5 Things You Never Knew About the B-17 Flying Fortress

Here are 5 things you never knew about the B-17 Flying Fortress. This was made using the World War II flight simulator War Thunder. Hope you enjoy! Please like, comment, and subscribe. #WW2 #WWIIHistory #WarThunder

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[richardbaranzini]

My mother worked on B-17s at the Seattle Boeing plant. She said the ladies autographed the inside of the wings, so every time in my Air Force career, when I saw one on static display, I wondered if the plane on display was one of “her’s”. And she had a picture of the B-17 on the wall in her house for the rest of her life.

[dwb]

My 9th grade Geography teacher was a tail gunner in a B17 in 1944. All we had to do to get out of taking a lecture, quiz, or test, was ask a question about the B17 and then sit back and take a nap while he went off for the rest of the class. Being immature young teens, we never realized how hard it was for him to talk about it and he often got emotional. Being a Veteran myself now, I regret how we treated him.🤔😕🇺🇸

[jimciurczak]

My dad was a tail gunner and his plane was shot down on Black Thursday when they bombed the Schweinfurt ball bearings factory. He was taken prisoner and served two years in the infamous Stalag 17 prison of war camp. He didn't talk about it often but when he did the stories were fascinating as well as scary. I still have a book he gave me that he smuggled into the camp and managed to hold on to the entire time until he was liberated. It has drawings, quotes, and other notes and musings from many prisoners in the camp. I treasure this book dearly and will pass it on to my son.

[dhy]

The prototype B-17 didn't crash because of mechanical issues, it crashed because the crew failed to remove the control surface locks before takeoff, rendering the plane uncontrollable.
Operation Aphrodite also included the use of B-24s. One of these 24s was piloted by John Kennedy's brother Joe who was killed when his plane exploded in the air before he could bail out.

[oldrogue]

My father was the left waist gunner in a B17 G in the 99th Bob Group stationed in Foggia, Italy. On his last mission – bombing munitions factories in Germany – the 17 was shot up quite badly, and they lost an engine. During the return flight, they lost two more engines, during which time the pilot realized they wouldn't make it back to Foggia. He then headed towards the part of Yugoslavia that is now Croatia, hoping for a safe landing, and the opportunity to fall in with Marshal Tito's partisans there. They actually made a wheels-up landing in a field between two steep hills with that single engine still running, and no crew injuries.

After destroying the super-secret Norden bomb sight, he crew broke up into three groups, but only one group made it out to Sweden and then, England.
My dad and the others were eventually captured and force-marched to Luft Stalag 17ß, all the way back in Krems, Austria, where they spent the duration of the war.

The 17 was stripped of its aluminum skin by locals for patching their roofs. A nice you man from one of the local villages, tracked down my dad a couple of decades ago, and in his letter included a couple of photos of the 17 and about 20 villagers. The B17 G had flown for in excess of 200 nautical miles, full of holes, on a single engine, and landed 10 men safely in some god-forsake field!

Kudos, Boeing. Kudos!

[jasonstegall]

My late stepfather was a waist gunner on B-17s (from their first runs). At first, the waist guns did NOT have any kind of arrestor, to avoid the gunners from shooting their own planes. After his second or third sortie, the service crew for his plane realized that the back end of the B-17 was LOADED with unusual bullet holes, something like 100. My stepfather complained the "the damn Germans were just unbelievable" that day. According to my stepfather, his service crew man replied "ya silly bastard, that was YOU that shot up this plane". According to my stepfather, they showed him that all of the holes mushroomed OUT in the aluminum. Supposedly, arrestor suddenly arrived at bases, to be installed on the waist gunners, within a week. Apparently, my stepfather was NOT the only one to do this.
My stepdad has been gone for 8 years now, and I never thought to verify this story with professionals, but I can say this. That story was repeated repeatedly (decades ago), with his remaining flying crew by many of the members of his flight crew, at the get-togethers of his WWII reunions.
My stepdad did 39 missions. Never a scratch. Not many crewmembers could say that...

[Shortstuff]

My uncle was a B-17 ball turret (AKA: belly) gunner during WWII. He was selected for this role because he was a small guy and could fit into the ball turret. He was a great man and lived to be 95.

[OCTalkRadio]

My late father, Gene Roberts, was a B-17 pilot. He often told me of the day a German Me-109 did exactly what you describe in your video about attacking head on. With guns blazing, the German pilot got so close my dad swore he would recognize him to this day. But fortunately for my dad, the German hit nothing but the plane. And my dad was able to continue the mission. But he was so mad at his crew for missing as they fired back at the fast approaching fighter, that after he landed his B-17 back in England, my dad marched his whole crew out to the gunnery range for some extra practice. Swearing he'd never go thru that hair raising experience again.

[garyk]

My dad was a radio operator and 50 cal machine gunner on the B17 35 missions over Germany he was a member of the Lucky Bastards Club i tried to take him up for a ride when the Wings Of Freedom were here he wouldn't go i have his complete diary of all his missions they were the Great Generation RIP Dad Thank You For your service

[DWS]

My father was a tail gunner on a B-17. He was good at it and was lucky enough to come home alive from it after flying more missions than they were suppose to. He earned a bronze v star for all his efforts.

[saxmusicmail]

The head on attack of the German fighters, according to my father, a B17 waist gunner, was often done with a barrel roll through the B17 formation. My father thought they were showing off until he spoke with a German pilot after the war. It turned out that the fighters had little to no armor on the sides, but did have some protection underneath, so they rolled with the belly of their plane toward the B17 as they passed by them.

[kevinspringer]

My father was a B-17 pilot. After each mission, he would dig a piece of flak out of the plane and keep it in a utility belt. I still have that utility belt with all the pieces of flak today. It’s a prized possession.

[j.dunlop]

My grandmother's neighbor John Mass, was an aircraft mechanic on B-17s, he was offered many aircraft jobs after the war. He chose to work on boats. He saw too many aircraft full of blood and body parts, haunting him till the day he died!

[juliusdro]

This was my Dad He was a decorated World War II Army Air Corps Veteran, serving in the 97th Bombardment Group as a Staff Sergeant. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with six Oak Leaf Clusters for flying 51 missions as a tailgunner on B-17s over Europe.

[mikeoswald]

As to the crash of the first test aircraft in the Army competition; the crew took off with the central control lock engaged. Unable to maneuver the aircraft it flew into a hill that was almost straight ahead. Up to that point in aviation, a "checklist" was rather rare as most of the procedures were left up to the pilot in the left seat and his memory. Co-pilot's were just there to follow his orders. Several newspapers in that day trumpeted with the usual early aviation hysteria that the '17 was so complicated that one man couldn't remember everything. Not true, simply follow the list-"ask and answer".

[bradalpert]

My father was a B-17 pilot in WW II. During a mission over France, his plane was hit and both engines on the right wing were lost. My father was the only member of the flight crew that was not injured. He single handedly brought the plane and crew back to England safely. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. My father was a true hero. You mentioned that once a B-17 was able to return with just 2 engines. I wonder if you were referring to my father's plane.

[D__Lee]

Several years ago, I read the war memoirs of Saburo Sakai, Japanese WW2 Zero pilot ace. Like the German pilots in your video, Sakai was amazed at how much damage the B-17 could take before it was shot-down and that they often had to break contact because their Zeros ran out of ammunition. He was amazed at the discipline of the B-17 pilots to maintain a tight formation when under attack. He wrote that the earlier versions of the B-17 didn’t have a rear tail gunner so that was a vulnerable spot that he successfully exploited when attacking. When the rear tail gunner was installed, the B-17 became a plane that he dreaded attacking. There was no weak spot.

[Mikek-cvtq]

My dad flew the B17 in WWll. 32 missions over Germany. Came back over the English Channel on fire 3 times. Lost crew members. After the war he never stepped in a plane again.

[vladimpaler]

My father flew one of these in the 8th Air Force, 452 Bombardment Group. He flew on back with only two engines and said it was nothing but a big glider at that point. What he did to survive was to turn the turbo boost up to the level used during takeoff. You are only supposed to do so for about 10 minutes maximum, but dad did it for hours during the return flight. They landed on the south coast of Britain with the waves slapping their tires. When the plane was returned to the base his crew chief came to my father and asked what the hell he had done to the engines. My father told him about the boost. The crew chief complained that he would have to replace the engines as they could no longer be repaired. Dad said he went out to the plane and spun the two engines by hand, and they turned quite easily as they were burned completely out. Once the cylinders cooled there was no compression remaining. My dad did not care and told me, "none of us wanted to visit Germany at that time."
One other thing, they were told that in formation the interlocking fire from all the B-17's would make them invincible. He told me that was bull manure, German fighters shot B-17's down all the time. It was just a lie they told them to give them confidence. My father said that once the US fighters could go to the target and back they were all milk runs.

[lsdrat]

Here's another one you probably didn't know. They stopped painting B17's to save weight and time in production. Even though it weighs more a painted B17 will fly faster (~10 kts) and farther (~90 miles) than an unpainted B17 with the same fuel load.