447th Badge447th Bomb Group
USAAF Station 126 - Rattlesden 
43-38450, Little Herbie/Lucky Partners

Little Herbie/Lucky Partners

No. 43-38450, B-17G-85-BO, was rolled out of the Boeing plant in Seattle and delivered to the Air Force at Cheyenne on August 8, 1944.  By September 4, it was assigned to the 710th Squadron of the 447th, and began flying combat missions just eleven days later with the Hoffman crew.

It was originally named Little Herbie by the Hoffman crew, but did not bear any name or nose art until much later, when its name changed to Lucky Partners.


Lucky Partners, photographed at Rattlesden after 60 missions
Combat Missions
No. DATE TARGET PILOT
1 09/13/44 STUTTGART HOFFMAN
2 09/17/44 ARNHEIM HOFFMAN
3 09/19/44 KOBLENZ HOFFMAN
4 09/25/44 LUDWIGSHAFEN HOFFMAN
5 09/26/44 BREMEN HOFFMAN
6 09/27/44 LUDWIGSHAFEN HOFFMAN
Bombardier Herbert McNabb is wounded over Ludwigshafen; 
the crew dubs the plane "Little Herbie" in his honor.
7 09/28/44 MERSEBURG HOFFMAN
8 10/07/44 MERSEBERG HOFFMAN
9 10/09/44 GUSTAVSBURG HOFFMAN
10 10/12/44 BREMEN HOFFMAN
11 10/14/44 COLOGNE HOFFMAN
12 10/18/44 KASSELL HOFFMAN
13 10/19/44 MANNHEIM HOFFMAN
14 10/22/44 MUNSTER HOFFMAN
15 10/26/44 HANOVER MCDERMOTT
16 11/04/44 HAMBURG MOORE
17 11/05/44 LUDWIGSHAFEN HOFFMAN
18 11/06/44 NEUMUNSTER LOVETT
19 11/09/44 SAARBRUCKEN HOFFMAN
20 11/11/44 OBERLAHNSTEIN HIGHT
21 11/16/44 DUREN AREA HOFFMAN
22 11/21/44 KOBLENZ HOFFMAN
23 11/26/44 HAMM HOFFMAN
24 11/27/44 BINGEN HOFFMAN
25 11/30/44 LUTZKENDORF HOFFMAN
26 12/06/44 MERSEBURG NORTH
27 12/12/44 DORMSTADT NORTH
28 12/15/44 HANOVER NORTH
29 12/30/44 MANNHEIM RECK
30 12/31/44 WENZENDORF-STADE RECK
31 01/02/45 NALBACH- BATES
32 01/03/45 KOBLENZ COHEN
33 01/06/45 WORMS NORTH
34 01/08/45 FRANKFURT LARRANCE
35 01/14/45 MADGEBURG ARMSTRONG
36 01/15/45 AUGSBURG NORTH
37 01/16/45 DESSAU BATES
38 01/20/45 HEILBRONN NORTH
39 01/21/45 MANNHEIM JESSEN
40 01/29/45 KASSEL NORTH
41 02/01/45 WESSEL KEARNEY
42 02/03/45 BERLIN NORTH
43 02/07/45 CHEMNITZ JENNINGS
44 02/09/45 WEIMAR CHANDLER
45 02/14/45 WESEL JENNINGS
46 02/15/45 COTTBUS BEIGHLEY
47 02/24/45 BREMEN LAWRENCE
48 02/26/45 BERLIN JENNINGS
49 02/27/45 LEIPZIG JENNINGS
50 03/01/45 ULM LARRANCE
51 03/02/45 DRESDEN DECASTER
52 03/03/45 BRUNSWICK WAGNER
53 03/07/45 DATTELN BEIGHLEY
54 03/08/45 FRANKFURT JENNINGS
55 03/09/45 FRANKFURT JENNINGS
56 03/10/45 DORTMUND JENNINGS
57 03/11/45 HAMBURG JENNINGS
58 03/12/05 INGLOSTADT JENNINGS
59 03/14/45 HANOVER COTTLE
60 03/15/45 ORANIENBURG S. K. JOHNSON
61 03/19/45 ZWICKAU JENNINGS
62 03/24/45 VARRELBUSCH A/F BLASCHKE
63 03/28/45 HANOVER BEIGHLEY
64 03/30/45 HAMBURG JENNINGS
65 03/31/45 BRANDENBURG JENNINGS
66 04/03/45 KIEL JENNINGS
67 04/05/45 NURNBERG JENNINGS
68 04/07/45 SCHWERIN BAIER
69 04/10/45 BRANDENBURG JENNINGS
70 04/11/45 INGLOSTADT JENNINGS
71 04/14/45 ROYAN AREA JENNINGS
72 04/15/45 ROYAN AREA JENNINGS
73 04/16/45 ROYAN AREA KRONSCHNABLE
74 04/17/45 DRESDEN KRONSCHNABLE
75 04/21/05 INGLOSTADT KRONSCHNABLE


70 missions, April 12-13, 1945

Hanging in the Mohave Museum of History and Arts in Kingman, Arizona, is a section of the nose of Lucky Partners. Roughly cut from one of the 1,800 Fortresses stored at the reclamation center there before being unceremoniously chopped and melted down in 1947, the fragment disappeared into a storage shed of the local Elks Lodge. There it remained hidden for decades until donated to the museum. None of the members of the lodge knew exactly where it had come from, or why it was stashed in their shed.