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Did you try "Little Friends"?Anyone have an idea where I could find a photo of P-51B-10-NA S/N 42-106700 of the 339th Fighetr Group, 504th Fighter Squadron? The airplane was shot down on 10 Jun 1944 while on a dive bombing and strafing mission to Redon, France and came down in the channel. The cause is variously described as ground fire damaging the cooling system or the fuel tanks. The pilot 1st Lt Hetzel Boden survived the bailout and was captured by the Germans.
1st Lt Boden was the uncle of a friend of mine, born soon after the shootdown and named after his uncle, who was MIA at the time.
Don't know if this helps or hinders. I've got some photos that are identified as "Problem" in the photo above. The 'problem' is that plane had a s/n of 42-106644 and lasted long enough to attain "war weary" status (the WW markings behind the crew) meaning it was worn out and reverted to training or hack usage and thus wouldn't have been in a position to be shot down. The best I would venture is that the above photo was taken of Lt Boden in front of a plane that wasn't the one you were looking for. You can also see that the assigned pilot was a Lt Corbin. I think what you have above is a "hero" shot for the folks back home.Thanks! I looked at Little Friends website and forwarded the link to my friend. I did notice they had spelled his name wrong at one point, "Borden" instead of Boden. Presumably he can recognize his uncle and thus may be able to tell if that is him.
My friend looked at the American Air Museum in Great Britain website but it was only up and working partially at the time since it was undergoing maintenance.
Don't know if this helps or hinders. I've got some photos that are identified as "Problem" in the photo above. The 'problem' is that plane had a s/n of 42-106644 and lasted long enough to attain "war weary" status (the WW markings behind the crew) meaning it was worn out and reverted to training or hack usage and thus wouldn't have been in a position to be shot down. The best I would venture is that the above photo was taken of Lt Boden in front of a plane that wasn't the one you were looking for. You can also see that the assigned pilot was a Lt Corbin. I think what you have above is a "hero" shot for the folks back home.
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And this is a full right side shot of #644 as you can see it had another name of the "off side".
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Guys, I think some information is getting mixed up here.Lt. Boden was shot down in mid-June 1944 so IF he was flying "Problem" that aircraft was a loss and would not be in later photos. I could argue that a fair percentage of the time their 'personal' aircraft was unavailable due to maintenance and the aircraft that he got shot down in was a different airplane altogether. The a/c serial # being different is a whole other issue.
I too checked the position and script of the name "Problem" in both pics and I agree with you. They are the same. The only exception is that the W W aircraft in the second pic is much dirtier and been flown hard and likely deserves its war weary status. If the Missing Air Crew Report (MACR) says Lt. Boden was shot down in #5743, then #700 could in fact have reached W W status later in the war and those two airplanes are in fact, one in the same. If Lt. Boden originally had #700, then it is likely it was reassigned to Lt. Corbin after Bodin became a prisoner of war.The two left nose shots are the same aircraft as the name "Problem" is in exactly the same place on both pics. Check where it touches panel seams.
Spitlead, did you check the links I posted? Didn't you have the case before, when searching for one particular photo, you find a different one under the general name of the site?Catch-22, I did a search for "P-51B 339th fighter group 106700" and below is my search result. You can see the photo is called out as serial #700 at the American Air Museum in Britain. Museums have 1000s of digitized photos that are in their archive that do not appear on their website. There are simply too many. I would trust the museum, if they had any credibility at all, that they got this right. Their reputation as an institution of historical record requires due diligence. So, I firmly believe this is aircraft 42-106700. There is no confirmation that the pilot kneeling in the left foreground is Lt. Boden. I agree with you that 'Problem' is not 'Scotty'. I also firmly believe Lt. Boden would not be flying a war weary aircraft over the beaches of Normandy the day he was shot down.
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