An Aircraft Named "Spirit of the Union Pacific"
By Don Strack
On August 3, 1943, a photo was taken of a Boeing B-17 heavy bomber, showing it lettered as "Spirit of the Union Pacific". The aircraft received the special lettering to acknowledge the contributions of the 65,000 employees of Union Pacific Railroad who had raised an extra $379,000 in war bond purchases. The photo was included as part of a brief news item in the September 11, 1943 issue of Railway Age. The same photo was also used for a postcard that was handed out by Union Pacific to its employees, with the following text:
"Spirit of Union Pacific" Goes To War
Proudly a committee of Union Pacific employes went to Seattle recently to see "our" Flying Fortress off-to-the-wars. Attending the dedication ( pictured above, left to right) were: H. O. West, Executive Vice Pres., Boeing Aircraft Co.; Walter Wilson, chairman Union Pacific War Bond Committee; F. W. Madden, representing Brotherhood Railway Clerks; John D. Beard, Brotherhood Maintenance of Way; L. A. Collins, Supt. Oregon Division; D. W. Hood, Brotherhood Railway Trainmen; and A. A. Murphy, Assistant to President of Union Pacific.
To the Employes of the Union Pacific goes the distinction, according to the Treasury Department, of being the first railroad group in the Nation to be honored with a "named" heavy bomber for voluntarily increasing their payroll deductions for War Bonds by more than $379,000 during May and June.
"You have certainly done a grand job on the Union Pacific Bomber Bond Campaign," wrote James L. Houghteling, Director, National Organizations Division, Treasury Dept., War Savings Staff.
UNION PACIFIC EMPLOYES BUY "FLYING FORTRESS"
John Bromley, Director of Historic Programs at the Union Pacific Railroad Museum in Council Bluffs, Iowa, wrote the following:
"As a side note about the bomber apparently this is not the plane originally intended to be the UP plane. The Army didn't want to wait on the plane for a ceremony so this a second plane that was lettered. In the haste to get it painted they omitted the word "employees." According to Army and Treasury Department instructions on naming bombers, they were supposed to be named for employees of organizations. They didn't want to delay delivery of this plane so it went out as shown. Reportedly it took off immediately after the photo session. This was recorded as the first named heavy bomber recognizing a railroad group."
The status of the B-17 was updated in the February 1945 issue of the monthly Union Pacific Bulletin, at times known as the "Pink Bulletin" because of the pink paper it was printed on. The update reads as follows:
"FATE OF U. P. BOMBER NOW REVEALED
"Omaha, Nebr. -- With the war over, Union Pacific employees now can know the story of the B-17 bomber named in their honor--"The Spirit of Union Pacific."
"Back in 1943, the 65,000 employees of the railroad during May and June voluntarily increased their war bond purchases by an extra $379,000, in appreciation were given the privilege of christening a Flying Fortress.
"According to information recently released by the War Department "The Spirit of Union Pacific" was on her fifth mission when shot down October 10, 1943, in a raid on enemy installations at Munster, Germany.
"Most of the crew were taken prisoner, including the pilot, Capt. Robert B. Short of Los Angeles, a West Point graduate and former native of Norfolk, Nebraska. Others who parachuted to safety were Lt. Bud H. Hinckley of Rigby, Idaho, the co-pilot; Lt. Stoliar, the bombardier; and Sgts. William M. Esseltine, Syracuse, N. Y.; Donald Armstrong, Binghamton, N. Y.; Frank Becay, Cleveland, 0.; and Eugene A. Runser, Erie, Pa.
"The navigator, Lt. Hal K. Hughes of Dallas, Texas, and Sgts. Donald Lowrie, Hazelton, Pa., and Richard Grace, Glassport, Pa., were reported killed."
Aircraft Confusion
The Union Pacific plane arrived in theatre on September 9, 1943, and was flown by Robert Short and his crew on October 10, 1943 because their plane (42-30332, "Short Stuff") was out of service. The Munster mission was Captain Short's 17th mission. They were shot down over Munster, Germany. The surviving crew members were captured by the Germans and remained prisoners of war for the duration. This 17th mission for Captain Short was also the Union Pacific B-17's fifth mission since arriving in-theatre one month before.
The airplane shot down over Munster was indeed the Union Pacific plane, and was lettered as such. This fact was uncovered through a correspondence with Captain Short's son during August 2010, immediately after the publication of a shortened version of this article appeared in The Streamliner (Volume 24, Number 3, Summer 2010), published by Union Pacific Historical Society.
Captain Short's son shared several photos of his Dad during his service years, as well as a scan of the envelope in which Union Pacific sent him a copy of the original photo, along with copies of a couple newspaper articles from the LA Times and from a newspaper in Norfolk, Nebraska, Captain Short's home town. After being a prisoner of war for 18 months, he was liberated from the prisoner of war camp by the Russian army. He returned home and resided in Los Angeles. Upon his return, he was interviewed by the Los Angeles Times.
Captain Robert Short's original airplane was serial number 42-30332, which arrived in theatre on July 14, 1943. He flew it as "Short Stuff".
For the Munster mission on October 10, 1943, aircraft 42-30332, "Short Stuff," was out of service, so Captain Short and his crew flew aircraft 42-30826, "Spirit of the Union Pacific" instead. Later, and because he had been shot down, his original airplane 42-30332 "Short Stuff" was assigned to a new crew and renamed to "Spirit of '76". It flew until being hit by enemy flak over Orienburg (near Berlin) on April 18, 1944. The aircraft was losing fuel so they turned toward the north coast of Germany. They successfully landed at Bulltofta, Sweden and the crew all returned to duty in October and November 1944. There is no additional information as to the disposition of aircraft 42-30332.
The Photo's Story
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I had first seen the photo of the aircraft 25 years ago during a session of page-by-page research of Railway Age. (There was also a copy of the photo in The Streamliner, Volume 14, Number 3, a special issue that covered some aspects of Union Pacific's support during World War II.) The details of the photo were unknown, but my interest was renewed after John Bromley posted a message to the Trainorders.com on-line discussion group. John's message included a photo of UP's E6B War Bonds unit, painted red, white and blue, along with a copy of the B-17 photo. When I asked him for additional information, John sent a scanned image of the Bulletin article. The Trainorders.com discussion included some notes of the raid on Munster, Germany, along with a note that the aircraft's Union Pacific name is not included as part of an on-line database of B-17 aircraft names. Within an hour I received a reply that included scanned images of two of the 31 pages of a Missing Air Crew Report (known among aircraft researchers as a MACR) for this particular crew, whose names match those included in the 1945 Bulletin article. A bit of research revealed that the National Archives has scanned all of the World War II era MACRs. They are available on Footnote.com, a subscription website that includes newspapers and a wide variety of other historical documents. I already subscribe to Footnote.com so I was immediately able to find the entire report. Each Missing Air Crew Report was created within five days of the aircraft being reported as missing. The file remained open throughout the period of conflict, and as additional information became available, it was added to the report. The MACR for the Union Pacific B-17 was identified by searching for the aircraft commander, in this case Captain Robert B. Short. The report included all of the same dates and names as the 1945 Bulletin article, including the serial number of the B-17 itself, 42-30826. With the serial number in hand, a search of the various on-line databases of B-17 aircraft revealed that 42-30826 was named "Short Stuff", which makes sense because of the aircraft commander's name. There is no reference to its other Union Pacific name. |
The Aircraft
"Spirit of the Union Pacific" was a Boeing B-17F, aircraft 42-30826, tail number 230826. It flew as part of the 571st Bomber Squadron (Heavy), one of four squadrons that made up the 390th Bomber Group (Heavy), which itself was part of the 8th Air Force. The 571st flew out of Framingham, England, along with the other four squadrons of the 390th, flying a total of 300 missions, with 144 aircraft being lost. The tail code for the 390th Bomber Group was "Square J" (3rd Air Division was "Square"), and the aircraft code for 42-30826 was FC-R (Squadron Code: FC, Aircraft Letter: R).