eighth AF wanted to shut it down if weather permitted, 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 the bombers "more than good support" that day, and the bomber pilots didn't see any German fighters, the colonel said. "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, Maj. Walter Shayler, said they dropped their bombs near the river and "they really hit something."

"There was one big burst of red flame that shot thousands of feet into the air, clear through the clouds at 8,000 feet," he said.

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.

"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," Mr. Miller said. "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 Barksdale B-17G was the second to last made by Douglass Aircraft Company under contract with Boeing, and rolled off the assembly line in July 1945.

"This one was produced as bare aluminum with no paint on its skin," Sergeant Baron said. "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 explained that WWII history is slowly being shuffled to the back burner, so the museum preserves historical aircraft to remember the past. 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, he said.

"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 said. "One of our missions here in the museum is to do just that -- preserve and protect so that others may learn."

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

(Historical information courtesy of 303rd Bomb Group historian and 8 AF Museum)