7375, 15859. It should have been a peaceful Sunday morning in Hawaii. [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. [28][31][note 2] In one of their first missions, three B-17s, directed by lead navigator Lieutenant Curtis LeMay, were sent by General Andrews to "intercept" and photograph the Italian ocean liner Rex 610 miles (980km) off the Atlantic coast. (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. 60 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. Designed by Dr. Sanford Moss, engine exhaust gases turned the turbine's steel-alloy blades, forcing high-pressure ram air into the Wright Cyclone GR-1820-39 engine supercharger. [39] Once service testing was complete, the Y1B-17s and Y1B-17A were redesignated B-17 and B-17A, respectively, to signify the change to operational status. The B-17F also carried light gray flash letters "RD" and "I" on either side of the fuselage's Swiss national insignia. The Ball turret itself has inspired works like Steven Spielberg's The Mission. The iconic bomber of the European theater, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, carried the fight to the Germans in the skies over Europe. ", "Second-Generation Norden Bombsight Vault", "Aviation Photography: B-17 Flying Fortress. [18] His opinions were shared by the air corps procurement officers, and even before the competition had finished, they suggested buying 65 B-17s. In 1957 the surviving B-17s had been stripped of all weapons and painted black. See answer . Copilot was Lieutenant Donald Putt, while Boeing chief test pilot Leslie R. Tower was behind the pilots in an advisory role. In the infamous "Black Thursday" raid of 14 October 1943, B-17 gunners claimed 288 German fighter aircraft kills whereas in actuality about 40 were shot down. Four are airworthy. [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. The two "E"s were used to develop B-17 air combat counter-tactics and also used as enemy aircraft in pilot and crew training films. This B-17F-27-BO (41-24585; PU-B) was crash-landed near Melun, France by a crew from the 303d Bombardment Group on December 12, 1942 and repaired by Luftwaffe ground staff. These turbo-superchargers were incorporated into the B-17B. [85] These were augmented starting in July 1942 by 45 Fortress Mk IIA (B-17E) followed by 19 Fortress Mk II (B-17F) and three Fortress Mk III (B-17G). Frisbee, John L. "Valor: Colin Kelly (He was a Hero in Legend and in Fact). The bombardier essentially took over flight control of the aircraft during the bomb run, maintaining a level altitude during the final moments before release. As the Americans flew further into Europe and Germany, the missions became deadlier. [130], B-17s were still used in the Pacific later in the war, however, mainly in the combat search and rescue role. Launching Boeing B-17 "Flying Fortresses" and Consolidated B-24 "Liberators" from bases in England's eastern countryside, the Americans bombed their targets . ", "Giant Bomber Flies Four Miles Per Minute. The B-17 Flying Fortress became symbolic of the United States of America's air power. "[22][23], The crashed Model 299 could not finish the evaluation, disqualifying it from the competition. The aircraft went through several alterations in each of its design stages and variants. As of November 2022, four aircraft remain airworthy, none flown in combat. [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. The B-17 was a sturdily built aircraft. It is the third-most produced bomber of all time, behind the four-engined Consolidated B-24 Liberator and the multirole, twin-engined Junkers Ju 88. [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. The "D" model, later deemed an obsolescent design, was used in Japanese training and propaganda films. How many b17 bombers were lost in ww2? Tora! [122][124] Actual Japanese fighter losses for the day were seven destroyed and three damaged. They could also pose as ground controllers themselves with the intention of steering nightfighters away from the bomber streams. Leonard "Smitty" Smith Humiston, co-pilot on First Lieutenant Robert H. Richards' B-17C, AAF S/N 40-2049, reported that he thought the U.S. Navy was giving the flight a 21-gun salute to celebrate the arrival of the bombers, after which he realized that Pearl Harbor was under attack. [7] Attacks began in April 1943 on heavily fortified key industrial plants in Bremen and Recklinghausen. On 8 August 1934, the USAAC tendered a proposal for a multiengine bomber to replace the Martin B-10. There were 12,731 B-17s built between 1936 and 1945. [71], Late in World WarII, at least 25 B-17s were fitted with radio controls and television cameras, loaded with 20,000lb (9,100kg) of high explosives and dubbed BQ-7 "Aphrodite missiles" for Operation Aphrodite. ", "Langley B-17s paved way for independent Air Force", "World War II General Electric Turbosupercharges", "Flying Fortress (B-17G): A Survey of the Hard-hitting American Heavy Weight. It had a crew of ten and could carry 6,000 pounds of bombs at 300 miles per hour for a range of 2,000 miles. [225][226], "B-17" redirects here. The 8th Air Force then targeted the ball-bearing factories in Schweinfurt, hoping to cripple the war effort there. However, the USAAF continued using the B-17 as a day bomber, despite misgivings by the RAF that attempts at daylight bombing would be ineffective. [12], The first flight of the Model 299 was on 28 July 1935 with Boeing chief test-pilot Leslie Tower at the controls. [125][126] The remaining seven transports and three of the eight destroyers were then sunk by a combination of low level strafing runs by Royal Australian Air Force Beaufighters, and skip bombing by USAAF North American B-25 Mitchells at 100ft (30m), while B-17s claimed five hits from higher altitudes. "The Battle of the Bismarck Sea", pp. Life and Death Aboard a B-17, 1944. They also believed they had an aircraft which could fight its way in and out of the target area, unescorted, and return home safely. [103] Pilots of average ability hit the bombers with only about two percent of the rounds they fired, so to obtain 20 hits, the average pilot had to fire one thousand 20mm (0.79in) rounds at a bomber. Forty-five planes survive in complete form [1] [a], including 38 in the United States. The first Schweinfurt-Regensburg Raid occurred during >World War II (1939-1945). [166] Perhaps the most famous B-17, the Memphis Belle, has been restored with the B-17D The Swoose under way to her World War II wartime appearance by the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. As the production line developed, Boeing engineers continued to improve upon the basic design. ", "Army Bomber Flies 2,300 Miles In 9 Hours, or 252 Miles an Hour; New All-Metal Monoplane Sets a World Record on Non-Stop Flight From Seattle to Dayton, Ohio. John Keema of the 390th Bomb Group said, "No matter the target they were defending, they were balls to the wall. Smith and LeSchack parachuted from the B-17 and searched the station for several days. Date: American aircraft struck targets in Schweinfurt and Regensburg on August 17, 1943. . And by 27 April 1945, 2 days after the last heavy bombing mission in Europe, the rate of aircraft loss was so low that replacement aircraft were no longer arriving and the number of bombers per bomb group was reduced. The aircraft was powered by four Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet radial engines, each producing 750hp (600kW) at 7,000ft (2,100m). The operation, which involved remotely flying Aphrodite drones onto their targets by accompanying CQ-17 "mothership" control aircraft, was approved on 26 June 1944, and assigned to the 388th Bombardment Group stationed at RAF Fersfield, a satellite of RAF Knettishall. In January 1938, group commander Colonel Robert Olds flew a Y1B-17 from the U.S. east coast to the west coast, setting a transcontinental record of 13 hours 27 minutes. [160][163] Coast Guard PB-1Gs were stationed at a number of bases in the U.S. and Newfoundland, with five at Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, two at CGAS San Francisco, two at NAS Argentia, Newfoundland, one at CGAS Kodiak, Alaska, and one in Washington state. How many B-17 were shot down over Germany? "Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress: Queen of the Skies". On 3 March 1943, 13 B-17s flying at 7,000ft (2,000m) bombed the convoy, forcing the convoy to disperse and reducing the concentration of their anti-aircraft defenses. Water spouts just offshore . A merica joined Britain's strategic air campaign designed to destroy Nazi Germany's industrial capacity soon after her entrance into World War Two. It was not until the advent of long-range fighter escorts (particularly the North American P-51 Mustang) and the resulting degradation of the Luftwaffe as an effective interceptor force between February and June 1944, that the B-17 became strategically potent. [110] The escort fighters reduced the loss rate to below 7%, with a total of 247 B-17s lost in 3,500 sorties while taking part in the Big Week raids. [92], The U.S. did not offer B-17s to the Soviet Union as part of its war materiel assistance program, but at least 73 aircraft were acquired by the Soviet Air Force. An overwhelming majority of them were women and children. M/SGT Michael Arooth shot down 17 enemy aircraft to reach triple "Ace" status. [160][168] PB-1Ws continued in USN service until 1955, gradually being phased out in favor of the Lockheed WV-2 (known in the USAF as the EC-121, a designation adopted by the USN in 1962), a military version of the Lockheed 1049 Constellation commercial airliner. Of the 13 YB-17s ordered for service testing, 12 were used by the 2nd Bomb Group of Langley Field, Virginia, to develop heavy bombing techniques, and the 13th was used for flight testing at the Material Division at Wright Field, Ohio. [103], To rectify the Fw 190's shortcomings, the number of cannons fitted was doubled to four, with a corresponding increase in the amount of ammunition carried, creating the Sturmbock bomber destroyer version. 2012-04-07 03:53:31. [177][note 5], Many pilots who flew both the B-17 and the B-24 preferred the B-17 for its greater stability and ease in formation flying. [38] The aircraft was delivered to the army on 31 January 1939. Did any American B-17 crewman ever shoot down a German fighter plane while flying over Germany during World War II? Lieutenant General Jimmy Doolittle wrote about his preference for equipping the Eighth with B-17s, citing the logistical advantage in keeping field forces down to a minimum number of aircraft types with their individual servicing and spares. "[141] Martin Caidin reported one instance in which a B-17 suffered a midair collision with a Focke-Wulf Fw 190, losing an engine and suffering serious damage to both the starboard horizontal stabilizer and the vertical stabilizer, and being knocked out of formation by the impact. ", "Durable B-17s hard for pilots to forget: Love for plane outweighs bitter memories of war", "World War II War Production Why Were the B-17 and B-24 Produced in Parallel? Tora! The bomber was intended from the outset to attack strategic targets by precision daylight bombing, penetrating deep into enemy . [116] A series of disputed discussions and decisions, followed by several confusing and false reports of air attacks, delayed the authorization of the sortie. [97], The two different strategies of the American and British bomber commands were organized at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. Many had dozens of aerial victories; some had over 100. 7071, 83, 92, 256, 26869. [143] This durability, together with the large operational numbers in the Eighth Air Force and the fame achieved by the Memphis Belle, made the B-17 a key bomber aircraft of the war. Browne, Robert W. "The Rugged Fortress: Life-Saving B-17 Remembered.". [160][170], B-17s were used by the CIA front companies Civil Air Transport, Air America and Intermountain Aviation for special missions. Hess, William N. and Jim Winchester. Gift of Peggy Wallace, 2010.308.022, B-17 Flying Fortresses in formation over Europe, 1944-45. The first combat use of the B-17 came not with the USAAC (U.S. Army Air Forces after 1941), but with the Royal Air Force. The small force of B-17s operated against the Japanese invasion force until they were withdrawn to Darwin, in Australia's Northern Territory. B-17s flown by the Eighth saw some of the fiercest combat of the war. Answer (1 of 12): Yes but the kill ratio generally favored attacking fighters. [142] Its toughness was compensation for its shorter range and lighter bomb load compared to the B-24 and British Avro Lancaster heavy bombers. The loss was not total but Boeing's hopes for a substantial bomber contract were dashed. [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. ", Frisbee, John L. "Valor: A Point of Honor. 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. 0. Operational History. Photo-recon analysts never made the connection to it being a captured B-17 until after the war. [156] The three bombers, which still contained their top secret Norden bombsights, were ferried to Japan where they underwent extensive technical evaluation by the Giken, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force's Air Technical Research Institute (Koku Gijutsu Kenkyujo) at Tachikawa's air field. B-17 Flying Fortresses The B-17 Flying Fortress became a symbol of the power of the United States and its air force. info@nationalww2museum.org The idea of a pilot's checklist spread to other crew members, other air corps aircraft types, and eventually throughout the aviation world. These modifications resulted in a 20% increase in aircraft weight. They were brave. While the US Fifteenth Air Force also had B-17s, the most famous group to fly them during the war was the US Eighth Air Force based out of England. How many B-17 Crews died? London: Arakaki and Kuborn 1991, pp. There are very few films left in existence showing the Me 262 in action, especially shooting down allied bombers with P-51 escorts. 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. Other factors such as combat effectiveness and political issues also contributed to the B-17's success. Kelly's B-17C AAF S/N 40-2045 (19th BG / 30th BS) crashed about 6mi (10km) from Clark Field after he held the burning Fortress steady long enough for the surviving crew to bail out. For many, the B-17 is the iconic bomber of the war, and the Flying Fortress"remains a symbol of American might. Four B-17s were shot down in these operations.[171]. At the same time, the German nightfighting ability noticeably improved to counter the nighttime strikes, challenging the conventional faith in the cover of darkness. [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. Later on footage shows German paratroopers and American P-51 mustangs. [6] But it was primarily employed by the USAAF in the daylight strategic bombing campaign over Europe, complementing RAF Bomber Command's night-time area bombing of German industrial, military and civilian targets. Post accident interviews with Tower and Putt determined the control surface gust lock had not been released. This led to more widespread conversion of B-17s as drones and drone control aircraft, both for further use in atomic testing and as targets for testing surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles. Although the prototype was company-owned and never received a military serial (the B-17 designation itself did not appear officially until January 1936, nearly three months after the prototype crashed),[29] the term "XB-17" was retroactively applied to the NX13372's airframe and has entered the lexicon to describe the first Flying Fortress. This articleis part of an ongoing series commemorating the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II made possible by Bank of America. This aircraft, now restored to its original B-17G configuration, was on display in the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon until it was sold to the Collings Foundation in 2015. [74] In July 1942, the first USAAF B-17s were sent to England to join the Eighth Air Force. [160] At first, these aircraft operated under their original USAAF designations, but on 31 July 1945 they were assigned the naval aircraft designation PB-1, a designation which had originally been used in 1925 for the Boeing Model 50 experimental flying boat. 2012-03-07 01:27:07. A retirement ceremony was held several days later at Holloman AFB, after which 44-83684 was retired. [33] The mission was successful and widely publicized. Frisbee, John L. "Valor: Battle Over Bougainville". In October 1943 the Swiss interned Boeing B-17F-25-VE, tail number 25841, and its U.S. flight crew after the Flying Fortress developed engine trouble after a raid over Germany and was forced to land. [36] Experiments on this aircraft led to the use of a quartet of General Electric turbo-superchargers, which later became standard on the B-17 line. [62][63], The YB-40 was a heavily armed modification of the standard B-17 used before the North American P-51 Mustang, an effective long-range fighter, became available to act as escort. They also desired, but did not require, a range of 2,000mi (3,200km) and a speed of 250mph (400km/h). No traces of the 3 captured Flying Fortresses were ever found in Japan by Allied occupation forces. Gr. Britain in WW2 . The SB-17 served through the Korean War, remaining in service with USAF until the mid-1950s. Categories Video World War II Related Topics World War II [128], At their peak, 168 B-17 bombers were in the Pacific theater in September 1942, but already in mid-1942 Gen. Arnold had decided that the B-17 was unsuitable for the kind of operations required in the Pacific and made plans to replace all of the B-17s in the theater with B-24s (and later, B-29s) as soon as they became available. The bombers were assumed either lost by various means or scrapped late in the war for their vital war materials. The Me 262, however, had moderate success against the B-17 late in the war. 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. Japanese fighter pilots machine-gunned some of the B-17 crew members as they descended and attacked others in the water after they landed. Its famous nickname came from the fact it carried 13 .50 caliber M2 Browning machine guns for protection, and had a legendary toughness for carrying its crew home on one engine or even with the tail shot away. The B-17, for all its armor and firepower, was simply unable to continue to fly unescorted against swarms of German fighter aircraft and their sophisticated air defense system. For the film, see, "B-17 Flying Fortress" redirects here. [citation needed], Two additional groups arrived in Britain at the same time, bringing with them the first B-17Fs, which served as the primary AAF heavy bomber fighting the Germans until September 1943. 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. The problem was there was no easy way to hit Germany, as a cross-channel invasion of Europe was still years away. [37] Scheduled to fly in 1937, it encountered problems with the turbochargers, and its first flight was delayed until 29 April 1938. Crashed Model 299. Three squadrons undertook Met profiles from airfields in Iceland, Scotland and England, gathering data for vital weather forecasting purposes. The U.S. produced an amazing 276,000 aircraft during World War II, with 16 new B-17s per day rolling out of the factories per day by April 1944. Frisbee, John L. "Valor: Crisis in the Cockpit". Forty-five planes survive in complete form, 38 in the United States. [citation needed] It was subsequently used in various films and in the 1960s television show 12 O'Clock High before being retired to the Planes of Fame aviation museum in Chino, California. More than 250 aircraft crashed or made emergency landings in Switzerland during the Second World War. [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. 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. ", "WWII gunner 'Babe' Broyhill dies: Set record for downing Nazi jets", "100th Bomb Group Foundation Personnel LT COL Robert ROSENTHAL", "The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944). The British had been bombing from the air, but heavy losses forced them to switch to nighttime area bombing, greatly reducing its effectiveness. [163] They were used primarily in the "Dumbo" air-sea rescue role, but were also used for iceberg patrol duties and for photo mapping. [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. (06/2. Artists who served on the bomber units also created paintings and drawings depicting the combat conditions in World War II. This made a formation of bombers a dangerous target to engage by enemy fighters. Bigger WWII bombers like e.g. [28], A total of 155 B-17s of all variants were delivered between 11 January 1937 and 30 November 1941, but production quickly accelerated, with the B-17 once holding the record for the highest production rate for any large aircraft. American bomber numbers continued to build in Europe and attacks (and losses) began to build up. It is part of the USAAC World War II Memorial Flight and makes dozens of appearances across the United Kingdom and Northern Europe. Only 33 bombers landed without damage. Gr. Serial number 44-85784 is the last airworthy B-17 in the United Kingdom and is based at the Imperial War Museum Duxford. 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. [92] On 17 August 1942, 12 B-17Es of the 97th, with the lead aircraft piloted by Major Paul Tibbets and carrying Brigadier General Ira Eaker as an observer, were close escorted by four squadrons of RAF Spitfire IXs (and a further five squadrons of Spitfire Vs to cover the withdrawal) on the first USAAF heavy bomber raid over Europe, against the large railroad marshalling yards at Rouen-Sotteville in France, while a further six aircraft flew a diversionary raid along the French coast. The Germans shot down 36 aircraft with the loss of 200 men, and coupled with a raid earlier in the day against Regensburg, a total of 60 B-17s were lost that day. 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. ", Frisbee, John L. "Valor: One Turning and One Burning. It was also employed as a transport, antisubmarine aircraft, drone controller, and search-and-rescue aircraft. The first two ex-USAAF B-17s, a B-17F (later modified to B-17G standard) and a B-17G were obtained by the Navy for various development programs. German ground-based antiaircraft artillery and 300 fighters shot down 60 of the aircraft, with 600 crewmen killed or taken prisoner, the largest Army Air Force loss of the war to date. [17], At the fly-off, the four-engined Boeing's performance was superior to those of the twin-engined DB-1 and Model 146. All of these modifications made the YB-40 well over 10,000lb (4,500kg) heavier than a fully loaded B-17F. No products in the cart. The B-17 saw early action in the Pacific War, where it conducted raids against Japanese shipping and airfields. Half of the group's B-17s were wiped out on 8 December 1941 when they were caught on the ground during refueling and rearming for a planned attack on Japanese airfields on Formosa. Its main use was in Europe, where its shorter range and smaller bombload relative to other aircraft did not hamper it as much as in the Pacific Theater. One of these Taiwan-based B-17s was flown to Clark Air Base in the Philippines in mid-September, assigned for covert missions into Tibet. Gift of Peggy Wallace, 2010.308.040. [135] In order to more quickly form these formations, assembly ships, planes with distinctive paint schemes, were utilized to guide bombers into formation, saving assembly time.