Help finding a WWII air base? Takeridi, maybe in central Africa?

Dad and I are tracking Grandpop's flight on the way to the CBI theater during WWII.  There's one stop that Dad can't really find, and he's thinking the name may have changed.

Grandpop's flight log shows him picking up the B-17E in Portland on 10 March 1942, flying it to March Field (outside S. Francisco) to Kelly (San Antonio), to MacDill.  He was supposed to take part in the defense of Java (his notes in the margin say. "On the way to Java'), but Java fell before they got out of CONUS. 

His orders were changed, he left MacDill on 01 Feb., taking the southern route to Africa, Middle East, and to CBI.  First stop was Waller Field, Trinidad https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Waller_Air_Force_Base, then to Belem, Brazil, Natal (Brazil), Freetown (Sierra Leone), three fields we can't find, named Takeridi, Acera, and Cane, presumably in central Africa, Khartoum, Aden, Karachi, Colombo, Bangalore, Asanasol (Pop's notes say combat).  All this in a little more than a month. 

Acera appears to be Accra, Ghana

Cane might be Kano, Nigeria.

So, Takeridi lookes like its between Sierra Leone and Ghana?

I'd be willing to bet someone at the Air Force museum would be able to find out.

https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/

Do you mean Takoradi?

Thanks Cooter, that's gotta be it.

You're welcome.

http://sixtant.net/2011/artigos.php?cat=the-takoradi-route&sub=the-long-journey-to-egypt&tag=1)the-takoradi-route

March air force base is in Riverside , 75 miles East of Los Angeles, 

pretty much next to Riverside raceway  when it was still there !

Cooter said:

You're welcome.

http://sixtant.net/2011/artigos.php?cat=the-takoradi-route&sub=the-long-journey-to-egypt&tag=1)the-takoradi-route

I found that.  Its interesting, but it makes sense that there would be an entire logistics operation dedicated to recovering downed planes.

Now, if anyone wants to try and find pictures of Grandpop's plane, it was called Jungle Jim.  There used to be pics online, but they've been lost to the depths of the interwebs

Or could it have been Tikrit?

My dad was stationed at a British air base in what was then Persia. He came home with  decent conversational Arabic. No combat though. I expect that's a good thing. 

Got a tail number on that B-17E? Should read 41-XXXX. 41 is the year it was built. First block was 2393-2669 and the second block of numbers was 9011-9245. 

Appleseed said:

Got a tail number on that B-17E? Should read 41-XXXX. 41 is the year it was built. First block was 2393-2669 and the second block of numbers was 9011-9245. 

41-2499

Lot of disinformation out there on it, though.  Dave Osborne was some sort of historian and compiled a lot of the history of tail numbers.  Somehow he got Grandpop's really wrong.  We reached out to the Air Force Historical Research Agency and got some additional info on Jungle Jim.  Brought back stateside in '43 and used as a trainer until some goober wrecked him and then he was scrapped in '45.

Any idea at all on the URL of the website that had the image of the plane?

Was looking through a 400+ page site chronicling B-17 serial numbers. 2493, 2494, 2495, 2496, 2496, 2498, 2500? Of course they skip right over 2499.

CJ (FS) said:

Any idea at all on the URL of the website that had the image of the plane?

I used to have it bookmarked, but that was two or three computers back.

I remember it was a picture of the plane with bombs in the foreground waiting to be loaded.  Allahbad was the location from what Dad and I remember.

Was looking through a 400+ page site chronicling B-17 serial numbers. 2493, 2494, 2495, 2496, 2496, 2498, 2500? Of course they skip right over 2499.

No help with your airbase, but there is a brief history of 41-2499 at :

41-2499

It is very brief, so I will post it here.

Delivered San Antonio 10/1/42; 7BG Hawaii 2/42; then Singosari, Java 9/2/42 with Smithson; to Asanol, India with Norman Llewellyn 2/4/42; with Capt Don Keiser 20/5/42; Returned to the USA Hendricks 14/6/43; 4121 BU Kelly 23/9/44; 3018 BU Kingman 18/10/44; Reconstruction Finance Corporation (sold for scrap metal in USA) Albuquerque 25/6/45.

noddaz said:

No help with your airbase, but there is a brief history of 41-2499 at :

41-2499

It is very brief, so I will post it here.

Delivered San Antonio 10/1/42; 7BG Hawaii 2/42; then Singosari, Java 9/2/42 with Smithson; to Asanol, India with Norman Llewellyn 2/4/42; with Capt Don Keiser 20/5/42; Returned to the USA Hendricks 14/6/43; 4121 BU Kelly 23/9/44; 3018 BU Kingman 18/10/44; Reconstruction Finance Corporation (sold for scrap metal in USA) Albuquerque 25/6/45.

 

Yup.  You found some Dave Osborne stuff.  I don't know what he did to get it so wrong, but the Air Force Heritage Research Agency and Grandpop's flight logs completely disagree with his info.

It might be useful to post your Grandpop's name and rank to see if that will produce anything.

In reply to CJ (FS) :

I thought about that, but I've had a couple trolls try to doxx me recently.  Makes me a little gunshy to share PII

Found a "B-17 Nose Art Name Directory" pdf online by Wallace Forman, doesn't mention a Jungle Jim or have 41-2499 listed (https://hazy.home.xs4all.nl/Planes/T3165%20Mission%20Belle/Books%20and%20Magazines/B-17%20Nose%20Art%20Name%20Directory.pdf)

Edit - also found reference on page 115 & 120 of "7th Bombardment Group/Wing, 1918-1995" Link

Mentions destination of Java traveling from McDill in the page before but not able to read too closely at this time.

Could post a request on the WIX, Warbird Information Exchange site.

In reply to johndej :

That second link is on the money. 

In reply to Appleseed :

Don't think I've heard of it.  Will take a look 

there's another book called "Pictorial History of the 7th Bombardment Wing" which apparently has a pic with some of the crew of the B-17E "Jungle Jim" (41-2499) posed with it.

EDIT:  I found that by searching for "41-2499" on books.google.com

also, sounds like Mr_Asa's Grandpa was a BAMF.