William Taylor Banner

William Taylor Banner was an air gunner aboard Fortress III HB 796, an American B-17 transferred to the RAF (see Extra Information below). They usually carried twelve 400-pound S.C.I. bombs or sixteen 250-pound depth charges. They had the cheek-mounted machine guns removed, and radar was fitted in place of the ball turret.

According to 214 Sqdn's ORB, February 1945, Record of Events (TNA AIR-27-1324-4) 'This aircraft (HB 796) was detailed to carry out a Window patrol but nothing has been seen or heard of it and it failed to return.'

Subsequently, it has emerged that HB 796 took off from RAF Oulton in Norfolk at 03:29 hrs tasked with dispensing 'Window' west of the Ruhr in support of an operation to Kefled. It probably became involved in an air battle and at 04:30 hrs was seen to be flying very low over New Romney and Lydd.

Witnesses stated that they head the aircraft diving towards the sea and then heard a muffled thud. A coast guard watcher at Denge Marsh was of the opinion that the aircraft attempted to land on the foreshore, bounced up and crashed into the sea. Debris was found on the shore above the high water mark which seemed to confirm that.The body of the pilot James Peter Robertson was washed ashore at Dungeness. (findagrave.com)

There were no survivors. Fatalities: Banner + Lionel John Bennett, Peter George Buckland, William Bunyan, Robert James Carrott, Ernest Dobson, George Swan Murry Fowler, Frederick Rossini Olds, James Peter Robertson and Thomas Wilfred Henry Usher.

Eighty-five USAAF B-17Gs were transferred to the Royal Air Force as the Fortress III. The first 30 of these planes were built by Boeing, and the remainder, including HB 796 aboard which William Taylor Banner was killed, were built by Lockheed-Vega.

In January 1944, the squadron was taken off routine bombing operations and converted to special operations, joining No. 100 Group RAF for electronic countermeasures in support of the main bombing operations. The squadron used the Boeing Fortress Mk II and Mk III and Stirlings.

They used the jamming system codenamed "Airborne Cigar" (ABC) to block German night fighter communications. German speaking radio operators would identify and jam the ground controllers broadcasts and also pose as ground controllers themselves with the intention of steering the night fighters away from the bomber streams.

At least some of 214 Squadron's B-17s were equipped with 'Piperack' which countered the Germans' Lichtenstein SN-2 aerial intercept radar. Fortress IIIs also took part in mass night attacks, being employed as decoys to confuse enemy night fighters and to drop "window".

Window

First deployed by the RAF in 1943, Windows involved dropping thousands of aluminium strips to confuse and jam enemy radar,