Jessie The Jeep Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 In some respects, the arrival my 100th Bomb Group Foundation magazine, 'Splasher Six', is always dreaded. The back of each copy has a 'Taps' section, listing the passing of the 100th BG Veterans. When I received my Winter edition of the a few days ago, I was saddened to learn of the passing of 2nd Lt John R. Johnson, Navigator of B-17 "Hang The Expense", the B-17 I chose to model, first in 1/10 scale, and again at 1/6. After completion of the 1/10 scale model in 1993, I discovered Dick Johnson was alive and living in Texas. I wrote to him with several photos of the model B-17, and he wrote back quite amazed someone had chosen his plane to model ( this model is now hanging in the 100th BG Museum at Thorpe Abbotts ). We wrote several more times over the following years enlightening me about the missions they flew. Dick also was a modeller before joining the Army Air Corps, and he sent me a photo of a Boeing F4B-4 Bi-plane he built in 1938! See attached. Dick started out as a Navigator, and joined the 100th Bomb Group on 14th Oct 1943, one of the replacements for the large losses the Group suffered after the Munster Raid a few days before. In March 1944, the crew was transerred from the 100th BG to pathfinder school where he became the 'Mickey' Radar Bombing operator. He officially completed his tour, but as there was a shortage of Radar operators, the crew stayed flying additional missions until replacements were ready. His last and 31st mission was to Schweinfurt on 19th July 1944. This was a double celebration as it was also his 23rd Birthday. I was lucky to be able to get copies of 20 of the crews flight plans/navigators logs which make interesting reading. Dick Johnson http://www.100thbg.com/mainpages/history/history3/Images/Johnson2.jpg Here is a link to a picture of the air & ground crew http://www.100thbg.com/mainpages/crews/crews4/images/Valesh5.jpg "Hang The Expense" Story http://www.100thbg.com/mainpages/history/history3/johnson1.htm He will be missed. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snapper Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 God bless him. MB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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