B-17 Crew Casualties

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[Zenturion]

Source of info: Survey of Battle Casualties, Eighth Air Force, June, July, and August 1944

[walovinci]

But in Warthunder, their cognitive response time is non-existent, deserving your fate to 98% failure.

[SU-_PAK-FA]

"You get a Browning, you get a Browning, everyone gets a Browning."

[pouletbidule]

most commenters are probably ignoring the fact that the highest danger to bomber formations was flak, not interceptors.

[Lucasakxjudn]

I always thought the ball gunner would be the highest as it is on the bottom where the planes are most vulnerable to intercepters

Thank you all who have corrected me but this comment was just a thought

[johnleriger]

This is from statistics of planes that made it back home. If you lost your pilots you usually weren’t coming home. Those casualties show the highest likelihood of being wounded or killed without the plane being completely shot down

[charlesanderson]

My Father was a Radio Operator on a B-24 Liberator. He 2as shot down òver Romania. He was Lucky and became a POW! I Miss My Hero Father!

[kartoffelschaeler]

high resolution face crewman cant hurt you its not real
high resolution face crewman:

[daniellxnder]

"Ball turret, what's your status?"
"Bloody uncomfortable!"

[Low_end_person]

Ah yes they say ball turret gunner is most dangerous job

[Waltuh_White]

it would take the whole b-17 just to carry the ball gunner's balls of steel

[daniellaborda]

I feel like the ball gunner roll was the most dangerous considering all of the stories I've heard of ball gunners being crushed by the plane during landing.

Edit: Guys stop arguing. I get it, ball gunners only get crushed when the landing gear fails or they're unable to pull the gunner out.

[EOmega]

The atom bomb probably saved my grandpa. He was a mechanic on B17s. But they were planning on making him a waist gunner and shipping him off to the Pacific. The bombs dropped and he went home instead.

[ZeroScotland]

I mean Waist Gunners having highest casualty makes sense. *the size of their windows*

Edit: ok the way i said it has confused people. Im not saying its just through the hole and that the fuselage can protect, im just saying that its probably the most obvious part of it.
Idk how else im supposed to prove to yall that. I dont mind all the comments that objected first tho!

*seriously tho, can ther be no more. If ur still confused abt my explanation, speak up and ill try to respond accordingly*

[creaturedanaaaaa]

Most surprising is how big the gap is between pilots and copilots

[stevetaylor]

Though tragic those casualty rates are lower than I expected. Dad was an Australian fighter pilot, 34% of his graduating class didn't make it through the war. In two classes prior to dad's 47% didn't survive the war.

[TannerSwizel]

Some context needed here. This only includes the data of B-17s that survived the trip back home, and is noted as a caveat in Dr. Palmer's full 500 page analysis in which this video's data is pulled from. It does not take into account the crew members that were shot down and happened to either survive and be captured or escaped, or died. It also does not give a complete picture for waist gunners and ball turret gunners throughout different periods of the war. The percentage of the waist gunner should also be effectively cut in half as there were 2 of them per plane up until towards the end of the war, making them roughly on par with the pilots and bombardiers. In the event of a bail the tail gunner and ball gunners were most vulnerable, giving them higher casualty rates in non surviving aircraft than those that made it back. The tail gunner was farthest from the exits and the ball gunner both didn't have his parachute equipped in the ball during the worst time of the sortie, and had the most difficult station to get out of.

[eazypeazy]

The thing is there are 2 waist gunners, so it makes sense that position would have the highest percentage.
The figure given here doesn't break it down to left/right waist gunner.

[j_tha_panther]

Meanwhile in war thunder:99.9% fatality rate because the guns do jack and shit

[klarkin]

I always thought that the B-17's biggest losses were the tail gunners, because if you kill the tail gunner, the plane becomes defenseless in the rear hemisphere