OUR GAL SAL

B17G Our Gal Sal
351st Bomber Squadron, 100th Bomber Group (The Bloody 100th) out of RAF Thorpe Abbotts - USAAF designation Station 139.

Picture of air and ground crew May 1, 1944 (left to right)
Back: Nels Davidson (gnd), Arnold Schluter (gnd), Ed Silverstone, Virgil Warders, William Wright, Don Hammond, Charles Killebrew (gnd), Frank Stevens (painted OUR GAL SAL and mission bombs), Dewey Nelson (gnd), Harold Wildrick (crew chief)
Front: Don Blair, Glenn Hudson, Duncan Shand, Bob Shoens, Bill Eresman
100th BG Photo Archives

The 351st B-17 Bomber Squadron (Flying Fortress Heavy Bombardment) was established in mid-1942; deployed to the European Theater of Operations (ETO) in June 1949 and was assigned to VIII Bomber Command in England.

Engaged in strategic bombardment operations over Occupied Europe and Germany, sustaining very heavy losses of personnel and aircraft while conducting many unescorted missions over enemy territory attacking airfields, industries, naval facilities and transportation hubs. During the summer of 1944, aircrews bombed enemy positions at Saint-Lô, followed by similar campaigns at Brest in August and September. In October 1944, the squadron attacked enemy and ground defenses in the Allied drive on the Siegfried Line, then bombed marshalling yards, German-occupied villages, and communication targets in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge from December 1944 to January 1945. Attacked enemy targets in Germany during the spring of 1945, ending combat operations with the German Capitulation in May 1945.

Remained in Europe as part of the United States Air Forces in Europe occupation forces, dropping food to the people in the west of the Netherlands, and in June transported French Allied former prisoners of war from Austria to France. Demobilizing in England, in December 1945 the squadron inactivated as a paper unit.

B17 Our Gal Sal survived 235 missions




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