42-51183, no. 26, Bad Penny

The RCL history of this plane is interesting. She was initially assigned #27, as shown in the above photo. She was "lost" on January 31, 1945 as reported in MACR 12067.

In reality, she diverted to Russia and returned to the 376th on February 2nd. However #27 was already given to another plane. She was still air-worthy as shown in the below photo. This photo was supplied by 2 members of the Sossman crew, who were flying #26 on February 15th.

The confusing part of this story is that the sortie report for this mission reports they were flying 41-28911, which was also lost on Jan 31, 1945.

Photo from William McCarty and Robert D. Willis.

376 ARCHIVES

The website 376bg.org is NOT our site nor is it our endowment fund.

At the 2017 reunion, the board approved the donation of our archives to the Briscoe Center for American History, located on the University of Texas - Austin campus.

Also, the board approved a $5,000 donation to add to Ed Clendenin's $20,000 donation in the memory of his father. Together, these funds begin an endowment for the preservation of the 376 archives.

Donate directly to the 376 Endowment

To read about other endowment donation options, click here.

My Trip to San Pancrazio

October 2019