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However, B-17s were operating at heights too great for most A6M Zero fighters to reach. Kelly was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. The B-17 Flying Fortress became symbolic of the United States of America's air power. Gift of Austin Loree, 2011.160.029, Flying Fortresses dropping bombs and smoke markers over Goppingen, Germany in 1945. Their first operation, against Wilhelmshaven on 8 July 1941 was unsuccessful. Best Answer. 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. How many B-17s were shot down during the Second World War? The first raid on 17 August 1943 did not result in critical damage to the factories, with the 230 attacking B-17s being intercepted by an estimated 300 Luftwaffe fighters. Ten of the 12 Fortresses survived the attack. The Ball turret itself has inspired works like Steven Spielberg's The Mission. Though many were shot down, many more severely damaged aircraft were able to return their crews safely to base. 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. [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. Gift of Peggy Wallace, 2010.308.034, B-17 Flying Fortress bomber dropping bombs on targets in Europe, 1944-45. [93][94] The operation, carried out in good visibility, was a success, with only minor damage to one aircraft, unrelated to enemy action, and half the bombs landing in the target area. The Allied victory against the Axis was a long journeyone that actually took much longer than the war itself. [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]. The most famous B-17, the Memphis Belle, toured the U. S. with her crew to reinforce national morale (and to sell war bonds). 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. Frisbee, John L. "Valor: Battle Over Bougainville". As of November 2022, four aircraft remain airworthy, none flown in combat. [103] Early versions of the Fw 190, one of the best German interceptor fighters, were equipped with two 20mm (0.79in) MG FF cannons, which carried only 500 rounds when belt-fed (normally using 60-round drum magazines in earlier installations), and later with the better Mauser MG 151/20 cannons, which had a longer effective range than the MG FF weapon. Of the surviving aircraft, 17 were so badly damaged that they were scrapped. [34][35] The 13th Y1B-17 was delivered to the Material Division at Wright Field, Ohio, to be used for flight testing. [102] 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. [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. Did any American B-17 crewman ever shoot down a German fighter plane while flying over Germany during World War II? More than 250 aircraft crashed or made emergency landings in Switzerland during the Second World War. [129] Surviving aircraft were reassigned to the 54th Troop Carrier Wing's special airdrop section and were used to drop supplies to ground forces operating in close contact with the enemy. "Operation Pointblank: Evolution of Allied Air Doctrine During World WarII". [100], A second attempt on Schweinfurt on 14 October 1943 later came to be known as "Black Thursday". 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. Footage of a B-17 bombing raid that was attacked by German flak and Bf-109's in which bombers are hit and shot down. Hess, William N. and Jim Winchester. Some of the German pilots had been flying in combat since 1936. A large radome for an S-band AN/APS-20 search radar was fitted underneath the fuselage and additional internal fuel tanks were added for longer range, with the provision for additional underwing fuel tanks. The 8th Air Force then targeted the ball-bearing factories in Schweinfurt, hoping to cripple the war effort there. Army Air Forces. How many b17 are still flying? Mayday! (06/2. 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. While the US had less than 200 at the start of the war, more than 12,000 B-17s were produced by the end and served in every theater. British authorities were anxious that no similar accidents should again occur, and the Aphrodite project was scrapped in early 1945. Additional armament included an additional dorsal turret in the radio room, a remotely operated and fired Bendix-built "chin turret" directly below the bombardier's accommodation, and twin .50in (12.7mm) guns in each of the waist positions. [178] During the war, the largest offensive bombing force, the Eighth Air Force, had an open preference for the B-17. [20] The YB-17 incorporated a number of significant changes from the Model 299, including more powerful Wright R-1820-39 Cyclone engines. During a bombing mission on July 5, 1943, Warner shot down 7 German fighters, for which he was given the Distinguished Service Cross. [citation needed] After the defeat in Java, the 19th withdrew to Australia, where it continued in combat until it was sent home by General George C. Kenney when he arrived in Australia in mid-1942. The prototype B-17 Bomber was built at the company's own expense and was a fusion of the features of Boeing XB-15 and Boeing 247 Transport Aircraft. 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]. Also, the Y1B-17A's new service ceiling was more than 2 miles (3.2km) higher at 38,000 feet (12,000m), compared to the Y1B-17's 27,800 feet (8,500m). B-17 Flying Fortresses The B-17 Flying Fortress became a symbol of the power of the United States and its air force. [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. [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 was a relatively fast, high-flying, long-range bomber with heavy defensive armament at the expense of bombload. [87], The air corps renamed United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) on 20 June 1941 used the B-17 and other bombers to bomb from high altitudes with the aid of the then-secret Norden bombsight, known as the "Blue Ox",[88][89] which was an optical electromechanical gyrostabilized analog computer. As the Americans flew further into Europe and Germany, the missions became deadlier. [12], The first flight of the Model 299 was on 28 July 1935 with Boeing chief test-pilot Leslie Tower at the controls. Later on footage shows German paratroopers and American P-51 mustangs. There were 12,731 B-17s built between 1936 and 1945. [10] The B-17's armament consisted of five .30 caliber (7.62mm) machine guns, with a payload up to 4,800lb (2,200kg) of bombs on two racks in the bomb bay behind the cockpit. how many b17s were shot down during ww2. [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. Also on board were Wright Field test observer John Cutting, and mechanic Mark Koegler. The German fighters found that when attacking from the front, where fewer defensive guns were mounted (and where the pilot was exposed and not protected by armor as he was from the rear), it took only four or five hits to bring a bomber down. A retirement ceremony was held several days later at Holloman AFB, after which 44-83684 was retired. [14] The most distinct mount was in the nose, which allowed the single machine gun to be fired toward nearly all frontal angles. 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. Designating the aircraft Fortress Mk I, the aircraft performed poorly during high-altitude raids in the summer of 1941. [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. The B-17s attracted a number of Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters, which were in turn attacked by the P-38 Lightning escorts. [21] Doyle notes, "The loss of Hill and Tower, and the Model 299, was directly responsible for the creation of the modern written checklist used by pilots to this day. Answer (1 of 12): Yes but the kill ratio generally favored attacking fighters. Later that year, two groups moved to Algeria to join Twelfth Air Force for operations in North Africa. [50] The B-17C changed from three bulged, oval-shaped gun blisters to two flush, oval-shaped gun window openings, and on the lower fuselage, a single "bathtub" gun gondola housing,[51] which resembled the similarly configured and located Bodenlafette/"Bola" ventral defensive emplacement on the German Heinkel He 111P-series medium bomber. Post accident interviews with Tower and Putt determined the control surface gust lock had not been released. Air Corps doctrine dictated bombing runs from high altitude, but they soon found only 1% of their bombs hit targets. info@nationalww2museum.org [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. This articleis part of an ongoing series commemorating the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II made possible by Bank of America. ", "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. The 4x Hornet Radial Engines could produce 750 HP at 2100 meters. Swiss aircraft attempted to intercept and force individual aircraft to land, interning their crews; one Swiss pilot was killed, shot down by a U.S. bomber crew in September 1944. Instead of building models based on experimental engineering, Boeing had been hard at work developing their bomber and now had versions ready for production far better than would have been possible otherwise.