how many b17s were shot down during ww2

Also on board were Wright Field test observer John Cutting, and mechanic Mark Koegler. The SB-17 served through the Korean War, remaining in service with USAF until the mid-1950s. [103] Additionally, 122 bombers were damaged and needed repairs before their next flights. The B-17's armament consisted of five .30 caliber (7.62 mm) machine guns, with a payload up to 4,800 lb (2,200 kg) of bombs on two racks in the bomb bay behind the cockpit. This type replaced the vulnerable twin-engine Zerstrer heavy fighters which could not survive interception by P-51 Mustangs flying well ahead of the combat boxes in an air supremacy role starting very early in 1944 to clear any Luftwaffe defensive fighters from the skies. 7375, 15859. "Boeing Model 299 (B-17 Flying Fortress).". The B-17G was the final version of the Flying Fortress, incorporating all changes made to its predecessor, the B-17F,[57] and in total, 8,680 were built,[68] the last (by Lockheed) on 28 July 1945. The B-17F variants were the primary versions flying for the Eighth Air Force to face the Germans in 1943 and had standardized the manned Sperry ball turret for ventral defense, also replacing the earlier, 10-panel framed bombardier's nose glazing from the B subtype with an enlarged, nearly frameless Plexiglas bombardier's nose enclosure for improved forward vision. 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. [7] Attacks began in April 1943 on heavily fortified key industrial plants in Bremen and Recklinghausen. [127] On the morning of 4 March 1943, a B-17 sank the destroyer Asashio with a 500lb (230kg) bomb while she was picking up survivors from Arashio. This articleis part of an ongoing series commemorating the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II made possible by Bank of America. In contrast, of the nearly 1,100 Cobras delivered to the Army, 300 were lost. Four are airworthy. The B-17 was designed by the Boeing Aircraft Company in response to a 1934 Army Air Corps specification that called for a four-engined bomber at a time when two engines were the norm. dream of kissing a dead celebrity meaning how many b17s were shot down during ww2. A New Orleans native, James Linn first became involved with the institution then known as The National D-Day Museum in 2001 as an eighth-grade volunteer on weekends and during the summer. It is part of the USAAC World War II Memorial Flight and makes dozens of appearances across the United Kingdom and Northern Europe. ", Frisbee, John L. "Valor: A Tale of Two Texans.". Over 5,000 B-17 bombers were lost in combat missions in world war II. He also broke the west-to-east coast record on the return trip, averaging 245mph (394km/h) in 11 hours 1 minute. [7] The USAAF bombers attacked by day, with British operations chiefly against industrial cities by night. The four-engine plane typically carried a crew of 10, several of whom. Frisbee, John L. "Valor: Courage and Conviction". A number of B-17Gs, redesignated B-17Hs and later SB-17Gs, were used in the Pacific during the final year of the war to carry and drop lifeboats to stranded bomber crews who had been shot down or crashed at sea. The Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO) in the European Theater was one of Americas bloodiest campaigns. 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. Post accident interviews with Tower and Putt determined the control surface gust lock had not been released. [citation needed], The B-17 was noted for its ability to absorb battle damage, still reach its target and bring its crew home safely. 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. The Combined Bomber Offensive was effectively complete. In a USAAC competition, Boeing's prototype Model 299/XB-17 outperformed two other entries but crashed, losing the initial 200-bomber contract to the Douglas B-18 Bolo. As the production line developed, Boeing engineers continued to improve upon the basic design. [114], By 1941, the Far East Air Force (FEAF) based at Clark Field in the Philippines had 35 B-17s, with the War Department eventually planning to raise that to 165. Ten of the 12 Fortresses survived the attack. [20] While the air corps was still enthusiastic about the aircraft's potential, army officials were daunted by its cost;[24] Douglas quoted a unit price of $58,200 (equivalent to $916,000 in 2021) based on a production order of 220 aircraft, compared with $99,620 (equivalent to $1,568,000 in 2021 ) from Boeing. Moreover, German fighter aircraft later developed the tactic of high-speed strafing passes rather than engaging with individual aircraft to inflict damage with minimum risk. [122][124] Actual Japanese fighter losses for the day were seven destroyed and three damaged. Kelly was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Noted Japanese ace Sabur Sakai is credited with this kill, and in the process, came to respect the ability of the Fortress to absorb punishment.[119]. For this reason, he wanted B-17 bombers and P-51 fighters for the Eighth. How many B-17s were shot down during the Second World War? The B-17 saw early action in the Pacific War, where it conducted raids against Japanese shipping and airfields. There are very few films left in existence showing the Me 262 in action, especially shooting down allied bombers with P-51 escorts. 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. [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. [12], The first flight of the Model 299 was on 28 July 1935 with Boeing chief test-pilot Leslie Tower at the controls. Gift of Peggy Wallace, 2010.308.044, Group of B-17 bombers over Europe with vapor trail flowing behind them, 1944-45. At the same time, the German nightfighting ability noticeably improved to counter the nighttime strikes, challenging the conventional faith in the cover of darkness. In 1964, the latter film was made into a television show of the same name and ran for three years on ABC TV. A sobering statistic: Out of 1,419 Loaches built, 842 were destroyed in Vietnam, most shot down and many others succumbing to crashes resulting from low-level flying. Britain in WW2 . As of November 2022, four aircraft remain airworthy, none flown in combat. 206 Squadron RAF sank U-627 on 27 October 1942, the first of 11 U-boat kills credited to RAF Fortress bombers during the war.[86]. [clarification needed] Stories circulated of B-17s returning to base with tails shredded, engines destroyed and large portions of their wings destroyed by flak. Best Answer. "Operation Pointblank: Evolution of Allied Air Doctrine During World WarII". The B-17 evolved through numerous design advances[4][5] but from its inception, the USAAC (later, the USAAF) promoted the aircraft as a strategic weapon. How many B-17 Crews died? 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. John Keema of the 390th Bomb Group said, "No matter the target they were defending, they were balls to the wall. For other uses, see, "Flying Fortress" redirects here. [136][137] Luftwaffe fighter pilots likened attacking a B-17 combat box formation to encountering a fliegendes Stachelschwein, "flying porcupine", with dozens of machine guns in a combat box aimed at them from almost every direction. When bombers crashed in Switzerland. [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. [citation needed], Another early World War II Pacific engagement, on 10 December 1941, involved Colin Kelly, who reportedly crashed his B-17 into the Japanese battleship Haruna, which was later acknowledged as a near bomb miss on the heavy cruiser Ashigara. [57] The B-17's turbocharged Wright R-1820 Cyclone 9 engines were upgraded to increasingly more powerful versions of the same powerplants throughout its production, and similarly, the number of machine gun emplacement locations was increased.[61]. [citation needed] As a result, the B-17s' loss rate was up to 25% on some early missions. Tora! [9] Requirements were for it to carry a "useful bombload" at an altitude of 10,000ft (3,000m) for 10 hours with a top speed of at least 200mph (320km/h).[10]. [76] The British heavy bombers, the Avro Lancaster and Handley Page Halifax, dropped 608,612 long tons (681,645 short tons) and 224,207 long tons (251,112 short tons)[77] respectively. Frisbee, John L. "Valor: Rabaul on a Wing and a Prayer". One B-17 broke up in the air, and its crew was forced to take to their parachutes. [97], The two different strategies of the American and British bomber commands were organized at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. [133] Defensive armament increased from four 0.50in (12.7mm) machine guns and one 0.30in (7.62mm) nose machine gun in the B-17C, to thirteen 0.50in (12.7mm) machine guns in the B-17G. ", "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. [14] The most distinct mount was in the nose, which allowed the single machine gun to be fired toward nearly all frontal angles. But he wasn't a fighter pilot. The Allison V-1710 was allocated to fighter aircraft. During World War II approximately 40 B-17s were captured and refurbished by Germany after crash-landing or being forced down, with about a dozen put back into the air. In a 1943 Consolidated Aircraft poll of 2,500 men in cities where Consolidated advertisements had been run in newspapers, 73% had heard of the B-24 and 90% knew of the B-17. Designating the aircraft Fortress Mk I, the aircraft performed poorly during high-altitude raids in the summer of 1941. 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. "Anniversary talks: Battle of the Bismarck Sea, "B-17 Pilot Training Manual (Formation). The 4x Hornet Radial Engines could produce 750 HP at 2100 meters. An early model YB-17 also appeared in the 1938 film Test Pilot with Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy, and later with Clark Gable in Command Decision in 1948, in Tora! [19][20], On 30 October 1935, a test flight determining the rate of climb and service ceiling was planned. [160][161], The USAF Air Rescue Service of the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) operated B-17s as so-called "Dumbo" air-sea rescue aircraft. Launching Boeing B-17 "Flying Fortresses" and Consolidated B-24 "Liberators" from bases in England's eastern countryside, the Americans bombed their targets . "[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. Blast damage was caused over a radius of 5 miles (8.0km). Did any American B-17 crewman ever shoot down a German fighter plane while flying over Germany during World War II?

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