Read the story, then scroll down to see pix of the B-17
Amazing story and pix!! Thanks for posting.
The 17s truely lived up to their name as the Flying Fortress, these aircraft took more abuse and damage and still made it home than most experts ever thought possible, great story thanks.
When I was a young boy, in the Scouts, one of the dads and I got to talking over a fire one night. I had just built a model of a B17, and was talking about it. Turns out he was a waist gunner in a 17, and we talked a lot about the plane. Then he started talking about the things he had seen and been involved in during WWII. We got to be very good friends, I would go over their house some times and listen to him talk. Great stuff for a 12 year old. Years later, when he passed away, his wife told me that he never talked about WWII to anyone but me. Not even her. I think about him every Veteran’s day.
The Ball Turret Gunner, Randel Jarrell published 1945 From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State, And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze. Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life, I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.
Now, tell me again; What’s so bad about my situation?