re: It’s 1943, you’ve been assigned to the 8th Air Force…

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Break my leg and avoid service like Drumpf

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Can we not do that.

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Break my leg and avoid service like Drumpf

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Tell me about Brain dead Biden's service!

Or, Barry Sotero's service, or Slick Willies service. I'll wait.

Point me out the back.

Anything else, I'm probably shooting our own wings off.

Spray and pray, baby!

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Didn’t the waste gunners have the highest casualty rates and the ball turret the lowest? May be misremembering.

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As crazy as it seems, that’s actually true. But you have to remember, on every B-17 there were two waist gunners, while for all other positions there was only one crewman. Thus, anytime a B-17 went down, two waist gunners became casualties while only one bombardier, one radio man, one navigator, etc became a casualty. This equation played a major role in the number of waist gunners becoming the position on the B-17 with the highest casualty rate.

The causality rate was 75% for B-17 crews, the average mission survival rate was 11 missions, the death rate was over 50%. Only 38 B-17 crews completed their mission requirements to go homes.

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B-24 were nicknamed “flak bait” your granddad was a lucky man

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There was a famous B-26 medium bomber that was named “Flak Bait”

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Flak-Bait is the Martin B-26 Marauder aircraft which holds the record within the United States Army Air Forces for the number of bombing missions survived during World War II. Manufactured in Baltimore, Maryland, as a B-26B-25-MA, by Martin, it was completed in April 1943, accepted by the United States Army Air Forces, and christened Flak-Bait by its first assigned pilot, James J. Farrell, who adapted the nickname of a family dog, "Flea Bait". Flak-Bait was assigned to the 449th Bombardment Squadron, 322d Bombardment Group stationed in eastern England.

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This bomber is currently being restored as a museum piece.



She flew over 200 missions!

Grandfather was a bombardier. Flew 29 missions over Nazi Germany. Miami Clipper.

My grandfather was a Ret Major in the USAF and was a Navigator on B17’s. It was the Army Air Corps back then. He had mad respect for the infantry but he always said the ball turret gunners were either the bravest or craziest people he ever knew.

I got to tour one with him one time. The damn plane was made out of canvas’s basically. I told him I thought they all were pretty fricking brave. He said “we all had a job to do and our main job was getting back home”.

Here’s to all the B-17ers. But to answer the question would be the bombadier.

The issue probably wasn’t location on the plane but timing.

If you were on those flights after the emergence of the P51 with drop tanks that could go almost round trip as an escort your survivability was significantly higher than it would’ve been in early 1943.

The luftwaffe was also in much better shape in ‘43 based on fighter pilot and fuel availability than in ‘44 when they were sending up pilots without experience and with limited range due to petrol supply problems.

But hard no on the ball turret either way.

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“Flak Bait”

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Saw her in the restoration hanger at the Dulles Smithsonian. Hell of a plane to see.