page_title: RAF Polebrook
section_title: 97th Bombardment Group (Heavy)
hierarchical_section_title: RAF Polebrook / History / United States Army Air Forces use / 97th Bombardment Group (Heavy)
caption_attribution_description: English: Boeing B-17E Fortress Serial 41-2578. of the 1st Combat Crew Replacement Center Group at Bovingdon Airfield, England. This aircraft was the oldest and longest serving B-17 in the Eighth Air Force. While with the 97th Bomb Group on August 17, 1942, this was the lead aircraft in the first Eighth Air Force heavy bombing mission. Later, this aircraft was used for training combat replacement crews with the 11th Combat Crew Replacement Unit at RAF Bovingdon until 1945.
context_page_description: Royal Air Force Station Polebrook or more simply RAF Polebrook is a former Royal Air Force station located 3.5 miles east-south-east of Oundle, at Polebrook, Northamptonshire, England. The airfield was built on Rothschild estate land starting in August 1940.
  It was from Polebrook that the United States Army Air Forces' Eighth Air Force carried out its first heavy bomb group combat mission on 17 August 1942, and from which Major Clark Gable flew combat missions in 1943.
context_section_description: On 28 June 1942, RAF Polebrook was officially turned over to the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) and the airbase became the base of the 97th Bombardment Group, the first USAAF heavy bomber organization to arrive in the UK.
  The 97th BG was assigned to the 1st Combat Wing, at RAF Bassingbourn. Its operational squadrons were divided between Polebrook and RAF Grafton Underwood:
  340th Bombardment Squadron (RAF Polebrook)
  341st Bombardment Squadron (RAF Polebrook)
  342nd Bombardment Squadron (RAF Grafton Underwood)
  343rd Bombardment Squadron (RAF Grafton Underwood)
  Combat operations by the USAAF began on 17 August 1942, when the 97th BG flew the first Eighth Air Force heavy bomber mission of the war, attacking the Rouen-Sotteville marshalling yards in France. The lead aircraft of the group, Butcher Shop, was piloted by the Group Commander, Colonel Frank A. Armstrong, and squadron commander Major Paul W. Tibbets (who later flew the Enola Gay to Hiroshima Japan on the first atomic bomb mission). In the leading aircraft of the second flight, Yankee Doodle, flew General Ira C. Eaker, the commanding general of the Eighth Air Force Bomber Command.
  The 97th BG conducted a total of 14 missions from Polebrook, attacking airfields, marshalling yards, industries, naval installations, and other targets in France and the Low Countries.
  The group sortied 247 aircraft, dropped 395 tons of bombs on Nazi-controlled territory, and lost 14 aircraft. On 21 October 1942, the 97th Bomb Group was transferred to the Twelfth Air Force in the Mediterranean theatre and Polebrook was unoccupied until April 1943.
caption: Boeing B-17E Fortress Serial 41-2578.  This aircraft was the oldest and longest serving B-17 in the Eighth Air Force.   While with the 97th Bomb Group on  17 August 1942, this was the lead aircraft in the first Eighth Air Force heavy bombing mission.  Later, this aircraft was used for training combat replacement crews with the 11th Combat Crew Replacement Unit at RAF Bovingdon until 1945.
exif: {}