"B-17 battle damage photos site" Topic

link

Wow! especially the nose damage. Incrdible that those birds could even fly, much less make it back to England….

My Dad fixed fighters and bombers in WWII, first in England and then in Russia. He told me the first job he had was to clean up a returned B-17 before it was repaired. The plane had taken several flak hits but was structurally sound to fly again. He went inside and saw hunks of 'meat' and blood everywhere. He got back outside of the 17 and threw up. He never did that again. The story he told me was he flat-out refused to do it ever again. I remember when I was a kid and cut myself pretty good he sent me right to my Mom to get bandaged up. He couldn't stomach any blood. I wish he told me more stories but he never wanted to talk too much about the War.

Thanks for the link. Very interesting!

Thanks for posting, Doug. My Uncle was a waist gunner & either navigator/radio man on a B-17. I've got 2 of his silk escape maps (scarfs), some technical books & a few pics of him during the war. He married my moms sister, he's still with us, but, sadly, not for too much longer. Thanks, Uncle Clarke & to all you brave souls who sacrificed so much.
God speed…
Peter

Definitely some crews and planes that luck brought back(to use a line from the documentary,"Memphis Belle".)

I recall an expert on the B-17 say that you could pierce the skin of the plane with a screw driver, but the framework and chassis were made of the same stuff as bridge steel. They absorbed a lot of damage because the frame of the aircraft was completely stout.