An original cadre ship acquired 22 October ‘43 and assigned to Petz’s crew who flew her overseas in December ‘43. Ground crewmen were Murphy and J. Menard. “Hot Rock” completed at least forty missions with at least three enemy fighters to her credit. After several combat missions, she developed some odd flying characteristics. After repeated write-ups by various crews, she was sent to the Gioia maintenance depot in June 44 where a bullet was found lodged in the wing root, thus accounting for the “out of trim” flying attitude. “Hot Rock” was repaired and reassigned to another 15th Air Force bomb group. She lasted out the war and was salvaged on 3 June ’45 after being flown back to the U.S. by another 15th Air Force bomb group crew – one of the very few original cadre ships to last out the war.

Pictures of Hot Rock

HotRock1

Hotrock2

Pin It on Pinterest