Crew22

The 'Fryer' Crew

22nd crew in the 385th Bomb Group

This page is dedicated to the members of the "Fryer" crew, 550th Bomb Squadron, 385th Bomb Group, Eighth Air Force, 1942-1943.

Click here for a larger version of this picture.

Left to right, bottom row:

Lyle Fryer, Cliff McIlveen, John Durakov, Dale Rinkenberger

I don't know who most of the enlisted crew are, but their names are:

Chester Lisiewski (2nd from left), William Cokins (3rd from left), Fred Browning, Joseph Pittman, George Good and David Carr.

If you know, please contact me!

Photos

Mary Ellen B-17F-45-DL 42-3285

Mary Ellen

Another pic of Mary Ellen

Lyle Fryer in the cockpit of Mary Ellen

Closeup of May Ellen's nose art

Mary Ellen II B-17F-110-BO 42-30601

Mary Ellen II

Mary Ellen II nose art 4 missions, 4 fighters!

Various Photos

Gunners credited with kills

Mission listing compiled by Dale Rinkenberger

"Shack Bunny"

B-17F-35-VE 42-5913

Serial number plate from Shack Bunny (photo from Nat Goode collection)

Shack Bunny went down in this field (photo from Nat Goode collection)

MACR #828

MACR is an acronym for "Missing AirCrew Report". There were thousands of these created during WWII. Click on any of the links below to see the different pages of the Fryer crew's MACR. It was declassified in 1982. Thanks to Lyle's Nephew-in-law Gary for sending me a copy.

MACRDeclass.jpg

MACRClassified.jpg

MACRmain.jpg

MACReyewittness.jpg

MACRlisting.jpg

MACRmap.jpg

There is some more information about the crash itself on the Op Vleugels der Vrijhed (On Wings of Freedom) website.

The crash site was behind these houses in Echt, Holland.

Slekkerstraat 29-33

Profile Art

Here's a profile I made of the original "Mary Ellen".

For a full-size version (4800x1200 pixels) , click here.

The Movie

I recently made a movie depicting the main events of the crew. It was made using a game called "Pacific Fighters" and several video/audio editor programs. It is 7 minutes 35 seconds long and is in Windows Media format. About 50MB, it is a somewhat large download if you're on dialup.

It is hosted at www.archive.org.

It is also available in streaming format at YouTube:

Jarink's Skins 'n' Screens - Home

Page updated 2/3/2012