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Description
During the long, miserable winter of 1943-1944, the Britain-based U.S. Army Air Corp. was grounded, due to the extreme weather. And boredom, and low moral, was a prevalent problem for American servicemen.
Major Francis (Frank) A. Veeblefitzer (a cousin to the infamous Prof. Anton Veeblefitzer), decided to do something outrageous, as the Veeblefitzer family was often wont to do(!), to reverse the moral problem.
With approval from General Jimmy Doolittle, who loved "outrageous", Maj. Veeblefitzer rounded up the WORST (!) rated flight and ground crews in the 8th Air Force, whipped them into shape, and committed them to build a special version of the B-17 Flying Fortress.
Scrounging sections of aircraft, from wrecks and worn out machines, Maj. Veeblefitzer's team, with help from fascinated maintenance crews, volunteers, from other squadrons, were able to cobble together a bizarre version of the Fortress, within the month of January 1944.
The original 4 Wright/Cyclone R-1820 motors, each rated at a maximum of 1200 H.P., were replaced by 4 Pratt and Whitney R-2800 motors, rated at 2000 H.P. apiece, which were salvaged from P-47 wrecks. The exhausts were covered with truck mufflers, to dampen sound.
The tips of the wing, and tail surfaces were cut, which reduced weight, and actually help streamline the craft to increase speed. A small vertical fin was attached to the wing tips, which defeated the air drag problem common to designs of that period, to further increase speed and fuel efficiency and range.
All high altitude equipment, along with the ball turret positioned in the lower fuselage, were eliminated to reduce weight.
But the biggest modification was in the armament!
Offensive armament? No bombs! The forward fuselage, which normally housed the bombardier and navigator, was now housing 6 x 20mm cannon, rescued from P-38 write-offs. Each wing' outer section, was equipped with the gun bays from a P-47, adding 8 x .50 cal. mg's. And the big armament was 6 x 40mm Vickers S cannon (!) donated by the RAF, hung in a wide tub where the bomb bay used to be.
Defense? Two top turrets, each equipped with twin .50 cal. mg's, were acquired from a YB-40 escort gun ship, along with the twin .50 cal. waist guns, placed on each side of the mid fuselage.
A custom built mobile turret equipped with 4 x .50 cal. mg's, placed in the tail, finished off the defensive armament.
The forward facing armament made the craft nose heavy, so an adjustable horizontal tail plane, visible on the vertical stabilizer, was adopted, allowing the pilot to maintain positive trim.
For the records, the machine was labelled B-17X.
But, due to the fact that it was pieced together from dozens of aircraft "corpses", it's unofficial name was the "Flying Frankenstein", a nod to Mary Shelly's infamous monster, and also because of Major Veeblefitzer's nickname, Frank.
The ground crew, late in January, quickly applied a non-standard paint scheme, designed to be as low visible as was possible, with a Jolly Roger skull on the tail. The bottoms of the motor cowls were crudely painted yellow, to imitate popular German identity markings. "We wanted the plane to look German from a distance." Explained Major Veeblefitzer
With a bit of whimsy, the craft was christened "Frank's Stein", featuring a cartoon image of Boris Karloff 's "Frankenstein" monster with a beer stein. And the crews involved in it's making called it "the Monster".
The "Monster's" mission?
Simple! Low altitude deep penetration of enemy airspace for target strafing!
The French Underground Resistance (FUR, in this particular "alt' universe", which is closely connected to "our" universe, in that the "Bad Guys" run Germany), discovered that the German Wehrmacht was planning to ship a large amount of fuel, armor, equipment, and AA guns to their positions in western France and the Low Countries in early February 1944.
In the last days of January, Maj. Veeblefitzer and his flight crew made several practice runs to test out their new invention, and were greatly pleased to see that the aircraft worked as planned.
The FUR radio'd out the day and time when the German trains would pull into their berths at the largest railroad in north west France, in the first week of February.
Maj. Veeblefitzer and his navigator, Lt. William "help, I'm lost" Musclemann, who'd handle a waist gun position, later, quickly plotted out a course. They'd have to fly exclusively by compass, as the weather was thick clouds, rain and snow.
Launching themselves early in the morning, and flying at less than 100 ft , to avoid enemy radar, the Monster flew onto her mission.
Within the hour, speeding in at over 300 mph., and braving heavy rain with snow flurries, Maj. Veeblefitzer, and his copilot, Capt. Thomas "the blind" Kello, spotted the French railway yard.
"It was packed with dozens of locomotives and miles of flatbeds and boxcars, all loaded down!" Testified Maj. Veeblefitzer afterwards (several 16mm cameras, with high resolution film, had been placed in strategic positions on the wing, fuselage, and tail, to record the attack, and those films confirmed the crew's later report. [These can be seen on YouTube, today])
Maj. Veeblefitzer steered the Monster towards the trains located in the center of the mass of the assembly.
"I squeezed the trigger, mounted on my steering wheel, and the whole front of the ship just exploded!" He recalled, later.
"Thousands of rounds of fifty-cal, twenty mil', and forty mil' rounds just leaped out and tore into the trains and troops, and everything!"
The turret, waist, and tail gunners, had been instructed to just fire their guns at a low angle, as they sped over the target.
"The Heine fuel tanks exploded! The ammo carriers went off! There were fireballs and secondary explosions everywhere! All in a couple of seconds!" Exclaimed Sgt. Alvin "can't shoot " Johannes, left waist gunner, at debriefing.
Top turret gunner, Sgt. Max "cross eyes" Smith, along with radio operator, 2nd turret gunner Sgt. Al "WTF" Wilson, witnessed: "Hundred of Nazi troops being blown to bits, by our fire. We saw heads, limbs, torsos just flying through the air! Those who could still run, were engulfed in burning gas! It was horrific!"
The tail gunner, Sgt. Rodney "the rabid" Roddent, witnessed the immediate aftermath of the attack. "We left a river of blazing fuel and rail cars, with God-knows-how many German troops falling under our guns! I raked the loading platform and probably murdered a hundred Nazi scum!"
The attack lasted less than 7 seconds!
"Let's hit the next target!" Yelled Major Veeblefitzer, over the intercom.
The plan had been, in case that they survived the primary attack, was to strafe the largest Luftwaffe field, only 55 miles away, in southern Belgium, as they sped for home.
The surviving German officers, at the destroyed rail yard, radio'd out that they had just been attacked by "a large American raid!".
Alerted, Luftwaffe Central Western Control, ordered all squadrons, in the area, to ignore the foul weather, and launch a counter attack against the: "The fleet of low flying enemy aircraft."
German air commanders protested: "The weather is too bad! We risk men and machines if we launch!"
"Launch! Or you'll be taken out and shot! Along with your families!" Shrieked the panic stricken Luft' officers.
Hundreds of German pilots, were mobilized to start up their Bf-109's and Fw-190's in south west Belgium, and northern France.
Dozens of Fw-190's were lined up, motors warming up, with pilots sitting in their cockpits, waiting for the takeoff signal, at the Luftwaffe's largest base in Belgium.
Suddenly....(oh..., you have to appreciate the scene, dear reader) the "Monster" appeared......, nearly silent, due to the mufflers hiding the engine noise.
Major Frank Veeblefitzer, and copilot Capt. Kello saw two long rows of dozens of brand new Fw-190's, all lined up, for take off!
"Charge your guns! Boys! Lot's o' targets!" Called out Major Veeblefitzer.
Their B-17X raced down the enemy flight line, all guns blazing!
"We spent, almost, the last of our heavy cannon rounds on all of those parked Focke Wulf's! And they just blew to bits!"
The defensive gunners raked the ground crews and Luftwaffe AA gunners, as the Monster tore along, at tree-top altitude.
"I saw my whole squadron decimated, in less than three seconds!" Exclaimed the German air group commander.
What followed is considered the greatest running air battle of the entire Second World War, in this Alt' Universe!
When the CO of the just attacked Luftwaffe airfield radio'd out what had happened, all airborne Luftwaffe fighters were directed to that sector.
Expecting to find a vast fleet of low flying enemy aircraft, the 180 German fighter pilots that converged into the target area, were surprised to see just one low flying B-17.
"One enemy aircraft is the cause of all of this trouble?!?" Exclaimed the flight leader, Gen. Rufdoll Krafft.
The 109's and 190's practically crashed into each other attacking Major Veeblefitzer's machine!
Instead of just fleeing for the channel, Major Veeblefitzer, throttled back on the starboard motors, and increased the power on the port ones, and whipped the Monster around in an incredibly tight right turn.
With a mass of enemy fighters now facing him, Major Veeblefitzer spent the last rounds of his heavy guns, and tore through them with devastating results.
Over two dozen 109's and 190's were slaughtered with the remaining 20mm and 40mm rounds, spat into their evil Nazi faces!
Pivoting the Monster around in a circle, Major Veeblefitzer hit the throttles full on! And the Monster sped off, slicing through the rain and sleet, towards the English Channel.
The surviving enemy planes, their pilots completely outraged, pursued in a determined effort to kill, Kill, KILL, their offending opponent!
They lined up to take turns to attack, but Major Veeblefitzer pushed the throttles over to War Emergency Power!, and the Monster leaped ahead.
The aft facing gunners snapped off bursts, to keep the Nazis away!
They didn't care!
They hit their full power, and closed the distance, scoring hits on the Monster with their cannon and mg's.
The Monster's gunners also scored hits, and enemy planes were observed to take flashing hits, and gush smoke and flames.
The battle, at high speed, continued for miles, as Major Veeblefitzer, now desperate, pushed the Monster to try and make the
Channel.
Riddled with jagged holes, and trailing smoke and white fuel (due to automatic Co-2 fire extinguishers, planted in the motor nacelles, they did not suffer any fires) the Monster finally crossed the Channel.
With most ammo, and fuel spent, the now lightened Monster, was able to out speed the pursuing enemy, who were forced to withdraw back to their bases, after having lost dozens of men and machines, to the Monster's firepower and the horrible weather.
Shot up, from nose to tail, the Monster bellied in back at base.
The crew, some wounded, were pulled out, and watched in dismay, as the Monster erupted into flames.
"She did her job! And got us home!" Exclaimed the crew members.
The crew members were handsomely awarded, with Major Veeblefitzer being promoted to full Colonel.
The Germans lamented that: "This one attack set back our efforts by over 6 months, in the western theater!"
Pictured is the Monster, as she appeared at take off, on that incredible day.

channel.

Description
During the long, miserable winter of 1943-1944, the Britain-based U.S. Army Air Corp. was grounded, due to the extreme weather. And boredom, and low moral, was a prevalent problem for American servicemen.
Major Francis (Frank) A. Veeblefitzer (a cousin to the infamous Prof. Anton Veeblefitzer), decided to do something outrageous, as the Veeblefitzer family was often wont to do(!), to reverse the moral problem.
With approval from General Jimmy Doolittle, who loved "outrageous", Maj. Veeblefitzer rounded up the WORST (!) rated flight and ground crews in the 8th Air Force, whipped them into shape, and committed them to build a special version of the B-17 Flying Fortress.
Scrounging sections of aircraft, from wrecks and worn out machines, Maj. Veeblefitzer's team, with help from fascinated maintenance crews, volunteers, from other squadrons, were able to cobble together a bizarre version of the Fortress, within the month of January 1944.
The original 4 Wright/Cyclone R-1820 motors, each rated at a maximum of 1200 H.P., were replaced by 4 Pratt and Whitney R-2800 motors, rated at 2000 H.P. apiece, which were salvaged from P-47 wrecks. The exhausts were covered with truck mufflers, to dampen sound.
The tips of the wing, and tail surfaces were cut, which reduced weight, and actually help streamline the craft to increase speed. A small vertical fin was attached to the wing tips, which defeated the air drag problem common to designs of that period, to further increase speed and fuel efficiency and range.
All high altitude equipment, along with the ball turret positioned in the lower fuselage, were eliminated to reduce weight.
But the biggest modification was in the armament!
Offensive armament? No bombs! The forward fuselage, which normally housed the bombardier and navigator, was now housing 6 x 20mm cannon, rescued from P-38 write-offs. Each wing' outer section, was equipped with the gun bays from a P-47, adding 8 x .50 cal. mg's. And the big armament was 6 x 40mm Vickers S cannon (!) donated by the RAF, hung in a wide tub where the bomb bay used to be.
Defense? Two top turrets, each equipped with twin .50 cal. mg's, were acquired from a YB-40 escort gun ship, along with the twin .50 cal. waist guns, placed on each side of the mid fuselage.
A custom built mobile turret equipped with 4 x .50 cal. mg's, placed in the tail, finished off the defensive armament.
The forward facing armament made the craft nose heavy, so an adjustable horizontal tail plane, visible on the vertical stabilizer, was adopted, allowing the pilot to maintain positive trim.
For the records, the machine was labelled B-17X.
But, due to the fact that it was pieced together from dozens of aircraft "corpses", it's unofficial name was the "Flying Frankenstein", a nod to Mary Shelly's infamous monster, and also because of Major Veeblefitzer's nickname, Frank.
The ground crew, late in January, quickly applied a non-standard paint scheme, designed to be as low visible as was possible, with a Jolly Roger skull on the tail. The bottoms of the motor cowls were crudely painted yellow, to imitate popular German identity markings. "We wanted the plane to look German from a distance." Explained Major Veeblefitzer
With a bit of whimsy, the craft was christened "Frank's Stein", featuring a cartoon image of Boris Karloff 's "Frankenstein" monster with a beer stein. And the crews involved in it's making called it "the Monster".
The "Monster's" mission?
Simple! Low altitude deep penetration of enemy airspace for target strafing!
The French Underground Resistance (FUR, in this particular "alt' universe", which is closely connected to "our" universe, in that the "Bad Guys" run Germany), discovered that the German Wehrmacht was planning to ship a large amount of fuel, armor, equipment, and AA guns to their positions in western France and the Low Countries in early February 1944.
In the last days of January, Maj. Veeblefitzer and his flight crew made several practice runs to test out their new invention, and were greatly pleased to see that the aircraft worked as planned.
The FUR radio'd out the day and time when the German trains would pull into their berths at the largest railroad in north west France, in the first week of February.
Maj. Veeblefitzer and his navigator, Lt. William "help, I'm lost" Musclemann, who'd handle a waist gun position, later, quickly plotted out a course. They'd have to fly exclusively by compass, as the weather was thick clouds, rain and snow.
Launching themselves early in the morning, and flying at less than 100 ft , to avoid enemy radar, the Monster flew onto her mission.
Within the hour, speeding in at over 300 mph., and braving heavy rain with snow flurries, Maj. Veeblefitzer, and his copilot, Capt. Thomas "the blind" Kello, spotted the French railway yard.
"It was packed with dozens of locomotives and miles of flatbeds and boxcars, all loaded down!" Testified Maj. Veeblefitzer afterwards (several 16mm cameras, with high resolution film, had been placed in strategic positions on the wing, fuselage, and tail, to record the attack, and those films confirmed the crew's later report. [These can be seen on YouTube, today])
Maj. Veeblefitzer steered the Monster towards the trains located in the center of the mass of the assembly.
"I squeezed the trigger, mounted on my steering wheel, and the whole front of the ship just exploded!" He recalled, later.
"Thousands of rounds of fifty-cal, twenty mil', and forty mil' rounds just leaped out and tore into the trains and troops, and everything!"
The turret, waist, and tail gunners, had been instructed to just fire their guns at a low angle, as they sped over the target.
"The Heine fuel tanks exploded! The ammo carriers went off! There were fireballs and secondary explosions everywhere! All in a couple of seconds!" Exclaimed Sgt. Alvin "can't shoot " Johannes, left waist gunner, at debriefing.
Top turret gunner, Sgt. Max "cross eyes" Smith, along with radio operator, 2nd turret gunner Sgt. Al "WTF" Wilson, witnessed: "Hundred of Nazi troops being blown to bits, by our fire. We saw heads, limbs, torsos just flying through the air! Those who could still run, were engulfed in burning gas! It was horrific!"
The tail gunner, Sgt. Rodney "the rabid" Roddent, witnessed the immediate aftermath of the attack. "We left a river of blazing fuel and rail cars, with God-knows-how many German troops falling under our guns! I raked the loading platform and probably murdered a hundred Nazi scum!"
The attack lasted less than 7 seconds!
"Let's hit the next target!" Yelled Major Veeblefitzer, over the intercom.
The plan had been, in case that they survived the primary attack, was to strafe the largest Luftwaffe field, only 55 miles away, in southern Belgium, as they sped for home.
The surviving German officers, at the destroyed rail yard, radio'd out that they had just been attacked by "a large American raid!".
Alerted, Luftwaffe Central Western Control, ordered all squadrons, in the area, to ignore the foul weather, and launch a counter attack against the: "The fleet of low flying enemy aircraft."
German air commanders protested: "The weather is too bad! We risk men and machines if we launch!"
"Launch! Or you'll be taken out and shot! Along with your families!" Shrieked the panic stricken Luft' officers.
Hundreds of German pilots, were mobilized to start up their Bf-109's and Fw-190's in south west Belgium, and northern France.
Dozens of Fw-190's were lined up, motors warming up, with pilots sitting in their cockpits, waiting for the takeoff signal, at the Luftwaffe's largest base in Belgium.
Suddenly....(oh..., you have to appreciate the scene, dear reader) the "Monster" appeared......, nearly silent, due to the mufflers hiding the engine noise.
Major Frank Veeblefitzer, and copilot Capt. Kello saw two long rows of dozens of brand new Fw-190's, all lined up, for take off!
"Charge your guns! Boys! Lot's o' targets!" Called out Major Veeblefitzer.
Their B-17X raced down the enemy flight line, all guns blazing!
"We spent, almost, the last of our heavy cannon rounds on all of those parked Focke Wulf's! And they just blew to bits!"
The defensive gunners raked the ground crews and Luftwaffe AA gunners, as the Monster tore along, at tree-top altitude.
"I saw my whole squadron decimated, in less than three seconds!" Exclaimed the German air group commander.
What followed is considered the greatest running air battle of the entire Second World War, in this Alt' Universe!
When the CO of the just attacked Luftwaffe airfield radio'd out what had happened, all airborne Luftwaffe fighters were directed to that sector.
Expecting to find a vast fleet of low flying enemy aircraft, the 180 German fighter pilots that converged into the target area, were surprised to see just one low flying B-17.
"One enemy aircraft is the cause of all of this trouble?!?" Exclaimed the flight leader, Gen. Rufdoll Krafft.
The 109's and 190's practically crashed into each other attacking Major Veeblefitzer's machine!
Instead of just fleeing for the channel, Major Veeblefitzer, throttled back on the starboard motors, and increased the power on the port ones, and whipped the Monster around in an incredibly tight right turn.
With a mass of enemy fighters now facing him, Major Veeblefitzer spent the last rounds of his heavy guns, and tore through them with devastating results.
Over two dozen 109's and 190's were slaughtered with the remaining 20mm and 40mm rounds, spat into their evil Nazi faces!
Pivoting the Monster around in a circle, Major Veeblefitzer hit the throttles full on! And the Monster sped off, slicing through the rain and sleet, towards the English Channel.
The surviving enemy planes, their pilots completely outraged, pursued in a determined effort to kill, Kill, KILL, their offending opponent!
They lined up to take turns to attack, but Major Veeblefitzer pushed the throttles over to War Emergency Power!, and the Monster leaped ahead.
The aft facing gunners snapped off bursts, to keep the Nazis away!
They didn't care!
They hit their full power, and closed the distance, scoring hits on the Monster with their cannon and mg's.
The Monster's gunners also scored hits, and enemy planes were observed to take flashing hits, and gush smoke and flames.
The battle, at high speed, continued for miles, as Major Veeblefitzer, now desperate, pushed the Monster to try and make the
Channel.
Riddled with jagged holes, and trailing smoke and white fuel (due to automatic Co-2 fire extinguishers, planted in the motor nacelles, they did not suffer any fires) the Monster finally crossed the Channel.
With most ammo, and fuel spent, the now lightened Monster, was able to out speed the pursuing enemy, who were forced to withdraw back to their bases, after having lost dozens of men and machines, to the Monster's firepower and the horrible weather.
Shot up, from nose to tail, the Monster bellied in back at base.
The crew, some wounded, were pulled out, and watched in dismay, as the Monster erupted into flames.
"She did her job! And got us home!" Exclaimed the crew members.
The crew members were handsomely awarded, with Major Veeblefitzer being promoted to full Colonel.
The Germans lamented that: "This one attack set back our efforts by over 6 months, in the western theater!"
Pictured is the Monster, as she appeared at take off, on that incredible day.

channel.