The following excerpt is taken from the September 1975 issue of Airpower magazine.
The Luftwaffe came to know the B-17 intimately. In the air they credited it with speed, load carrying, ruggedness and bristling defensive firepower.
As has already been noted, the B-17s most vulnerable quarter of attack was from headon, until the advent of the G model with its twin-gunned chin turret. The next best option was straight down from directly above and a bit behind, but such technique called for precision flying, and in 1944-45, Luftwaffe fighter pilot ranks were filled mostly by inexperienced cadets fresh out of flying school. Because they lacked experience, this left only the mass headon attacks, as practiced by the Rammkommando units or the beam attack, launched at a 45 degree angle from above.
The latter had the advantage of placing the vulnerable oil tanks, inside of the inboard nacelles, and the wing fuel tanks, inside of the outboard nacelles, directly in the attackers' path, for the B-17 had little protective armor itself. In addition to armored seat backs, only the metal surrounding the waist gun cut-outs was reinforced with steel plate, as was the bulkhead separating the top turret gunner's compartment from the bomb bay. The firewall dividing the pilots from the navigator's station was also armored to a lesser extent. The nost section of the B-17 didn't even have a steel deck for the bombardier and the navigator and, frequently, the entire compartment could be blown off, with the bomber continuing to fly. To kill the B-17 in its body, one had to break the integrity of the flight deck, or explode its bombs in the bay. Anything less only damaged the bomber. B-17s came back from missions nearly torn in two at the waist, but still flyable. If hit in any number of non vital parts, including the rudder, the big Fortress might lose airspeed, struggle and trail smoke, but it would continue on course. Consolidated B-24 Liberators frequently blew up when hit. The B-17 rarely did. Therefore, in order to destroy it, German pilots were trained to attack the B-17s cabin and its wing and oil tanks.
Attacking a formation from the rear was foolhard, due to the converging fire from the bomber's tail and ball turret batteries. Tail attacks provided the oncoming fighters a longer closure time in which to line up on target, but even as they did so, they were peppered by a veritable barrage of twin .50 caliber machine gun fire.
Shuckins
