The Swoose is a B-17D-BO Flying Fortress, USAAF Ser. No. "40-3097", that saw extensive use in the Southwest Pacific theatre of World War II and survived to become the oldest B-17 still intact. It is the only early "shark fin" B-17 known to exist, and the only surviving B-17 to have seen action in the 1941–42 Philippines Campaign, operating on the first day of the United States entry into the war.
Early history
The 38th of 42 B-17Ds built by Boeing, "40-3097" was accepted by the Army Air Corps on 25 April 1941 in Seattle, Washington. It was ferried to Hickam Field, Hawaii, 13–14 May 1941, by the 19th Bomb Group as part of a group of 21 B-17C and B-17Ds slated to equip the 11th Bomb Group.
In response to the perceived hostile activities of the Japanese military, in September 1941 the War Department sent nine B-17s with hand-picked crews from their base in Hawaii to Clark Field in the Philippines. These were assigned to the 14th Bombardment Squadron, detached from the 11th Bomb Group. B-17 "40-3097", then designated aircraft number "21", arrived on 12 September in the midst of a typhoon at Nichols Field, (a fighter airfield just south of Manila and the only other than Clark among the Army's four active airfields that could handle the Fortresses). On 5 December the 14th Bomb Squadron was ordered, as a dispersal measure, to move its eight B-17s to the newly established Del Monte Airfield on the island of Mindanao, along with the eight B-17s of the 93rd Bomb Squadron.
Eight hours after the Pearl Harbor raid, the Japanese surprise attacks of 8 December 1941 on U.S. military installations in the Philippines caught much of the Far East Air Force on the ground; only 19 of the 35 Flying Fortresses in the Philippines escaped destruction or severe damage. The two squadrons sent to Del Monte, including "40-3097" (at that point named Ole Betsy), were pressed into bombing action for the next two months, as newer B-17Es began to be dispatched to the Pacific in January 1942. Spare parts were scarce and ground crews patched up battle damage with parts salvaged from other destroyed aircraft. The last combat mission flown by "40-3097" was a raid on the east coast of Borneo on 11 January 1942, piloted by the commander of the 19th Bomb Group, Major Cecil Combs.
Half swan, half goose
In late January 1942, "40-3097" was flown to a Royal Australian Air Force Base at Laverton, near Melbourne, Australia, where it underwent depot repairs. At this time, the tail of "40-3091" was grafted onto "40-3097", leading 19th Bomb Group pilot Captain Weldon Smith to dub the aircraft The Swoose after the popular song "Alexander the Swoose" from a little ditty written by Franklin Furlett and performed by bandleader Kay Kyser about a bird that was "half swan, half goose: Alexander is a swoose". A depiction of the chimerical bird was soon painted on the starboard fuselage, just aft of the main entrance door, with the statement "It Flys" . The B-17 never returned to first-line duty, flying navigation escort missions for fighters and anti-submarine patrols. "The Swoose" was withdrawn from duty in March 1942; by this time, it was in poor condition, overall, after so many logged flight hours.
General's transport
While parked at Laverton, it was still deemed the best thing available at the airfield, and was selected by Captain Frank Kurtz to serve as the personal transport for General George Brett, then the Deputy Commander of Allied Forces in Australia, and ranking American commander. It carried various military brass for the next four months, including future president Lyndon B. Johnson, then a congressman and active-duty US Navy lieutenant commander. On a flight from Darwin on 11 June 1942, the crew had navigation problems and Kurtz had to make a forced landing at Carisbrooke Station near Winton, Queensland. When General Brett was reassigned to the Caribbean Defense Command following friction between him and General Douglas MacArthur, The Swoose ferried him all the way to Washington, D.C., in August 1942, setting a number of speed records in the process. Used for a war bond tour, "40-3097" continued to serve as General Brett's personal transport through 1944.
In 1943, Harcourt Brace published the book Queens Die Proudly, by William Lindsay White, a follow-up to White's earlier wartime best-seller, They Were Expendable. Queens Die Proudly is a journalistic account of the air war in the Philippines, the Netherlands East Indies, and Australia, from December 1941 through the spring of 1942; Captain Frank Kurtz and The Swoose are prominently featured.