Warbird Information Exchange

B-17G "This Is It" s/n 42-31779 WA+J 524th BS 379th BG returned with a flak hit in the vertical stabilizer.
It was repaired and the a/c was shot down on 8-27-1944.

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Don't touch my junk!!

I was going to say it was a mid-air collision until I noticed the high velocity ding in the LH horizontal stab.

The looks on those guys faces are classic. The holy crap look especially.

Joe Kool on the right has that "Just another day in la la land" look

That don't look like a flak hit to me...flak hits have splinter holes, burn marks, shredded metal.....this looks to me like a collision with something, another plane, a flying elephant, anything BUT a flak hit....and the ding on the horizontal is just another bruise suffered in the encounter....

If that's a flak hit, it's the cleanest, non splintered non torn metal flak hit I've ever seen...

M

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Mark Morris

Not being a ballistic expert like the guys reporting to the Warren Commission (Ahem!!) it looks like a mid-air from the A/C's right to left.
That would explain all the metal being bent towards the A/C's left.
That horiz. stab. damage looks like a secondary hit rather than a high velocity flak round.

Probably came from a single bullet fired from a window near Dealy Plaza.

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Support Your Local Warbirds! KBO!
The only reasons the airplanes matter is what the veterans did with them... and why.

I agree... the damage is too "clean" and the skin is bent and torn as if sheared by impact not by an explosion.

bomb from another ship maybe?

It was the 88 on the grassy knoll
Actually the caption on the original said flak damage

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Don't touch my junk!!

Well then the original caption was WRONG!!! WRONG, do you hear me!!?? Gratuitously incorrect!!

Sorry....too much caffeine....but it does look like some kind of collision or something...

M

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Mark Morris

to me this looks like this B-17 was one of the very few that got rammed by a Luftwaffe fighter (incidently or not) and got away with it to live and fight another day.

Martin

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Flying is easy: just learn how to throw yourself at the ground and miss

a few observations about the left stabilizer:

-is the white strip to keep folks from driving into it on dark foggy UK mornings?

-is that exhaust, oil, or both from the #2 sprayed on it?

-the area which looks like its dented (on the leading edge, above and to the left of the standing gent's head) could possibly be just the aforementioned exhaust spray rubbed off in that area, maybe from the guy who's peering into the wound climbing up on it (using a ladder which was then removed before the pic was taken).

That would have to be some flying to get that damage from another aircraft; it would've had to pass from right to left and (almost) clear the fin with its left wingtip. Either that or a chunk of wreckage from something blowing up flying by....

And because I'm extra bored at work, here's a rough plan showing a possible scenario:



maybe he was trying to shear off the rear fuselage at its narrowest point?

At any rate, great shot!

greg v.

As a 379th bomber group fan, I just pulled out my copy of the squadron history book Shades of Kimbolton and it has a similar shot of 779 with a caption that says "Enemy fighters rolled into this"

I will see if I can dig up any other info out of this book later today...

Michael

Your all wrong....




Mike

Yeek....looks like the 'Cloverfield' monster......

M

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Mark Morris