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Message
The B-17 Flying Fortress was one tough bird
Posted on 3/26/15 at 9:28 am
Posted on 3/26/15 at 9:28 am
Just came across these cool images of B-17's that took what looks to be catastrophic damage and yet were still able to get back home. I've always been amazed how much damage these planes could take and still keep on going.
More here
More here
10
Posted on 3/26/15 at 9:32 am to Darth_Vader
Looks like this one took a suicide strike from a ME-109.
Posted on 3/26/15 at 9:37 am to Darth_Vader
Read "A Higher Calling" if you haven't already. Got a little teary-eyed at the end.
Posted on 3/26/15 at 9:37 am to ScubaTiger
quote:
Looks like this one took a suicide strike from a ME-109.
There are instances where this happened. In the final weeks of the war the Germans even set up what were for all intents and purposes, suicide squads...
LINK
quote:
The attack came from above. On April 7, 1945, as more than 1,300 four-engine, U.S. Air Force bombers began their approach over northern Germany, on a mission to target factories and freight stations, they were suddenly challenged. At 1:35 in the afternoon, German single-engine planes began to fall out of the sky from above them. But instead of closing in from the usual distance of about 600 meters, firing, and then turning away, the German planes set themselves on a collision course.
Sonderkommando Elbe
This post was edited on 3/26/15 at 9:39 am
Posted on 3/26/15 at 9:41 am to boom roasted
quote:
Read "A Higher Calling" if you haven't already. Got a little teary-eyed at the end.
The losses these bomber crews took were just amazing. We always hear how bloody the fighting in the Pacific and on the ground in Europe were, but it was actually the 8th Air Force (mostly B-17 crews) that suffered a higher casualty rate than any other US unit in the war. And that includes the infantry units of both the US Army and Marine Corps.
Posted on 3/26/15 at 9:41 am to Darth_Vader
That is amazing. I cannot imagine the courage it took to climb aboard one of those and fly the missions they did.
I had an uncle who was the tail gunner on a B-24 in the Pacific. He didn't talk about it much, but when he did, everyone listened.
I had an uncle who was the tail gunner on a B-24 in the Pacific. He didn't talk about it much, but when he did, everyone listened.
Posted on 3/26/15 at 9:45 am to Bagger Joe
quote:
That is amazing. I cannot imagine the courage it took to climb aboard one of those and fly the missions they did.
True. And now imagine that for a long time the bombers had no fighter cover at all over most of Germany.
quote:
I had an uncle who was the tail gunner on a B-24 in the Pacific. He didn't talk about it much, but when he did, everyone listened.
I'll bet.
Posted on 3/26/15 at 9:48 am to Darth_Vader
My wife's grandfather flew B24s in the Aleutians During the war. I don't know how much he got shot at but his stories of flying in those weather conditions are pretty amazing. Landing and taking off with a full bomb load on dirt and gravel runways in icy conditions with almost zero visibility with 1940s technology. 
Posted on 3/26/15 at 9:56 am to GeauxxxTigers23
quote:
My wife's grandfather flew B24s in the Aleutians During the war.
That's where my uncle flew out of. He talked about how bad the weather was and how cold it got. He said their missions were all very low level and the best thing for him to do with his parachute (being the tail gunner) was to sit on it. They flew too low for it to be effective and if you did survive the crash or water landing, you wouldn't survive in the cold water very long.
Posted on 3/26/15 at 9:59 am to Darth_Vader
I got to go inside the B-17 and B-24 during the Wings of Freedom tour a couple weeks ago. I feel bad for some of those gunners.
Posted on 3/26/15 at 10:09 am to ScubaTiger
quote:
ME-109.
Bf-109
Me of course makes sense as it was used for all subsequent Messerschmitt fighters but the 109 was always referred to in German records by its original manufacturer's (BFW) designation of Bf.
Only aircraft produced after Messerschmitt took over BFW were then given the prefix Me. Even though Willie Messerschmitt was the lead designer of the 109, it remained the Bf-109. The Germans were sticklers for adherence to procedure, who knew.
The Bf-110's updated model was referred to as the Me-210, but the 110 retained its Bf prefix as did the 109. Just a fun little FYI about why it's often referred to by both designations.
Posted on 3/26/15 at 10:22 am to GeauxxxTigers23
quote:
My wife's grandfather flew B24s in the Aleutians During the war.
I've seen some pictures of the conditions our boys in the Aleutians operated in. Here's something to give you an idea of what it was like for them...
That's A P-38 landing on Adak island. I'd imagine the pucker factor was pretty high at that moment.
Posted on 3/26/15 at 10:24 am to Darth_Vader
The only thing tougher than those planes were the men in them. 
Posted on 3/26/15 at 10:28 am to terd ferguson
quote:
The only thing tougher than those planes were the men in them.
Damn straight. Not only was that landing strip under a few inches of standing water, I'm also pretty sure it wasn't even paved.
Posted on 3/26/15 at 10:28 am to Hurricane Mike
quote:
I got to go inside the B-17
Much bigger on the outside than the inside.
Posted on 3/26/15 at 10:31 am to Bagger Joe
quote:
I had an uncle who was the tail gunner on a B-24 in the Pacific. He didn't talk about it much, but when he did, everyone listened.
My Grandpa was a gunner in a Sherman tank in the battle of the bulge. Same with him that he wouldn't talk about it much but the stories he did tell still amaze me.
Posted on 3/26/15 at 10:32 am to FightinTigersDammit
quote:
I got to go inside the B-17
Much bigger on the outside than the inside.
imagine how the ball turret gunner felt....
And he's totally enclosed in that little thing and it's slung under the belly of this big bird flying at over 20,000 feet.
Posted on 3/26/15 at 10:37 am to Darth_Vader
My Great Grandfather was a B-17 pilot in the war.
On what was to be his final mission, his plane was shot down over France and he was one of 3 to bail. He was in hiding with a French family for two weeks before they sold him to the SS for a carton of cigarettes and he spent the rest of the war in a German POW camp.
He was the man.
On what was to be his final mission, his plane was shot down over France and he was one of 3 to bail. He was in hiding with a French family for two weeks before they sold him to the SS for a carton of cigarettes and he spent the rest of the war in a German POW camp.
He was the man.
Posted on 3/26/15 at 10:37 am to Darth_Vader
One of the greatest testaments to that generation was how well they're regarded. WW2 was 70 years ago, but there isn't a rational person alive today who would hold those service men and women in any poor light. Their stories are incredible. Just thinking about being in a foxhole somewhere, in a landing craft driving up to Normandy and hearing the bullets hitting the gate, or being a gunner in a B-17... I'd love to hope they'd say the same about my generation 70 years from now, but I just don't think we'll ever be seen in that light. They made men differently back then.
Posted on 3/26/15 at 10:38 am to flyAU
quote:
My Grandpa was a gunner in a Sherman tank in the battle of the bulge.
Cool, a fellow tanker! My grandpa was a tanker in WWII as well, served in the 4th AD. He's the reason I became one myself. Props to your grandpa and his service.
Do you know what unit he was with?
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