B-17s vs. Flak Part Deux

[Jack Cook]

B-17G "The Reluncant Dragon"



B-17G 493rd BG Nov 1944

B-17G 324th BS 91st BG


B-17G 379th BG Oct 1944

B-17 "Little Miss Mischef" 91st BG

B-17G 401st BG July 1944

[Hawkeye]

Chirst, I can't see the ball turret and tail gunners in those last few photos survivng those hits

[Holedigger]

"feather One, ah, no scratch that, there is no number one to feather!" It has got to be a scary thing to look out and see large chunks blown away and know it is hour and hundreds of miles home!
Read an account of a Luftwaffe bomber over Britain being battered a bit, the flight engineer bailing out and the pilot pulling the plane together and going home. How many B-17 crewmen bailed after taking HUGE DAMAGE and yet the plane made it home without them?

[SaxMan]

Chirst, I can't see the ball turret and tail gunners in those last few photos survivng those hits

IIRC, the ball turret gunner in Little Miss Mischief was injured, but he did survive.

[shilo53]

I just read about a crew that bailed out after some flak hits but someone forgot to tell the tail gunner who just rode along in the plane at his station for about 150 miles.

He thought it was too quiet and went to check on his crew only to find them gone.

When he finally bailed out he was over allied lines while the rest of the crew ended up as pow's. The last he saw of the B-17 it was still flying along on auto pilot.

[Holedigger]

Wasn't there some "ghost story" circulating about a fort crew who, after jettisoning everything they could, still losing altitude, bailed over the channel. The fort, 1200 lbs lighter, lifted her nose, cleared the shore and landed. People rushed to help the crew out of the smoldering A/C and found no-one there!?!
I have read this in a couple places, but never found a serial # or unit. Makes me doubt it's validity, but....

[Nathan]

wow!