WINDY CLIPPER (PIC 3)

NAME	TP	-	M#	SER	-	BLK	-	MF	SERIAL #	AF	BG	BS	SC	RCL/#	V#-P	PHOTO CREDITS
WINDY CLIPPER	B	-	24	G	-	16	-	NT	42-78470	15	455	742	~	47	00-3	WILLIAM L. KINCAID

Port (Left) Side - Transferred to 456th BG / 746th BS

Contributor - William L. Kincaid (Asst Eng/Top Turret Gunner)
Shown with my 1st Pilot, Lt. Winton "Windy" S. Reynolds, who drew the artwork for both sides of WINDY CLIPPER. I was on the original crew when we were assigned a brand new B-24G at Topeka, Kansas which was to become WINDY CLIPPER. After checking out the plane by flying it on a cross-country flight to San Francisco, we flew it to Italy with stops in Manchester, New Hampshire and Bangor, Maine. We were fitted with bomb bay fuel tanks then flew to the Azores then through North Africa and then on to our final destination at San Giovanni Field in Southern Italy. We were assigned our first mission 25 Jul 44, to bomb the Herman Goering Steel Works at Linz, Austria. On our second mission to Budapest, Hungary 27 Jul 44, we were shot up pretty badly, two engines out and with hydraulic system gone we were able to get only one landing gear down so made an emergency landing at our home field using parachutes for brakes. We did a ground loop but all faired well except WINDY CLIPPER. One engine had to be replaced and after that, it seems that we had to struggle to keep up with the rest of the squadron on later missions. In all, I flew sixteen missions on WINDY CLIPPER and it served us well although it was getting pretty war weary by then, and I thought the plane had gone to Goia, Italy, the salvage yard south of us to be scrapped or flown back to the States by a crew that had finished their missions.