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If you love the B-17 Flying Fortress


General Apathy
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General Apathy

Hi Forum Members & Readers, whether or not the B-17 is your favourite bird then take a look at the many photo's at the link below of the battle damaged ones that still made it home. :thumbsup:

 

Many of the shots have the aircrafts name attached ;)

 

http://www.daveswarbirds.com/b-17/contents.htm

 

Cheers Lewis

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Great link Ken! What a tough ol' bird the B-17 was! I've been in Sally B but can't begin to imagine how it must've been to be at 30,000 feet with a gaping hole in the fuselage. Thank God it brought so many of them home safely!

 

Ian

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General Apathy

Hi Shooter, 517th and Sabrejet, thanks for taking the time to look at the link and add comments.

 

The mention of what it must have been like being in an aircraft with a gaping hole in it, when flying in normal passenger aircraft I have often tried to imagine the aircraft as a basic shell such as the B-17 without all that plastic and insulation which gives you a sense of security that the walls are much thicker.

 

I remember being told by an American airman that was a crewmember in a C-47 converted to puff the magic dragon gunship flying and shooting up the Ho Chi Minh trail, that he was stood in the open doorway and saw return fire coming up at his aircraft and he moved from the open door to stand behind the thin aluminum of the aircraft to feeling more protected, to which he added a complete waist of time as protection.

 

Cheers Lewis

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I remenber the first time I had a chance to crawl through a B17. I simply stood there and said these guys had some nerve to fly through flak and fighter attack and have nothing but some very small armor plate to stand behind, At least the infantry could dig a hole.

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I remenber the first time I had a chance to crawl through a B17. I simply stood there and said these guys had some nerve to fly through flak and fighter attack and have nothing but some very small armor plate to stand behind, At least the infantry could dig a hole.

 

 

Or to sit on a flak vest in order to afford some perceived protection for the more "delicate" parts!

 

Sabrejet :pinch:

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Great link Ken! What a tough ol' bird the B-17 was! I've been in Sally B but can't begin to imagine how it must've been to be at 30,000 feet with a gaping hole in the fuselage. Thank God it brought so many of them home safely!

 

Ian

 

About 15 years ago I had the chance to hear about that experience from the co-pilot of a plane shot down in 1944. He said the hardest part of the experience was trying to maneuver around the holes in order to safely evacuate the plane, while knowing most of the crew was dead or wouldn't make it out. Next to that the rest of the experience--breaking his jaw in the jump, coming down at night in the German countryside, interrogation, and time in a POW camp--was "easy."

 

Another time I was helping him repair the roof on his barn. When I fired a nailgun through several layers of flashing, he jumped and nearly fell off the ladder. The only thing he'd say was that it sounded like a bullet coming through the floor of a B-17.

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