Warbird Information Exchange

It's been sometime since anyone had questions about the B17 in WW2. I flew 50 sorties from N.Africa and Italy. Ask away and I will try to answer.

_________________
WW2 B17 pilot 99th B.G. N.Africa- Italy 12-15th A.F , 50 combat sorties, from July 1943 to Feb 1944

What's type of damage did your 17 recieve on missions(if any)?
Flak or fighters?
What was the average size of missions (meaning number of aircraft involved)?
I imagine less the the 8th AF was putting up over Germany.
What was the name of your B-17 (F I assume)?

_________________
Don't touch my junk!!

Hello Jules,

I've seen your postings on the flypast forum and am glad to see you posting on WIX as well.

I have a couple questions which I was hoping you could answer. I was curious about the ball turret on the aircraft you flew. Given your dates of serving I'm under the assumption it was an earlier model A-2 ball turret with the internal ammo cans located inside the turret and not the later model ball turret with the external ammo cans mounted on the trunnion support (please see attached pics).

Since the internal ammo cans only hold a limited amount of ammo (I believe off the top of my head it was about 210 rds per gun) I was curious if your ball gunner ever burned through his entire supply of ammo and was ever forced to reload during a mission? If so, who's job would it have been to reload the ball turret? One of the waist gunners?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

John

How high did you typically fly?

Do you have any photographs that you can share with us?

_________________
Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Port Charlotte, Florida

How did the us crews feel about the british bombers bombing only at night ? ive always felt that you guys were braver for flying by day but then again you had the fort and at least some fighter cover

my dads uncle was part of the crew in a halifax and he didnt make it back one night after a bombing mission in italy his plane was shot down by a german night fighter!

Thank you for taking the time to answer questions!

Were all your missions in the same aircraft?

What was the name of your plane?

What was your role?

Who painted the nose art on the planes in your unit? How long did it take?

Were you able to go to any of the villages in Italy? What were they like? Friendly people?

Again, thank you!