How many German fighters did the B17 and B24 shoot down during - Quora [16] On 20 August 1935, the prototype flew from Seattle to Wright Field in nine hours and three minutes with an average cruising speed of 252 miles per hour (406km/h), much faster than the competition. His views were supported by Eighth Air Force statisticians, whose mission studies showed that the Flying Fortress's utility and survivability was much greater than those of the B-24 Liberator. Gift of Austin Loree, 2011.160.029, Flying Fortresses dropping bombs and smoke markers over Goppingen, Germany in 1945. Life and Death Aboard a B-17, 1944. 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. 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. Frisbee, John L. "Valor: Crisis in the Cockpit". How many B-17s were lost during the Second World War? It also developed a reputation for toughness based upon stories and photos of badly damaged B-17s safely returning to base. [180], Many B-17 crew members received military honors and 17 received the Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration awarded by the United States:[197], Data from The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft[38], Hollywood featured the B-17 in its period films, such as director Howard Hawks' Air Force starring John Garfield and Twelve O'Clock High starring Gregory Peck. Did any American B-17 crewman ever shoot down a German fighter plane while flying over Germany during World War II? Posted on . [37] Scheduled to fly in 1937, it encountered problems with the turbochargers, and its first flight was delayed until 29 April 1938. [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. Frisbee, John L. "Valor: Gauntlet of Fire". [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 aircraft was powered by four Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet radial engines, each producing 750hp (600kW) at 7,000ft (2,100m). Of the surviving aircraft, 17 were so badly damaged that they were scrapped. Frisbee, John L. "Valor: The Right Touch". 21) rocket mortar by the Luftwaffe in mid-August 1943 promised the introduction of a major "stand-off" style of offensive weapon one strut-mounted tubular launcher was fixed under each wing panel on the Luftwaffe's single-engine fighters, and two under each wing panel of a few twin-engine Bf 110 daylight Zerstrer aircraft. Blast damage was caused over a radius of 5 miles (8.0km). 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. The B-17 was a sturdily built aircraft. Frisbee, John L. "Valor: Rabaul on a Wing and a Prayer". [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]. [134] To address this problem, the United States developed the bomb-group formation, which evolved into the staggered combat box formation in which all the B-17s could safely cover any others in their formation with their machine guns. [33] The mission was successful and widely publicized. [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 Eighth Air Force vs. The Luftwaffe - The National WWII Museum 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. The loss was not total but Boeing's hopes for a substantial bomber contract were dashed. This production rate was, however, surpassed by that of the, This is a commonly misreported error. It was not until the advent of long-range fighter escorts (particularly the North American P-51 Mustang) and the resulting degradation of the Luftwaffe as an effective interceptor force between February and June 1944, that the B-17 became strategically potent. info@nationalww2museum.org Some SB-17s had their defensive guns removed, while others retained their guns to allow use close to combat areas. At the Arcadia Conference, held in Washington, DC, from December 24, 1941 to January 14, 1942, the Western Allies agreed to a Germany First policy to govern global strategy, but the question where to engage Germany, and when, remained unsettled. "Books of The Times; How Both Sides' Artists Saw World War II" (review). Although initially deemed repairable, 40-2049 (11th BG / 38th RS) received more than 200 bullet holes and never flew again. Gift of Peggy Wallace, 2010.308.022, B-17 Flying Fortresses in formation over Europe, 1944-45. The operation did not work as expected, with 90 Squadron's Fortresses being unopposed. Subjects > Humanities > History. "Operation Pointblank: Evolution of Allied Air Doctrine During World WarII". The Me 262, however, had moderate success against the B-17 late in the war. The Allied victory against the Axis was a long journeyone that actually took much longer than the war itself. For the film, see, "B-17 Flying Fortress" redirects here. [225][226], "B-17" redirects here. Gr. [90] The device was able to determine, from variables put in by the bombardier, the point at which the aircraft's bombs should be released to hit the target. Frisbee, John L. "Valor: Battle Over Bougainville". All were Allison powered. 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. [69] Many B-17Gs were converted for other missions such as cargo hauling, engine testing, and reconnaissance. [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. Did the gunners aboard B-17 bombers in WWII manage to shoot down enemy They were also used to provide search and rescue support for B-29 raids against Japan. These losses amounted to 25 percent of the attacking force. [103] Pilots of average ability hit the bombers with only about two percent of the rounds they fired, so to obtain 20 hits, the average pilot had to fire one thousand 20mm (0.79in) rounds at a bomber. As he maneuvered his unarmed B-17 bomber over the island of Oahu, U.S. Army Lt. Robert Thacker was puzzled. [38] The aircraft was delivered to the army on 31 January 1939. 21 never had a major effect on the combat box formations of Fortresses. [110] The escort fighters reduced the loss rate to below 7%, with a total of 247 B-17s lost in 3,500 sorties while taking part in the Big Week raids. It was a four engine, heavy bomber which first flew on July 28, 1935. Trescott, Jacqueline. Japanese activity forced them to divert from Hickam Field to Bellows Field. "[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. The project came to a sudden end with the unexplained midair explosion over the Blyth estuary of a B-24, part of the United States Navy's contribution as "Project Anvil", en route for Heligoland piloted by Lieutenant Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., future U.S. president John F. Kennedy's elder brother. The adoption of the 21 cm Nebelwerfer-derived Werfer-Granate 21 (Wfr. The problem was there was no easy way to hit Germany, as a cross-channel invasion of Europe was still years away. As the Americans flew further into Europe and Germany, the missions became deadlier. [156] The three bombers, which still contained their top secret Norden bombsights, were ferried to Japan where they underwent extensive technical evaluation by the Giken, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force's Air Technical Research Institute (Koku Gijutsu Kenkyujo) at Tachikawa's air field. How many B-17s were shot down during World War 2? How many b17 bombers were lost in ww2? - Answers [128], At their peak, 168 B-17 bombers were in the Pacific theater in September 1942, but already in mid-1942 Gen. Arnold had decided that the B-17 was unsuitable for the kind of operations required in the Pacific and made plans to replace all of the B-17s in the theater with B-24s (and later, B-29s) as soon as they became available. The command pilot was Major Ployer Peter Hill, Wright Field Material Division Chief of the Flying Branch, his first flight in the Model 299. 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. ", "Langley B-17s paved way for independent Air Force", "World War II General Electric Turbosupercharges", "Flying Fortress (B-17G): A Survey of the Hard-hitting American Heavy Weight. The FEAF lost half its aircraft during the first strike,[117] and was all but destroyed over the next few days. [140] Making it back to base on numerous occasions, despite extensive battle damage, the B-17's durability became legendary;[138][139] stories and photos of B-17s surviving battle damage were widely circulated during the war. As the production line developed, Boeing engineers continued to improve upon the basic design. [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. [67], By the time the definitive B-17G appeared, the number of guns had been increased from seven to 13, the designs of the gun stations were finalized, and other adjustments were completed. Of 2,900 men in the crews, about 650 did not return, although some survived as prisoners of war. 2. [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. [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 first bomber to hit Japan after Pearl Harbor, the B-25 Mitchell was found in every theater of the war and was a rugged, multipurpose bomber beloved by her aircrew for its survivability and ease to fly. [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. In 1942, when Eighth Air Force heavy bombers based in Britain first went operational in Europe, they mostly flew what were termed "milk runs" over France, accompanied by fighter escorts. [115] When the FEAF received word of the attack on Pearl Harbor, General Lewis H. Brereton sent his bombers and fighters on various patrol missions to prevent them from being caught on the ground. [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. Wiki User. The first Schweinfurt-Regensburg Raid occurred during >World War II (1939-1945). Crashed Model 299. The AAF's worst accident rate was recorded by the A-36 Invader version of the P-51: a staggering 274 accidents per 100,000 flying hours. 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. He finished the war with 9 enemy planes destroyed. [74] In July 1942, the first USAAF B-17s were sent to England to join the Eighth Air Force. ", "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). Initially, it could carry a payload of 2200 kg along with 5x .30-inch machine guns. 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. ", "German wonder weapons: degraded production and effectiveness. 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. Quote: "At the peak of production, Boeing was rolling out as many as 363 B-17s a month, averaging between 14 and 16 Forts a day, the most incredible production rate for large aircraft in aviation history." The resulting "Combined Bomber Offensive" weakened the Wehrmacht, destroyed German morale, and established air superiority through Operation Pointblank's destruction of German fighter strength in preparation for a ground offensive. The aircraft went through several alterations in each of its design stages and variants. Tragically, the plane stalled and spun into the ground soon after takeoff, bursting into flames. World War II: Schweinfurt-Regensburg Raid Summary - ThoughtCo The XB-38 was an engine testbed for Allison V-1710 liquid-cooled engines, should the Wright engines normally used on the B-17 become unavailable. Gift of Peggy Wallace, 2010.308.040. Unlike the fighter pilots, individual bomber gunners did not receive official credit for any of their shootdowns. Launching Boeing B-17 "Flying Fortresses" and Consolidated B-24 "Liberators" from bases in England's eastern countryside, the Americans bombed their targets . About 130 B-17s were converted to the air-sea rescue role, at first designated B-17H and later SB-17G. The B-17 saw early action in the Pacific War, where it conducted raids against Japanese shipping and airfields. 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. He also broke the west-to-east coast record on the return trip, averaging 245mph (394km/h) in 11 hours 1 minute. [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]. As the raids of the American bombing campaign grew in numbers and frequency, German interception efforts grew in strength (such as during the attempted bombing of Kiel on 13 June 1943[96]), such that unescorted bombing missions came to be discouraged. Post accident interviews with Tower and Putt determined the control surface gust lock had not been released. In 1957 the surviving B-17s had been stripped of all weapons and painted black. The YB-40s with their numerous heavy modifications had trouble keeping up with the lighter bombers once they had dropped their bombs, so the project was abandoned and finally phased out in July 1943. The small force of B-17s operated against the Japanese invasion force until they were withdrawn to Darwin, in Australia's Northern Territory. Ramsey, Winston G. "The V-Weapons". It carried Swiss national white cross insignia in red squares on both sides of its rudder, fuselage sides, and on the topside and underside wings. It was a four engine, heavy bomber which first flew on July 28, 1935. [17], At the fly-off, the four-engined Boeing's performance was superior to those of the twin-engined DB-1 and Model 146. 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. [130], B-17s were still used in the Pacific later in the war, however, mainly in the combat search and rescue role. A Fortress IIA from No. [118] 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. [citation needed], The B-17 was noted for its ability to absorb battle damage, still reach its target and bring its crew home safely. The. With its usual nose-mounted armament of four MK 108 cannons, and with some examples later equipped with the R4M rocket, launched from underwing racks, it could fire from outside the range of the bombers' .50in (12.7mm) defensive guns and bring an aircraft down with one hit,[147] as both the MK 108's shells and the R4M's warheads were filled with the "shattering" force of the strongly brisant Hexogen military explosive. The first B-17 raid in Europe took place on August 17, 1942, when 12 planes attacked the railroad marshaling yards in Rouen, France. As sufficient Consolidated Liberators finally became available, Coastal Command withdrew the Fortress from the Azores, transferring the type to the meteorological reconnaissance role. [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. Browne, Robert W. "The Rugged Fortress: Life-Saving B-17 Remembered.". ", "Why Use Colourful Camouflage in World War 2? Ten of the 12 Fortresses survived the attack. From then on, red and white neutrality bands were added to the wings of Swiss aircraft to stop accidental attacks by Allied aircraft. ", "Durable B-17s hard for pilots to forget: Love for plane outweighs bitter memories of war", "World War II War Production Why Were the B-17 and B-24 Produced in Parallel? [175] Six bombers of the 2nd Bombardment Group took off from Langley Field on 15 February 1938 as part of a goodwill flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Its famous nickname came from the fact it carried 13 .50 caliber M2 Browning machine guns for protection, and had a legendary toughness for carrying its crew home on one engine or even with the tail shot away. [44][note 3] The aircraft went on to serve in every World WarII combat zone, and by the time production ended in May 1945, 12,731 aircraft had been built by Boeing, Douglas, and Vega (a subsidiary of Lockheed).[45][46][47][48]. 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. Kelly was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Given German Balkenkreuz national markings on their wings and fuselage sides, and "Hakenkreuz" swastika tail fin-flashes, the captured B-17s were used to determine the B-17's vulnerabilities and to train German interceptor pilots in attack tactics. This made a formation of bombers a dangerous target to engage by enemy fighters. Study now. Brereton planned B-17 raids on Japanese airfields in Formosa, in accordance with Rainbow 5 war plan directives, but this was overruled by General Douglas MacArthur. The B-17 Flying Fortress became symbolic of the United States of America's air power. The authors of a photo book about the planes and . 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. The B-17's greatest success in the Pacific was in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, in which aircraft of this type were responsible for damaging and sinking several Japanese transport ships. It should have been a peaceful Sunday morning in Hawaii. World War 2 . Borth 1945, pp. Captured B-17 Bombers in World War II - warhistoryonline The first two ex-USAAF B-17s, a B-17F (later modified to B-17G standard) and a B-17G were obtained by the Navy for various development programs. [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. As many as half a million civilians remained in Stalingrad when the Germans approached in the late summer of 1942. However, the USAAF continued using the B-17 as a day bomber, despite misgivings by the RAF that attempts at daylight bombing would be ineffective. B-17's Shot Down During Raid - YouTube [95] The raid helped allay British doubts about the capabilities of American heavy bombers in operations over Europe. Dozens more are in storage or on static display. [107][108], A third raid on Schweinfurt on 24 February 1944 highlighted what came to be known as "Big Week",[109] during which the bombing missions were directed against German aircraft production. Also on board were Wright Field test observer John Cutting, and mechanic Mark Koegler. Copilot was Lieutenant Donald Putt, while Boeing chief test pilot Leslie R. Tower was behind the pilots in an advisory role. [157], Following the end of World War II, the B-17 was quickly phased out of use as a bomber and the Army Air Forces retired most of its fleet. British authorities were anxious that no similar accidents should again occur, and the Aphrodite project was scrapped in early 1945. During World War II, the B-17 equipped 32 overseas combat groups, inventory peaking in August 1944 at 4,574 USAAF aircraft worldwide. The bomber's topside surfaces were repainted a dark olive drab, but retained its light gray under wing and lower fuselage surfaces. Although the conversion was not complete until mid-1943, B-17 combat operations in the Pacific theater came to an end after a little over a year. B-17s flown by the Eighth saw some of the fiercest combat of the war. [131] These aircraft were nicknamed Dumbos, and remained in service for many years after the end of World War II.[132]. The RAF's No. B-17s were used in early battles of the Pacific with little success, notably the Battle of Coral Sea[120] and Battle of Midway. An overwhelming majority of them were women and children.
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