Soviet Forces

“Flying Fortress” with red stars

This “Flying Fortress” with unusual, for this type of aircraft, red stars is one of the many American planes forced to land, because troubles or damages, in areas under control of the Russian or the Yugoslav Partisan Forces and seized by the Soviet or Yugoslav Air Force (YAF). In particular the plane of this photo is the Boeing B-17G-50-DL (Serial Nr. 44-6422) of the 15th Air Force’s 5th Bomb Wing, 483rd Bombardment Group, based at Sterparone Airfield, Foggia Airfield Complex, Southern Italy crash-landed without serious damages at the Sombor airfield, today Serbia, on April 16, 1945 and later repaired by Yugoslav Air Force’s technicians. Not claimed by the Americans, the plane was integrated early into the YAF and later moved to the Soviet Air Force in August of the same year. According some sources the Soviet Air Force recovered a total of 162 Allied aircraft: 73 B-17s, 73 B-24 Liberators, 14 P 51 Mustangs, one P 38 Lightning, and one Handley-Page Halifax. 68 of this aircraft was heavy damaged and not in flight conditions and was used as spare parts sources for the others. 18 of the other aircraft, repaired by the Russian technicians, was sent back to their previous owners, while 76 remained in the hand of the Soviet forces which employed some of this for a brief time as some B-24 and 23 B 17, the latter allocated to 890th Regiment. The B-17s remained in service until 1948, when the Tupolev Tu-4 began to arrive at operational squadrons. Ironically the Tu-4, later “Bull” in the NATO Code, is an airplane of American design, exactly the Boeing B-29, four exemplars of them was interned in Soviet Union after forced land in Soviet territory before the Soviet declaration of the war to Japan and meticulously “duplicated”, Stalin’s order, by the Tupolev design bureau. Victor Sierra