B-17 All American

[tenacious101010]

Greetings all, This seemed to be a good place because many of you have probably heard of the B-17 in WW2, "All American". The image of this aircraft has been described as the single most well known B-17 still picture of WW2. I cant confirm that but recently a story about that aircraft and the incident surrounding the picture has circulated the internet. This post concerns that subject. In 1987 I became involved with a military aviation museum in Clearwater Florida called Yesterdays Air Force. I shortly after became the president of the board of directors and the treasurer was Mr Paul Schmeltzer from Michigan, a WW2 verteran of the AAF. I visited his home several times and we became good friends. One day, he showed me some models he had built, one of them was of a large B-17 "All American" with the damage I had seen in an image in the USAF Wright Patterson Museum. I commented that I had seen a picture of that aircraft at the museum, it was such an amazing image. He produced an 8 X 10 image of the same thing and began telling me a story of the aircraft. I wish I could remember his words and the story better. He told me that the aircraft was being atacked from head on and the german ME-109 rolled as it passed over the B-17, the pilot of the ME-109 has misjudged the roll and was inverted when he struck the B-17. I hate that I cant remeber if he said he was on the aircraft or the one next to it. I do remember him telling me noone on the aircraft was injured and that the pilot put the aircraft on autopilot to minimize the stress on the aircraft. According to him, the pilot landed the aircraft sucessfully. The aircraft was obviously damaged very bad and would be cannibalized for parts for other aircraft. He told me the tail wasnt as bad as it appeared in the picture, the fuselage was not cut all the way through like it appeared on the famous image. He did say that they began stripping guns and useable equipment from the aircraft over the next few days and the rear of the aircraft eventually did fall off. I believe he also told me that years later at a reunion, the crew actually met the german pilot who was flying the plane that impacted theirs. Paul gave me a signed picture of the All American and I was at least snmart enough to have him sign it. Does anyone know of a confirmed account of the aircraft and this event from a first hand source? I would like to know the real story. The internet story wasnt very close to the story Paul had told me. Unfortunately Paul passed away a few years ago after I was transferred to Selfridge and he moved back to Michigan to be with his kids.

[ram957]

You ca order the accident report here

 

http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/dba...&Submit4=Go

[carbinephalen]

 

To save the rest of you the time :thumbsup:

[tenacious101010]

Thanks for posting that image, I have my copy in a frame but couldnt locate it at the time I made the post. Also, thanks for posting the accident report, I would like to know for sure exactly what happened. I will read it as soon as I get a chance. I did scan a picture in a frame I have of the aircraft on the ground. I believe Paul said this was taken a couple days after the aircraft landed.

Denny

[tenacious101010]

Ahh, just reread the post, the reference is a link to Craigs site for accident reports. I have spent a bit too much money on the research projects I am working on to purchase that one but thanks for the link.

Denny

[38Driver]

That bird was actually repaired and flown again as a 'hack' being salvaged in 1945. The collision took place in February 43. It's covered well in Steve Birdsall's book "Pride of Seattle-The Story of the First 300 B17Fs"

 

The story as told by the bombardier in that book is that they thought the 109 pilot was dead when he hit them.

 

 

The photo we always see of All American is cropped a bit. I was shown a bunch of photos by a friend a long time ago. Dad had worked in the photo branch in the MTO and had copies of a lot of photos. I was able to scan this showing the picture as taken.