Information about this photographs:

  1. Aircraft No: Probably 42-107098
  2. Tail Letter: Probably Y
  3. Fuselage ID: Probably 3O-Y
  4. Group/Squadron: 398th, probably 601st Squadron
  5. Official Name of Aircraft: Hell's Bells
  6. Date of Photograph: 1944/1945
  7. Photo Location: Probably Nuthampstead
  8. Final Disposition of A/C: Unknown
  9. Interpretive Comments: The nose art on this plane is a head portrait of a devil wearing a necklace of bells. Bombs interspersed with Bolts of lightning shoot out below the bells.

Source Information:

  1. Photo Source: Keith Benefiel, son of Philip L. Benefiel, Navigator of the Captain Harry Heintzelman Crew
  2. Photo Reference: Hells_Bells
  3. Photographer: Unknown
  4. Information compiled by the 398th Web team.
  5. If you would like to add information about this photograph, please contact our Aircraft Photo Coordinator. Please include the title.



Additional Information:

  1. The serial number of Hell's Bells is most likely 42-107098, 601st SQ identification: 3O, tail letter: "Y" according to information gathered from the Ivan Hunter collection. Ivan Hunter was the BT gunner on the 601st Heintzelman Crew. Hell's Bells is painted on the back of Ivan's A-2 jacket. The original design sketch for the jacket was included in the collection and the drawing points to the aircraft tail letter being a Y. The Heintzelman crew flew in B-17 42-107098 3O-Y the most number of times; 15 missions, between June 12, 1944 and July 28, 1944.