''Hell's Angels'' was a

Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

used during the Second World War. It was one of the first B-17s in the 8th Air Force to complete 25 credited combat missions in the European Theater. Ultimately, ''Hell's Angels'' would go on to complete 48 missions without any crewman injured or being forced to turn back. ''Hell's Angels'' was often considered the first 8th Air Force B-17 to complete 25 credited combat missions. However, recent research by Mick Hanou, president of the

91st Bombardment Group The 91st Bomb Group (Heavy) was an air combat unit of the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War. Classified as a heavy bombardment group, the 91st operated B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft and was known unofficially as "The Ragg ...

Memorial Association and historian Jeff Duford, a curator at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, has confirmed that a B-17F of the 323rd Bombardment Squadron, 91st Bombardment Group, serial number 42-5077 and nicknamed ''Delta Rebel No. 2,'' completed 25 credited combat missions on 1 May 1943, becoming the first B-17 in the European Theater to complete the feat, two weeks before ''Hell's Angels.'' ''Delta Rebel No. 2,'' was shot down during the 12 August 1943 mission to

Gelsenkirchen, Germany Gelsenkirchen (, , ; wep, Gelsenkiärken) is the 25th most populous city of Germany and the 11th most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher River (a tributary of the Rhine), it lies ...

, with six of its crew captured as prisoners of war and four killed in action.

References

Individual aircraft of World War II Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress {{Aero-1940s-stub