Draft:Wulfe Hound

The Wulfe Hound was the first flyable B-17 to be captured by the Germans.

On December 12, 1942, the Wulfe Hound and 19 other B-17s departed from RAF Molesworth to bomb the Luftwaffe servicing base at Romilly-sur-Seine. Due to bad weather, some bombers had to turn back, but the persevering B-17s successfully bombed the Rouen-Sotteville railroad yards with 40 tons of bombs. They faced opposition from at least 30 enemy fighters.

The Wulfe Hound, a B-17, sustained damage and started losing altitude while evading pursuing fighters within cloud cover. First Lieutenant Paul F. Flickenger, the pilot, realized they couldn't return to England, so he performed a wheels-up landing in a hayfield near Melun, with the ball turret guns pointing downward. Regrettably, the crew's attempt to destroy the aircraft by igniting a fire, involving stuffing a parachute into the fuel tank and using a Very pistol to shoot a flare into it, was foiled by the arrival of German forces. Despite managing to destroy the radio and other equipment, the crew was unable to initiate the fire before the arrival of the German forces and they fled into the woods. Flickering and the Bombardier would be captured, two more crewmen were apprehended by the Gestapo, and the rest, along with the crew from the earlier downed plane managed to make it back to Molesworth.

After the aircraft was transported to Leeuwarden Air Base in the Netherlands by a German salvage crew, temporary repairs were carried out to restore its flyable condition. However, the damaged ball turret was not replaced. Subsequently, the aircraft was painted with the German Balkenkreuz and assigned the Stammkennzeichen alphabetic code DL+XC with yellow paint on the undersurfaces. Moreover, the nose art, depicting a hound with a broken German fighter in its mouth and the text Wulfe Hound above the image, was removed.

On December 14, the Wulfe Hound, accompanied by two Bf 110 fighters, was transported to the Luftwaffe Test and Evaluation Center at Rechlin-Lärz Airfield. The relevant Luftwaffe fighter bases and flak units along the flight route were duly informed about the aircraft and its transit. Despite these precautionary measures, the Luftwaffe marked B-17 encountered gunfire but sustained only minor damage.

During the time spent at Rechlin for additional repairs, a thorough examination of the B-17 and its systems was conducted by Luftwaffe pilots, engineers, and senior officials. This involved scrutinizing the aircraft for potential weaknesses and vulnerabilities, along with other captured planes.

The flight testing commenced on March 17, 1943. Subsequently, Wulfe Hound proceeded to visit multiple fighter units in Germany and France to fulfill affiliation and demonstration responsibilities. This facilitated the pilots in gaining an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the Fortress aircraft.

In July 1943, the Wulfe Hound was outfitted with glider towing equipment and utilized as a tow aircraft during the DFS 230 combat glider program at Rechlin. The DFS 230 was a German transport glider operated by the Luftwaffe. Originating in 1933, this glider was developed by the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug (DFS) – the "German Research Institute for Sailplane Flight". The glider was employed in airborne assault operations.

On September 11th, 1943, the aircraft was assigned to the classified special operations unit Kampfgeschwader 200 (KG 200) stationed in Rangsdorf, Germany, and given the designation A3+AE. Although documentation regarding the B-17’s service with KG 200 is unavailable, it is believed that Wulfe-Hound was utilized for training and highly secretive covert missions between May and June of 1944, operating alongside three other B-17 aircraft.

On 20 April 1945, the aircraft was caught in an American air-raid on Oranienburg Airfield and was partially destroyed. In 2000, the German government started redeveloping the former airfield, and parts of Wulfe Hound were rediscovered and placed on display at the Sachsenhausen Memorial Store.