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Liberty Lady

6 Mar 1944 · Mästermyr, Gotland, Sweden

United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress · Crash landing due to flak damage

From RAF Thurleigh, England to Erkner, Germany (intended)

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Event

Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
Unknown
Event fatalities
0 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
Unknown
Survivors
10
InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
Unknown
OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
Military

Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress

Aircraft type
Boeing B-17
Category
Airplane · from aircraft type
RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
42-40006
Onboard fatalities
0
Route
From RAF Thurleigh, EnglandTo Erkner, Germany (intended)

Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.

From the Wikipedia article

Liberty Lady was an American bomber aircraft of the type Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress. The aircraft crash-landed on the island of Gotland, Sweden, on March 6, 1944, after a 16-hour mission.

A book was published in 2016 containing the complete story of its final mission, fate and aftermath.

Background

On July 24, 1943, an American B-17F, named Georgia Rebel, belly-landed near Årjäng, Sweden. This aircraft was the first of a total of 68 B-17s to seek refuge in Sweden during World War II.

Liberty Lady was built by Vega Aircraft Corporation in California as a B-17G, part of production block B-17G-10-VE, and assigned serial number 42-40006. The plane was delivered to the U.S. military in November 1943, and assigned to the 368th Bombardment Squadron of the 306th Bombardment Group within the Eighth Air Force, stationed at Thurleigh near Bedford, England, in January 1944.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Liberty Lady” (revision 1347764172, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article

Sources

Wikipedia article: Liberty Lady
Article
Liberty Lady
Revision
1347764172 · 2026-04-08 · retrieved 2026-09-18
Wikidata
Q10561020
Licence
Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
Record
Wikipedia article "Liberty Lady" (page 80043491, revision 1347764172)
Date
Wikipedia infobox: date
Place and country
Wikipedia infobox: site
Map position
none
Aircraft, operator and route
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
Operation
operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
Fatalities
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
Ground fatalities
not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
Summary
Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
  • Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.