The Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO) in the European Theater was one of Americas bloodiest campaigns. [69] Many B-17Gs were converted for other missions such as cargo hauling, engine testing, and reconnaissance. ", "Why Use Colourful Camouflage in World War 2? [144], After examining wrecked B-17s and B-24s, Luftwaffe officers discovered that on average it took about 20 hits with 20 mm shells fired from the rear to bring them down. Over 5,000 B-17 bombers were lost in combat missions in world war II. Copy. By the time the B-17s and escorting Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighters were about to get airborne, they were destroyed by Japanese bombers of the 11th Air Fleet. Borth 1945, pp. 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. Covering 12,000 miles (19,000km) they returned on 27 February, with seven aircraft setting off on a flight to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, three days later. [citation needed] As a result, the B-17s' loss rate was up to 25% on some early missions. The command pilot was Major Ployer Peter Hill, Wright Field Material Division Chief of the Flying Branch, his first flight in the Model 299. [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. The B-17 was reported as shot down by observers, but it survived and brought its crew home without injury. [167], During the last year of World War II and shortly thereafter, the United States Navy (USN) acquired 48 ex-USAAF B-17s for patrol and air-sea rescue work. [74] In July 1942, the first USAAF B-17s were sent to England to join the Eighth Air Force. The aircraft was powered by four Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet radial engines, each producing 750 hp (600 kW) at 7,000 ft (2,100 m). Even though it was the Japanese who attacked the Americans at Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the official policy of the United States and its allies was to defeat Germany first. [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. Gift of Peggy Wallace, 2010.308.082. [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. [111], By September 1944, 27 of the 42 bomb groups of the 8th Air Force and six of the 21 groups of the 15th Air Force used B-17s. The British had been bombing from the air, but heavy losses forced them to switch to nighttime area bombing, greatly reducing its effectiveness. John Keema of the 390th Bomb Group said, "No matter the target they were defending, they were balls to the wall. the B-17 was a fourengine heavy bomber aircraft used by the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II. [7] The USAAF bombers attacked by day, with British operations chiefly against industrial cities by night. [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. B-17s were used in early battles of the Pacific with little success, notably the Battle of Coral Sea[120] and Battle of Midway. [citation needed], In July 1945, 16 B-17s were transferred to the Coast Guard via the Navy; these aircraft were initially assigned U.S. Navy Bureau Numbers (BuNo), but were delivered to the Coast Guard designated as PB-1Gs beginning in July 1946. 11,846 helicopters According to the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association, a total of 11,846 helicopters were shot down or crashed during the war, resulting in nearly 5,000 American pilots and crew killed. Of those servicepeople, 2,382 were killed while serving aboard UH-1 Iroquois, better known as the ubiquitous "Huey." In 1946 (or 1947, according to Holm) the regiment was assigned to the Kazan factory (moving from Baranovichi) to aid in the Soviet effort to reproduce the more advanced Boeing B-29 as the Tupolev Tu-4. dream of kissing a dead celebrity meaning how many b17s were shot down during ww2. There were 12,731 B-17s built between 1936 and 1945. [81][82][83], By September, the RAF had lost eight B-17Cs in combat and had experienced numerous mechanical problems, and Bomber Command abandoned daylight bombing raids using the Fortress I because of the aircraft's poor performance. Bomber wrecks were fewer but more expensive. [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. 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 bombardier essentially took over flight control of the aircraft during the bomb run, maintaining a level altitude during the final moments before release. Bigger WWII bombers like e.g. Clearly, something had to be done because the bomber was not getting through. Gift of Austin Loree, 2011.160.029, Flying Fortresses dropping bombs and smoke markers over Goppingen, Germany in 1945. 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. The largest of the ghettos where Eastern European Jews were first confined and, later, deported to extermination camps by the Nazis was set up in Warsaw, Poland. [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. How many helicopters were shot down in Vietnam? It was also employed as a transport, antisubmarine aircraft, drone controller, and search-and-rescue aircraft. 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. [165] The last operational mission flown by a USAF Fortress was conducted on 6 August 1959, when a DB-17P, serial 44-83684 , directed a QB-17G, out of Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, as a target for an AIM-4 Falcon air-to-air missile fired from a McDonnell F-101 Voodoo. However, the use of this rigid formation meant that individual aircraft could not engage in evasive maneuvers: they had to fly constantly in a straight line, which made them vulnerable to German flak. This. [7] Of the roughly 1.5 million tons of bombs dropped on Nazi Germany and its occupied territories by U.S. aircraft, over 640 000 tons (42.6%) were dropped from B-17s.[8]. Operational History. [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. info@nationalww2museum.org in 1970, and in Memphis Belle with Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz, Billy Zane, and Harry Connick Jr. in 1990. The adoption of the 21 cm Nebelwerfer-derived Werfer-Granate 21 (Wfr. By 1944, a further upgrade to Rheinmetall-Borsig's 30mm (1.2in) MK 108 cannons mounted either in the wing, or in underwing, conformal mount gun pods, was made for the Sturmbock Focke-Wulfs as either the /R2 or /R8 field modification kits, enabling aircraft to bring a bomber down with just a few hits.[103]. [131] These aircraft were nicknamed Dumbos, and remained in service for many years after the end of World War II.[132]. It was a four engine, heavy bomber which first flew on July 28, 1935. Army Air Forces. Gift of Peggy Wallace, 2010.308.044, Group of B-17 bombers over Europe with vapor trail flowing behind them, 1944-45. Gr. [11] It combined features of the company's experimental XB-15 bomber and 247 transport. The "D" model, later deemed an obsolescent design, was used in Japanese training and propaganda films. Launching Boeing B-17 "Flying Fortresses" and Consolidated B-24 "Liberators" from bases in England's eastern countryside, the Americans bombed their targets . [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 Me 262, however, had moderate success against the B-17 late in the war. [14] The most distinct mount was in the nose, which allowed the single machine gun to be fired toward nearly all frontal angles. Still, the Air Corps ordered 13 more B-17s for further evaluation, then introduced it into service in 1938. [92] It has been alleged that some B-17s kept their Allied markings and were used by the Luftwaffe in attempts to infiltrate B-17 bombing formations and report on their positions and altitudes. 21 never had a major effect on the combat box formations of Fortresses. 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! It was code-named "Tachikawa 105" after the mystery aircraft's wingspan was measured (104-ft.) but never identified. 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. One B-17 broke up in the air, and its crew was forced to take to their parachutes. [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. [172] N809Z was used to perform a Skyhook pick up in the James Bond movie Thunderball in 1965. [38] The aircraft was delivered to the army on 31 January 1939. [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. Of the 291 B-17s in the attack force, 60 were lost, 17 were heavily damaged and most of the others incurred some damage, but were repairable. How many B-17 were shot down over Germany? All of these modifications made the YB-40 well over 10,000lb (4,500kg) heavier than a fully loaded B-17F. ", "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). [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. 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.
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