This articleis part of an ongoing series commemorating the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II made possible by Bank of America. [40] The Y1B-17A had a maximum speed of 311 miles per hour (501km/h), at its best operational altitude, compared to 239 miles per hour (385km/h) for the Y1B-17. The first Schweinfurt-Regensburg Raid occurred during >World War II (1939-1945). "Books of The Times; How Both Sides' Artists Saw World War II" (review). The "D" model, later deemed an obsolescent design, was used in Japanese training and propaganda films. Artists who served on the bomber units also created paintings and drawings depicting the combat conditions in World War II. The small force of B-17s operated against the Japanese invasion force until they were withdrawn to Darwin, in Australia's Northern Territory. Tora! [149] Others, with the cover designations Dornier Do 200 and Do 288, were used as long-range transports by the Kampfgeschwader 200 special duties unit, carrying out agent drops and supplying secret airstrips in the Middle East and North Africa. "Operation Pointblank: Evolution of Allied Air Doctrine During World WarII". Frisbee, John L. "Valor: The Right Touch". Next worst were the P-39 at 245, the P-40 at 188, and the P-38 at 139. While models A through D of the B-17 were designed defensively, the large-tailed B-17E was the first model primarily focused on offensive warfare. ", "890th Bryanskiy Bomber Aviation Regiment", "The Surprising Story of Japan's B-17 Fleet", "Warbird Registry Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress", "US Coast Guard Aviation History: Boeing PB-1G 'Flying Fortress'. No traces of the 3 captured Flying Fortresses were ever found in Japan by Allied occupation forces. Wagner, Ray, "American Combat Planes of the 20th Century", Reno, Nevada, 2004, Jack Bacon & Company, This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 16:26. As each of these wounded airplanes returned, the legend of the B-17 grew. Smith and LeSchack parachuted from the B-17 and searched the station for several days. [140], After the first Y1B-17s were delivered to the Army Air Corps 2nd Bombardment Group, they were used on flights to promote their long range and navigational capabilities. [37] Scheduled to fly in 1937, it encountered problems with the turbochargers, and its first flight was delayed until 29 April 1938. [222], The Flying Fortress has also been featured in artistic works expressing the physical and psychological stress of the combat conditions and the high casualty rates that crews suffered. A 1943 survey by the USAAF found that over half the bombers shot down by the Germans had left the protection of the main formation. It was a relatively fast, high-flying, long-range bomber with heavy defensive armament at the expense of bombload. Blast damage was caused over a radius of 5 miles (8.0km). [64][65][66] The final production blocks of the B-17F from Douglas' plants did, however, adopt the YB-40's "chin turret", giving them a much-improved forward defense capability. [140] Despite an inferior performance and smaller bombload than the more numerous B-24 Liberators,[179] a survey of Eighth Air Force crews showed a much higher rate of satisfaction with the B-17. Bomber wrecks were fewer but more expensive. Over 5,000 B-17 bombers were lost in combat missions in world war II. "The Battle of the Bismarck Sea", pp. Frisbee, John L. "Valor: Gauntlet of Fire". the B-17 was a fourengine heavy bomber aircraft used by the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II. [34][35] The 13th Y1B-17 was delivered to the Material Division at Wright Field, Ohio, to be used for flight testing. Lacking a true heavy bomber at the start of World War II, the RAF purchased 20 B-17Cs. Though many were shot down, many more severely damaged aircraft were able to return their crews safely to base. The competition for the air corps contract was to be decided by a "fly-off" between Boeing's design, the Douglas DB-1, and the Martin Model 146 at Wilbur Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. the Germans broke off to refuel having shot down 15 B-17s. One of the worst days of the war for the B-17 and its crewmen was the second raid on German ball bearing production in Schweinfurt, Germany on October 14, 1943. A New Orleans native, James Linn first became involved with the institution then known as The National D-Day Museum in 2001 as an eighth-grade volunteer on weekends and during the summer. [12] Only 33 bombers landed without damage. The first Eighth Air Force units arrived in High Wycombe, England, on 12 May 1942, to form the 97th Bomb Group. 945 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70130 By the end of the war, the B-17 was an obsolete aircraft which had been surpassed by another Boeing bomber, the B-29 Superfortress. London: Arakaki and Kuborn 1991, pp. Of the 291 attacking Fortresses, 60 were shot down over Germany, five crashed on approach to Britain, . An overwhelming majority of them were women and children. Over 5,000 B-17 bombers were lost in combat missions in world war II. Two experimental versions of the B-17 were flown under different designations, the XB-38 Flying Fortress and the YB-40 Flying Fortress. He finished the war with 9 enemy planes destroyed. The problem was there was no easy way to hit Germany, as a cross-channel invasion of Europe was still years away. These aircraft were painted dark blue, the standard Navy paint scheme which had been adopted in late 1944. Browne, Robert W. "The Rugged Fortress: Life-Saving B-17 Remembered.". The aircraft was turned over to the Swiss Air Force, who then flew the bomber until the end of the war, using other interned but non-airworthy B-17s for spare parts. [138][139][140] Wally Hoffman, a B-17 pilot with the Eighth Air Force during World WarII, said, "The plane can be cut and slashed almost to pieces by enemy fire and bring its crew home. Regardless, the USAAC had been impressed by the prototype's performance, and on 17 January 1936, through a legal loophole,[27][28] the Air Corps ordered 13 YB-17s (designated Y1B-17 after November 1936 to denote its special F-1 funding) for service testing. Gr. [79][80] On 24 July three B-17s of 90 Squadron took part in a raid on the German capital ship Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen anchored in Brest from 30,000ft (9,100 m), with the objective of drawing German fighters away from 18 Handley Page Hampdens attacking at lower altitudes, and in time for 79 Vickers Wellingtons to attack later with the German fighters refuelling. [14] The most distinct mount was in the nose, which allowed the single machine gun to be fired toward nearly all frontal angles. As the Americans flew further into Europe and Germany, the missions became deadlier. However, the use of this rigid formation meant that individual aircraft could not engage in evasive maneuvers: they had to fly constantly in a straight line, which made them vulnerable to German flak. The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engine heavy bomber used by the United States Army Air Forces and other Allied air forces during World War II. As the war intensified, Boeing used feedback from aircrews to improve each new variant with increased armament and armor. [129] Surviving aircraft were reassigned to the 54th Troop Carrier Wing's special airdrop section and were used to drop supplies to ground forces operating in close contact with the enemy. ", "Question How many bomber flight crews completed their 25 missions to go home?". [1][13] The day before, Richard Williams, a reporter for The Seattle Times, coined the name "Flying Fortress" when observing the large number of machine guns sticking out from the new airplane he described it as a "15-ton flying fortress" in a picture caption. Losses were relatively low - below the 5% threshold that was the. Gift of Peggy Wallace, 2010.308.082. Gift of Peggy Wallace, 2010.308.048, The B-17 was legendary for its toughness as this photo shows a bomber that survived its nose being crushed and returned to its base in England, 1944-45. (U.S. Air Force photo) The Boeing B-17 was one of the primary heavy bombers built by the United States during World War II. But because the bombers could not maneuver when attacked by fighters and needed to be flown straight and level during their final bomb run, individual aircraft struggled to fend off a direct attack. The prototype B-17 Bomber was built at the company's own expense and was a fusion of the features of Boeing XB-15 and Boeing 247 Transport Aircraft. [91], The USAAF began building up its air forces in Europe using B-17Es soon after entering the war. [165] The last operational mission flown by a USAF Fortress was conducted on 6 August 1959, when a DB-17P, serial 44-83684 , directed a QB-17G, out of Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, as a target for an AIM-4 Falcon air-to-air missile fired from a McDonnell F-101 Voodoo. Best Answer. 12962; History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Dictionary of American Naval Aviation Squadrons: Volume 2: The History of VP, VPB, VP(HL) and VP(AM) Squadrons, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Boeing_B-17_Flying_Fortress&oldid=1141348576. [116] A series of disputed discussions and decisions, followed by several confusing and false reports of air attacks, delayed the authorization of the sortie. These aircraft had landed with mechanical trouble during the shuttle bombing raids over Germany or had been damaged by a Luftwaffe raid in Poltava. [57] The B-17E was an extensive revision of the Model 299 design: The fuselage was extended by 10ft (3.0m); a much larger rear fuselage, vertical tailfin, rudder, and horizontal stabilizer were added; a gunner's position was added in the new tail;[note 4] the nose (especially the bombardier's framed, 10-panel nose glazing) remained relatively the same as the earlier B through D versions had; a Sperry electrically powered manned dorsal gun turret just behind the cockpit was added; a similarly powered (also built by Sperry) manned ventral ball turret just aft of the bomb bay replaced the relatively hard-to-use, Sperry model 645705-D[60] remotely operated ventral turret on the earliest examples of the E variant. Special airdrop B-17s supported Australian commandos operating near the Japanese stronghold at Rabaul, which had been the primary B-17 target in 1942 and early 1943. [176] In a well-publicized mission on 12 May of the same year, three Y1B-17s "intercepted" and took photographs of the Italian ocean liner SS Rex 610 miles (980km) off the Atlantic coast. [99], Since the airfield bombings were not appreciably reducing German fighter strength, additional B-17 groups were formed, and Eaker ordered major missions deeper into Germany against important industrial targets. [100], A second attempt on Schweinfurt on 14 October 1943 later came to be known as "Black Thursday". The B-17s were primarily involved in the daylight precision strategic bombing campaign against German targets ranging from U-boat pens, docks, warehouses, and airfields to industrial targets such as aircraft factories. The iconic bomber of the European theater, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, carried the fight to the Germans in the skies over Europe. Air Corps doctrine dictated bombing runs from high altitude, but they soon found only 1% of their bombs hit targets. [10] The B-17's armament consisted of five .30 caliber (7.62mm) machine guns, with a payload up to 4,800lb (2,200kg) of bombs on two racks in the bomb bay behind the cockpit. A sobering statistic: Out of 1,419 Loaches built, 842 were destroyed in Vietnam, most shot down and many others succumbing to crashes resulting from low-level flying. The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Of the 291 B-17s in the attack force, 60 were lost, 17 were heavily damaged and most of the others incurred some damage, but were repairable. Create. The operation did not work as expected, with 90 Squadron's Fortresses being unopposed. [16] On 20 August 1935, the prototype flew from Seattle to Wright Field in nine hours and three minutes with an average cruising speed of 252 miles per hour (406km/h), much faster than the competition. [178] During the war, the largest offensive bombing force, the Eighth Air Force, had an open preference for the B-17. For other uses, see, "Flying Fortress" redirects here. [157], Following the end of World War II, the B-17 was quickly phased out of use as a bomber and the Army Air Forces retired most of its fleet. [11] It combined features of the company's experimental XB-15 bomber and 247 transport. The AAF's worst accident rate was recorded by the A-36 Invader version of the P-51: a staggering 274 accidents per 100,000 flying hours. Did any American B-17 crewman ever shoot down a German fighter plane while flying over Germany during World War II? Between 1 March and 4 August 1937, 12 of the 13 Y1B-17s were delivered to the 2nd Bombardment Group at Langley Field in Virginia for operational development and flight tests. [72], The first four drones were sent to Mimoyecques, the Siracourt V-1 bunker, Watten, and Wizernes on 4 August, causing little damage. [102] Of the 291 attacking Fortresses, 60 were shot down over Germany, five crashed on approach to Britain, and 12 more were scrapped due to damage a loss of 77 B-17s. It carried Swiss national white cross insignia in red squares on both sides of its rudder, fuselage sides, and on the topside and underside wings. Although the conversion was not complete until mid-1943, B-17 combat operations in the Pacific theater came to an end after a little over a year. One B-17 broke up in the air, and its crew was forced to take to their parachutes. The B-17 evolved through numerous design advances[4][5] but from its inception, the USAAC (later, the USAAF) promoted the aircraft as a strategic weapon. They also desired, but did not require, a range of 2,000mi (3,200km) and a speed of 250mph (400km/h). [ Via] B17f-42-30336 landed in a field at Norholm Estate near Varde Denmark on 9.10.1943 after developing engine trouble, the crew baled out and the pilot landed the plane . When bombers crashed in Switzerland. A large radome for an S-band AN/APS-20 search radar was fitted underneath the fuselage and additional internal fuel tanks were added for longer range, with the provision for additional underwing fuel tanks. M/SGT Michael Arooth shot down 17 enemy aircraft to reach triple "Ace" status. [50] The B-17C changed from three bulged, oval-shaped gun blisters to two flush, oval-shaped gun window openings, and on the lower fuselage, a single "bathtub" gun gondola housing,[51] which resembled the similarly configured and located Bodenlafette/"Bola" ventral defensive emplacement on the German Heinkel He 111P-series medium bomber.
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