Battle-damaged B-17s

[Stage1]

 It is a  photographic chronicle of the damage that the "Queen of the Skies" could sustain and still bring her crews home.

http://www.daveswarbirds.com/b-17/

[Strip]

Thanks for the link, it was certainly interesting to read some of the foot notes.

My favorite was one where the tail was hit by a flak round, it blew the tail gunner out of the plane and he survived!

Strip

[bagrat]

with this in mind it would be neat if they could redo the damage model so instead of flyin around wit some pretty little 20mm holes in ur plane instead you'd see massive holes and bigger rips. wayyy bigger than what we have

[100Coogn]

   Great link.  Thanks for posting. 

[chewie86]

 

[Masherbrum]

(Image removed from quote.)
 

No matter how many times I see that picture, I still cannot believe it.   

[AWwrgwy]

No matter how many times I see that picture, I still cannot believe it.   

Two planes collide, both should go down....

 
 
 

wronway

[Masherbrum]

 

[Guppy35]

One from the photo collection at home here.  I got it from the co-pilot of the B-17 flying nearby.  His name was Dwight Olson and he was with the 419th BS, 301st BG, 15th AF and they were just past bombs away on February 14, 1945 with flak took out the huge chunk of the mid section of the B-17G in the photo.  The pilot of the plane, Lt. Butts asked for a report on the damage as he'd lost communication with the guys in the back of the plane and couldn't tell them to bail out.  The other pilots around him told him to stay with the plane as crews were being killed on the ground in the region they were flying over.  Lt. Butts flew the plane 400+ miles back to Foggia, Italy  The tail gunner was T/S Bob Chandler on his first raid.  He went unconcious from lack of oxygen after the plane was hit and came around once they were over the Adriatic Sea.    He crawled forward and saw the damage in the waist an asked the guys in front of it to give him a hand across but they were afraid to help.  He went back and got his parachute and then maged to get across the hole to the rest of the crew.  Waist gunner Robert Koch was not so lucky as he was killed by the blast.

A bit fuzzy but an amazing picture and story, and in color.

[Masherbrum]

Absolutely jaw dropping, thanks Dan.

[Guppy35]

The uncropped version of "All American".  This one came from the photo album of a guy who worked in a USAAF photo lab in the MTO.  I worked with someone who was related and when I mentioned my interest in WW2 aviation, I got to see the album and scan some stuff.

In the small world department.  Back when I was in college in about 1980 I worked in a nursing home.  It was always an interesting place to talk history.  One of the old women there had a son who visited.  Somehow talk of WW2 aviation came up, and it turned out he was the navigator on this particular plane on this particular day. 

I guess it just proves that asking questions works

[Masherbrum]

That photo is much better than the B&W.   

[cattb]

i read that plane broke in half on the runway, amazing it made it back

[horble]

Just amazing that it held together at all.

Looking at pictures like these makes it easier for me to understand B17's not going down when I shoot at them in game.