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  • It was the most potent symbol of the American airpower in military history.

  • Designed to fend off ferocious attacks

  • from the German Luftwaffe,

  • it dealt a death blow

  • to Nazi wartime industrial production,

  • and erased Hitler's capital to the ground.

  • "To me, it was the most beautiful plane ever built,

  • really great airplane and still is."

  • Each crewed by 10-men,

  • thousands of them would fly the most perilous missions of the 2nd WW.

  • Many would never return.

  • "If it hadn't been for a B-17,

  • I more likely wouldn't be sitting here talking to you."

  • Using color reenactments and rare archive film,

  • Battle Stationstakes to the skies in the legendry B-17 Flying Fortress.

  • 1918,

  • with the conclusion of 'The War to End All Wars',

  • military powers around the world

  • recognized the warfare would never be the same.

  • Military thinking moved away from the stalemate of trench warfare,

  • and focused on the use of the new wonder weapons --- aircraft.

  • It had become apparent that

  • bombers would prove decisive in any future conflict.

  • The bomber was believed would always get through.

  • In the 1930's,

  • this bomber doctrine got real momentum.

  • Attention now turned

  • to modernizing America's obsolescent Air Corps.

  • Modern bombers were needed

  • to replace the fabric and wood aircraft of the last war.

  • On August the 8th 1934,

  • the US Army Air Corps

  • issued a circular proposal that called for a bomber

  • with a maximum speed of 250 miles per hour.

  • That's operated 10,000 feet

  • and have a range of 2,000 miles.

  • Designs would be company funded

  • and submitted for testing within a year.

  • The victor would win a production run up to 120 aircraft.

  • Titling on the brink of bankruptcy,

  • the Boeing Aircraft Company left to the challenge.

  • In a bold move,

  • Boeing under the visionary leadership of Edward C. Wells

  • committed most of its capital and manpower

  • to the project they called Model 299.

  • It was a fantastic gamble.

  • In August 1934,

  • Boeing began building a radical, all metal, 4-engine aircraft.

  • "It had

  • beautiful lines and was a long wing airplane

  • and that all the turrets were

  • attractive, just a nice looking airplane

  • and Boeing had always been noted for making beautiful airplanes."

  • Boeing's new plane would be fitted with an array of machine guns

  • and an internal weapon's bay.

  • It was a bold design,

  • one that far exceeded the requirements of the proposal.

  • On July the 28th of 1935,

  • just 11 months after the competition had started,

  • Boeing's model 299

  • rolled out of the company's factory in Seattle

  • becoming America's first all metal, 4 engine bomber.

  • "Closely guarded, the Army newest bomber

  • and America's largest ?land scene

  • is prepared for its 1st flight at Seattle.

  • It's Boeing 299.

  • With all her machine gun turrets, it weighs 15 tons,

  • and is reported to have cost nearly half a million."

  • A newspaper reporter attending the event

  • was impressed by the immense size

  • and the number of gun emplacements on the aircraft,

  • and exclaimed

  • why it's a flying fortress.

  • "While my father used to say,

  • 'Look at all that armor you got

  • and I said, "Dad you could put your finger to the side of the airplane,

  • if you really pushed really hard."

  • "It was just an aluminum box flying in the skylight

  • and all it was with some guns sticking out of it

  • with the load of bombs

  • like a paper bag."

  • "With all the hardware and all the guns it had on it,

  • it truly was a flying fortress."

  • Boeing's legendry aircraft was born.

  • But the all important contract was still to be won.

  • Alongside Boeing's offering,

  • 2 rival twin engine designs

  • were also evaluated by the Army Air Corps,

  • Martin's B-12

  • and Douglas's DB-1.

  • On the morning of the 30th of October,

  • disaster struck.

  • During the evaluation,

  • the Boeing prototype bomber stalled after take-off

  • and crashed to the Wright Field.

  • "Between the aircraft company it had invested

  • in the Model 299 Projects,

  • now __ __ from the Army Air Corps

  • and now the program ?lay in tatters.

  • In addition,

  • they lost their two pilots

  • which effectively put them out of running for the contract."

  • Boeing's Model 299 was disqualified from the competition,

  • and the company lost the contract.

  • Douglas's DB-1 triumphed,

  • and 133 of the bombers were ordered.

  • But despite the crash,

  • Model 299 had impressed the Air Corps,

  • and a small number were purchased

  • for further evaluation.

  • It was not the order Boeing had hoped for,

  • but it was a start.

  • Modifications to the aircraft followed,

  • and in February 1937,

  • the Air Corps ordered 10 more aircraft,

  • now called YB-17's.

  • These aircraft fitted with superchargers had a ceiling of 30,000 feet.

  • But in the dark days of September 1939

  • as Europe descended into war,

  • Douglas's bombers were taking too long to get off the production lines,

  • and were proving underpowered.

  • Boeing's B-17

  • was the only operational heavy bomber in the United States,

  • but the Air Corps owns just 30

  • New YB-17's

  • would now be fitted with power-operated turrets above

  • and below the fuselage.

  • And 2 more sets of twin guns are added to the tail

  • and radio operator's positions.

  • By March 1941,

  • B-17's were being transformed

  • from an advanced prototype

  • to a full-powered super-bomber ready for war.

  • Under the terms of its Lend - Lease agreements,

  • America sent 20 of these fortress YB-17s

  • to Britain's Royal Air Force.

  • But the B-17's first delivery flight

  • ended in disaster.

  • At high altitude over the skies of England,

  • the bomber experienced a power failure

  • and crashed.

  • It was an inauspicious start.

  • But despite these problems,

  • on the 8th of July 1941,

  • 2 Fortress 1's, belonging to the RAF,

  • bombed Wilhelmshaven in Germany.

  • "Wilhelmshaven,

  • a main target,

  • is a number one target

  • for it's a major naval base

  • and a great shipbuilding center."

  • This first mission

  • also ended in disaster.

  • At high altitude,

  • all of the guns froze

  • and the bombs were dropped wide off the target.

  • Later 8 fortress 1's were shot down.

  • It looks as though the B-17 would go down in history as a failure.

  • "The British experience of the

  • fortress one was a resounding failure.

  • The aircraft

  • was found to suffer from a number of mechanical failures.

  • The guns froze when at high altitude.

  • It lacked defensive armament

  • to fight off the determined attack by the enemy.

  • And it was also difficult to put ordnance on target

  • from that height.

  • The RAF therefore concluded

  • that the best thing would be to

  • increase its defensive armament

  • use it in greater numbers for protective purposes

  • and also use it at lower altitudes."

  • Now the RAF immediately

  • pulled the Fortress from European combat

  • and promptly reassigned it to the Middle East.

  • As war intensified in Europe,

  • and diplomatic relations between the USA and Japan deteriorated,

  • America moved its YB-17's

  • to bases in the Pacific.

  • On December 7th, 1941,

  • as a flight of unarmed YB-17's

  • arrived at Hickam Field, Hawaii,

  • Japan ended America's isolationism.

  • At Pearl Harbor,

  • 12 B-17's were destroyed on the ground.

  • And all of the unarmed aircraft flying in were damaged

  • or lost.

  • From the ashes of destruction in Hawaii,

  • Americas' troubled B-17's

  • had to prove its doubt was wrong.

  • With America at war,

  • the Flying Fortress was about to be thrown into Pearl Harbor.

  • As America rushed headlong into war,

  • production of YB-17's went into full swing.

  • On December the 8th 1941,

  • Boeing Executive Jake Harman,

  • made a phone call to Plant Two at Seattle.

  • His conversation was concise

  • and to the point.

  • "Start building airplanes."

  • "How many?"

  • "Just start building.

  • Never mind the schedules.

  • Tell US how much money,

  • and what things you need and when"

  • As Harman made his call,

  • B-17's in the Pacific

  • started flying reconnaissance missions

  • to track the Japanese battle fleet.

  • Off the coast of Luzon,

  • a Japanese convoy was spotted.

  • Five YB-17's attacked

  • and the Flying Fortress became the 1st US aircraft

  • to drop its bombs in WWII.

  • But it was in Europe

  • that the Fortress would become a legend.

  • By early 1942,

  • in accordance with the Allied 'Europe First' policy,

  • Major General Carl Spaatz,

  • suggests that the 8th Air Force

  • be designated the core of the Army Air Forces in Britain.

  • Now America prepared to send its new 'heavies' to front line units in England.

  • Recognizing the value of bombing to the war in Europe,

  • Britain's Prime Minister Winston Churchill

  • and President Franklin Roosevelt

  • agreed on the use of airpower in the theatre.

  • "Churchill and Roosevelt

  • both unequivocally endorsed the strategic bombing.

  • In January 1943,

  • they had called for the unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan

  • and they saw strategic bombing as the overwhelming

  • force that would quickly end the war

  • by destroying the German industrial complex

  • and demoralizing its civilian population,

  • They reasoned that they could

  • grind to a halt Hitler's war machine."

  • Earlier in 1942,

  • Allied command identified special targets

  • to be given absolute priority.

  • Submarine construction facilities,

  • aircraft factories,

  • ball-bearing production plants,

  • and oil-refineries

  • were at the top of the list.

  • The RAF and 8th Air Force

  • plan a co-coordinated non-stop day and night bomber offensive.

  • From then on,

  • B-17's would operate by day,

  • in full view of the German Luftwaffe.

  • Flying a B-17 in combat without the fighter escort

  • was pretty close to being suicidal.

  • It wasn't until they learned the lesson the hard way

  • that you can't fly these airplanes.

  • They were just not well protected

  • because the enemy that we were contending with

  • was highly sophisticated,

  • good weapons and good airplanes."

  • On August 17th 1942,

  • the US launches its first raid of the war in Europe.

  • With no fighter cover,

  • the B-17's made the attack on their own.

  • "At 15:26 hours,

  • the first daylight mission from a base in England was launched.

  • Strategic airpower was born."

  • As B-17's were to be operated without fighter escort,

  • Great emphasis was placed on flying in a defensive wedge formation.

  • By stacking the aircraft in an orderly pattern,

  • it was believed that their arcs of fire

  • would be enough to repel fighter attacks.

  • This theory would be severely tested.

  • "We in the United States,

  • the Army Air Corp at that time

  • had no tactics.

  • They didn't know how to go at it,

  • and our adversaries over in Germany,

  • they had been

  • fighting and flying since 1939,

  • so they were old hands at what we were just learning."

  • "You had the high squadron.

  • You had the low squadron,

  • and you had the middle squadron.

  • You flew in a formation

  • basically like this.

  • The tighter you flew,

  • and the reason for tight formation is

  • that the fighters could not go through your formation

  • and break it up, which they would attempt to do."

  • "No matter what angle a fighter came at you

  • from he had

  • a lot of 50 caliber machine guns

  • shooting at him

  • because the way the formation was stacked

  • almost every gunner

  • on the right side of the aircraft, for instance,

  • could shoot at the fighter."

  • Though the unescorted bombers had some protection against fighters,

  • there was nothing they could do

  • to avoid flieger abwehr kanonen - 'flak'.

  • Fired from the ground,

  • these lethal 88mm shells

  • were set to explode at the same altitude as the aircraft.

  • Once the German gunners zeroed in on the B-17's,

  • the results could be devastating.

  • "I always thought that flak was

  • more dangerous than fighters were because

  • you could see a fighter coming

  • and you could shoot back but you never knew

  • when you might get hit by the flak shell

  • and there was lots of it.

  • They used to say that flak

  • smoke was so thick you could walk on it up there

  • and it was almost true."

  • "Well anti-aircraft is like going down a bumpy road,

  • with a car with no shock absorbers on it

  • and every time you're shot the thing would go up,

  • aerial bump and jump

  • up and down.

  • I mean you are going this way,

  • you are going right, you are going left, you are going up and down."

  • In January 1943,

  • Churchill and Roosevelt met at the Casablanca Conference,

  • and they agreed a policy on a strategic bombing campaign.

  • And what became known as the "Casablanca Directive"

  • --- the 8th Air Force was given the responsibility

  • to ensure 'the progressive destruction

  • and dislocation of the German military,

  • industrial and economic system'.

  • But flying unescorted in daylight hours

  • poses a real threat to the bombers crews.

  • Flying at a mere 200 mph,

  • the B-17's were sitting ducks for the German Luftwaffe.

  • At 30,000 feet,

  • the crews of the unpressurized B-17's,

  • operated in extreme conditions.

  • Encumbered by bulky clothing,

  • engaging an enemy fighter was no easy task.

  • "It's 55 below zero up there

  • and even though we had heaters in the cockpit,

  • the poor gunners back in the rear,

  • they had no heat

  • and even though they wore heated suits,

  • some of them,

  • and wore a lot of clothing,

  • it was still very cold back there

  • and frostbite was a problem for them."

  • "The biggest thing that people don't realize is people sweat,

  • at 45 degrees below zero.

  • You sat there sweating,

  • maybe it was fear sweat, I don't know."

  • The crews had good reason to be fearful

  • as German pilots identified a weakness in the aircraft's defenses.

  • A frontal attack concentrating on the nose

  • and its minimal armor

  • was the best way to down the heavy.

  • "Well when we first got there,

  • they made most of their attacks from the tails,

  • and that didn't bother the pilots because we couldn't see them. .. .

  • Then, about halfway through,

  • when, they switched to head-on stuff,

  • and it wasn't just one plane coming head on,

  • it was a whole flight, like 4 to 6 planes coming in."

  • "They had more guts than Dick Tracy, I'll tell you ...

  • It amazed me

  • that one of these guys could take a Me-109

  • and fly right through the middle of your group.

  • You knew that they were showing off,

  • They were trying to scare the heck out of you, and they were doing it."

  • "The head on attacks by the German airplanes

  • would shoot out people in the nose.

  • It was a vulnerable position.

  • They would get the pilots

  • or get the bombardier or get the navigator.

  • In April 1943,

  • during the attack on the Focke-Wulf plant at Bremen,

  • 16 B-17's were destroyed,

  • the heaviest loss rate to date.

  • But for the 8th Air Force,

  • things were about to go from bad to worse.

  • On August the 17th,

  • American forces plan to attack the ball-bearing factories at Schweinfurt.

  • "The factories at Schweinfurt

  • produces 52%

  • out of the total number of anti-friction bearings manufactured in Germany.

  • This concentration of critical production capacity

  • caused the Allied Chiefs of Staff

  • to assign a top priority to the target."

  • "The Germans of course were determined to defend the place,

  • because it was important.

  • So they put every fighter up that they could get a hold of, I guess,

  • and they did

  • they did some real bad damage

  • to the 8th Air Force that day."

  • Of the 211 Fortresses dispatched on the raid,

  • 60 were lost

  • - over a quarter of the attacking force.

  • The attrition rate in

  • crewmen and B-17's

  • was extremely high.

  • And in the early days,

  • your chances of survival was 1 in 3.

  • that's a __ should know that

  • you have to fly 25 missions.

  • Your chances of survival was just almost nil.

  • By 1943,

  • the US 8th Air Force in Britain

  • suffered the highest attrition rate of the war.

  • Less than a third of B-17 crews were expected to survive.

  • At this rate,

  • the 8th Air Force would only last another few weeks

  • Something needed to be done..

  • ??? August 1943,

  • nearly ended the American daylight bombing-offensive in Europe.

  • Realizing its loss-rate was unsustainable,

  • the Army Air Force halted its offensive

  • to rethink and regroup.

  • For the crews of B-17's,

  • it was an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the aircraft

  • and form bonds that would last for lifetime.

  • 10 men in the crew,

  • 4 officers, a pilot & a co-pilot,

  • navigator and bombardier they were officers

  • all the rest were enlisted men.

  • Each man has his own battle station on the aircraft.

  • "The navigator and the bombardier

  • were in the nose of the aircraft;

  • and ...

  • you crawl through a hatch

  • and then you go up into the pilot's compartment."

  • Here the pilot,

  • co-pilot,

  • and flight engineer have their stations.

  • "Quite naturally the pilot and copilot were real buddies

  • because they had to look at each other side by side.

  • They had to make sure that all of these buttons were punched

  • and all of this electrical and all this hydraulics

  • were functioning and everything

  • so they were very, very close. They needed to be."

  • "And then the engineer, when he wasn't manning his turret,

  • would stand between the pilot and co-pilot

  • and read off air speed indicators and that kind of stuff."

  • Behind the cockpit, in his own room, was the radio operator.

  • "He had a little space in there,

  • It's kind of like a room and he had all his radios set up in there."

  • Further back behind the radio operator,

  • the ball turret gunner has a slightly smaller room all of his own.

  • "Well,

  • if you ever open a can of sardines you know how it looks,

  • It's all full.

  • The ball turret was that way.

  • I wouldn't get in that

  • ball turret if they gave me the airplane.

  • I don't know how else to put it.

  • The guys that got in there I think deserved a medal

  • just for doing it."

  • Behind the ball,

  • in the largest compartment of the fortress,

  • the two waist gunners kept up a constant vigil for enemy fighters.

  • "Then you had your tail gunner

  • that added up to your 10 people.

  • I depend on you, you're the pilot, you depend on me 'cause I'm a gunner

  • and they __ __ __.

  • Each position has a responsibility

  • to the other guys.

  • It was a very close knit little family,

  • I mean, everybody had to do their job.

  • Everybody depended upon the other guy to do his job.

  • If some guy failed to do his job,

  • something could go wrong."

  • In picturesque rural England,

  • surrounded by friendly civilians,

  • the young American airmen of the 8th Air Force

  • adjusted to life on the front line.

  • Many would not survive the war.

  • But in the tranquil surroundings of the English country side,

  • there were plenty of opportunities to make the most of their tour.

  • "Well to say the least coming from a big city like Chicago,

  • there was like a culture shock."

  • "Of course we had to buy our bicycles.

  • It's the only way we could get around over there

  • and without their help

  • we couldn't even ve found a place to buy a bicycle.

  • And there was no shortage of American money.

  • The shortage was in

  • finding something to buy to spend our money."

  • "You usually

  • got yourself a bicycle as soon as you got over there

  • and we would ride that 7 miles into Arundel in the evening and

  • hit the pub

  • and have a few pints of mild

  • and bitter or nut brown or whatever,

  • and fraternize with the Brits.

  • One of the expressions they used

  • was that the only problem with the Yanks

  • was they were over-sexed and overpaid and over there,

  • and we heard this once in a while."

  • "We were doing the same thing their guys were doing

  • and the kids got close to us

  • because they'd be coming looking for gum chew,

  • looking for candy, because you had no sugar.

  • They had nothing like that.

  • And we were not a heck of lot older than some of those kids,

  • maybe 6 or 7 years old

  • and we were 19 or 20, so we were kind of like their big brothers."

  • A tour of duty in England was 25 missions,

  • but with an average life expectancy of just 14 missions.

  • For a B-17 crew in the European Theater,

  • many would not survive.

  • "We had to fly 25 missions, and they told us,OK ..

  • all you have to do is fly 25 missions and you go back to the States.

  • Right now, we're currently running a 4% attrition rate.

  • 4 times 25 it was no go, you know ...

  • But .. that's how bad it was."

  • Studies carried out in 1943

  • show ?too

  • that about half of the B-17's loss in combat

  • had left the safety of the formation.

  • The conclusion was that a B-17 on its own

  • stood little chance of survival.

  • In 1944,

  • efforts were made to revise

  • the standard bomber combat formation

  • and a new 36-plane formation was devised.

  • Three clusters,

  • each consisting of 12 B-17's,

  • replaced the existing 18-strong grouping.

  • Flying in a v-shaped echelon,

  • the aircraft are packed tight together in the sky.

  • Never before could the mass ?ranks of the B-17's

  • concentrated firepower

  • with such accuracy and volume.

  • But flying so close together provided new dangers.

  • When you are flying very tight formation

  • and a plane within the formation,

  • let's say got a direct hit and the thing blew up.

  • He takes quite a few other airplanes with him,

  • and that did it happen."

  • "What you were supposed to do

  • was to back off a little bit and not fly so close,

  • unless you were under fighter.

  • If you were under fighter attack well then

  • you are supposed to really get up there close and get a concentrated fire power."

  • In the busy skies over Europe,

  • accidents could and did happen.

  • "I looked off to the left and there were two B-17's that had collided,

  • and we saw one cut the other one in half

  • and the tail go one way

  • and the plane go another way

  • and the other plane go to the right.

  • And we looked out

  • and saw these fellows falling out of the waist

  • with no parachutes."

  • "The sad thing that happened was

  • that the tail gunner bailed out

  • and he did not have a chute hooked to the harness.

  • When he bailed out, it was a chest chute.

  • He just had it in his hand,

  • and the slip string tore away from him,

  • So he had 27,000 feet to fall

  • with no, no support.

  • My thought was he had plenty of time to say his prayers before he hit."

  • By the end of 1943,

  • the latest model of the B-17

  • had additional mountings

  • for hand-held machineguns in the 'cheek' of the aircraft

  • and a power operated turret in the chin.

  • This G model

  • was the last and most extensively produced version of the fortress.

  • It boasted a total armament of 13 .50 cal machine guns,

  • transforming the B-17 from a tough bomber

  • to a true fortress!

  • After the disastrous Schweinfurt raids

  • in Aug. and Sep. 1943,

  • deep penetration raids into Germany were halted.

  • The arrival of the P-51 Mustang,

  • a single seat long-range fighter,

  • meant the Fortresses

  • would last have the additional protection they so badly needed.

  • By December,

  • the B-17 was ready

  • for re-entry into European operations.

  • Now the Allies concentrated

  • on delivering a 'knock-out blow' to the Nazi war machine.

  • "By Feb 1944,

  • the Army Air Force was ready to begin it's attack

  • against the German aircraft manufacturing industry.

  • By destroying the Luftwaffe in the factory,

  • it would be possible to conduct

  • further strikes against other strategic targets.

  • It was to be the biggest bombing missions yet.

  • Some 3,500 aircraft

  • all to bomb within the space of a week

  • that would soon become known as the 'big week'."

  • For the crews of the B-17's,

  • this 'Big Week'

  • began much the same as any other.

  • ___ at 3, and ___ at 4!

  • "You started in the middle of the night, actually,

  • to go to the briefing

  • and they'd put a yarn deal across a map up there,

  • from our field

  • to where the target was,

  • and most of the time,

  • it looked like it was going halfway around the world."

  • "There were certain cities that

  • if they pulled the curtain back at the briefing in the morning

  • and you saw the string going to that place, why,

  • you knew you were in for it."

  • "When they pulled that curtain back up there

  • to show you where you were going,

  • you should've heard the moaning and groaning

  • from all the crews that were out there listening."

  • But the cost of the 'Big Week' was heavy.

  • 244 bombers

  • and 33 fighter planes were lost.

  • 2,600 men were either killed or wounded

  • in just 7 days.

  • "It was a living hell, ha ha ha ...

  • It was bad going in there and coming back.

  • That's the most flak I ever saw in one place.

  • That was the heaviest.

  • The heaviest defense I had ever seen in my life."

  • These raids paved a crucial role

  • in helping to reduce the overall strength of the Luftwaffe

  • and paving the way for D-Day.

  • During the offensive,

  • the back of the Luftwaffe was broken.

  • Now the B-17 crews

  • could turn their attention

  • to the most perilous bombing mission of them all - Berlin.

  • Hermann Goering,

  • Commander In Chief of the Luftwaffe,

  • had claimed that enemy bombs would never fall on Berlin.

  • And he had a good reason to believe it.

  • As Hitler's capital and the heart of the Nazi war machine,

  • Berlin was the most heavily defended city in all ?the fortressed Europe.

  • It was ringed by tens of thousands

  • of lethal 88mm anti-aircraft guns and fighters.

  • But, by early 1944,

  • production of new fighters

  • had all but dried out.

  • The crews of the B-17's

  • knew that they would be the targets

  • of highly trained German fighter pilots.

  • "German fighters were a big problem, I'll tell ya,

  • and there were a lot of them,

  • and these guys had been flying since 1939

  • and they had the tactics done perfect.

  • They would come right at you

  • and roll over,

  • come on out and come back up again."

  • "There was a group of

  • German fighters,

  • yellow-nosed Fockewolves,

  • the 'Abbeville kids' we called them.

  • Those guys were sharp,

  • really sharp.

  • We hated to see those things get in the air

  • because they were good pilots."

  • To make a successful bombing run,

  • the B-17s relied on their bombardier

  • and a top-secret device known as the Norden bombsight.

  • "The Norden bombsight

  • was basically a computer, a mechanical computer.

  • It was a unique piece of equipment.

  • It was classified at the time

  • but we had a set of cross hairs in it

  • My job was

  • to put the cross hairs on the target and keep them on the target.

  • Now the other factor would be

  • in drift,

  • so the wind would effect the drifting of the airplane

  • and my job was to kill the drift

  • and keep making adjustments into our heading

  • to the point where the cross hairs would not drift off the target."

  • "They used to say they could drop them in a pickle barrel from 10,000 feet,

  • .. that was fiction. it wasn't that good.

  • But they did some very good bombing."

  • Over Berlin,

  • the B-17's would have to fly straight and level

  • through the heaviest flak barrage imaginable

  • before the bombardier can release his bombs accurately.

  • "The bombardier actually flew the airplane on the bomb run.

  • The airplane would be put on automatic pilot

  • and his bombsight

  • would automatically

  • compute the angle that the bomb should drop.

  • It would do a very good job of getting the bomb on the target."

  • "What will drive you up a wall

  • is if whoever that lead bombardier is up there

  • goes over the target

  • and doesn't drop.

  • Then you make a 360-degree circle around

  • and come back over the target again,

  • and you've got to go through that same flak all over again.

  • And if you could, you'd get out there

  • and beat that guy half to death."

  • Nicknamed the 'Big B' by the crews of the B-17,

  • the 'heavies' of the 8th Air Force,

  • prepare for a grim attrition fight over Berlin.

  • For many,

  • it would be their last mission of their war.

  • On March the 4th 1944,

  • William Menzies was on his way to Berlin.

  • "I called the top turret and I says,

  • 'We got fighters coming in.'

  • He says, "no,no, they're ours __ __... "

  • But I said, "Below them,

  • look at them." and about that time they opened up.

  • I say, "What the hell do you think those are landing lights?

  • They show and shining at us?

  • You've become only one person

  • on that little old airplane. They're all after you.

  • That's what I'm saying.

  • When they're shooting at you,

  • you're in the smallest part of the airplane,

  • But then,

  • it points to land right between your eyes,

  • you know, like an inverted ice cream cone.

  • I saw somebody go out,

  • and I got on my intercom to find out

  • what was happening, and I had no intercom. So I thought,

  • 'Well, I'd better find out what's happening.' So

  • I left my guns because

  • they weren't doing me too much good.

  • And I crawled out of my gun position;

  • I crawled through there with my harness on.

  • I'd left my parachute where it was.

  • There was one guy laying in the waist. His chute was pulled.

  • But ...

  • he wasn't moving, so I assumed he was dead.

  • Smitty, my co-pilot,

  • I could see him down on the bomb bay.

  • I don't know whether he was getting ready to jump or not;

  • and he says

  • .. he goes like that,

  • and I assumed he said to go.

  • But I couldn't go. My chute was back in the tail, so

  • I turned around and I crawled back,

  • and as I was crawling back in, I hooked my harness on something

  • and I backed up. I couldn't get off of it.

  • I went forward, I couldn't get off of it,

  • and panic was setting in now.

  • And I got talking to the man upstairs in a hurry;

  • I told him I'd even go back to church if he gets me out of this one.

  • When people up front to leave it.

  • It's time for me to leave.

  • I didn't want to be in it if it started to spin,

  • I'd made up my mind I wasn't going to be in it if it ever hit the ground."

  • William Menzies

  • parachuted safely away from the aircraft.

  • but was captured.

  • For him, the war was over.

  • On March the 4th 1944,

  • the B-17's pounded a suburb of Berlin.

  • And 2 days later, they revisited the city,

  • but this 2nd raid was costly.

  • 69 bombers were shot down in those cities.

  • The largest loss of 'heavies' the 8th Air Force had suffered on a single raid.

  • But the men of the 8th had fought hard.

  • 160 German fighters were destroyed

  • and Berlin was in flames.

  • In the sustained and ruthless bombardment,

  • Boeing's Flying Fortress

  • reduced almost 60% of the city to rubble.

  • But the crews of the B-17s had little time for remorse.

  • "Our war was up there

  • with the fighters,

  • . You know, I'm saying.. I'm not trying to make little of this,

  • I'm just saying that's the way we looked at it.

  • This was our war, 5 miles in the sky.

  • Down in there,

  • .. we didn't even

  • .. I didn't consider

  • that people were dying."

  • Out of the smoky haze of the battle for Berlin,

  • emerged an icon of the American air war in Europe

  • --- the B-17 Flying Fortress.

  • With Berlin in ruins

  • and the Luftwaffe down to a mere token force,

  • the B-17's and their crews were given a new target.

  • One that will end the war in Europe

  • once and for all.

  • By early 1944,

  • German oil production,

  • the lifeblood of the Reich's war machine,

  • had remained largely immune to the air war.

  • Though the Allies already attempted

  • to knock out the oil production facilities at Ploesti in Romania,

  • German synthetic oil supplies continued to be produced.

  • "At the end of March 1944,

  • when final plans

  • for the Allied invasion of Europe were being drawn up,

  • about 30% of the total petroleum available to Germany

  • came from the refineries at Ploesti, Romania."

  • "At the beginning of 1944,

  • following the systematic destruction

  • of the German aircraft manufacturing industries,

  • the strategic bombing target became oil.

  • Oil and lubricants

  • are the lifeline of any army

  • and the Army Air Force reasoned

  • that by striking oil production sites,

  • the enemy could be hampered in it's ability to wage war."

  • With its oil reserves,

  • Hitler's war machine could

  • and would fight on.

  • As a matter of urgency, planes were put in place

  • to smash Germany's fuel production.

  • Once again the B-17 Flying Fortresses

  • would be in the frontline.

  • On May 12th 1944,

  • the American attacks on German oil production began.

  • During the month, strategic bombers

  • dropped some 5,100 tons of bombs on oil targets.

  • In August,

  • the tonnage skyrocketed

  • to 26,300 tons.

  • And in November,

  • it reached a climax.

  • No less than 35,000 tons of heavy-duty explosives

  • were dropped on crucial oil installations.

  • But this offensive was taking its toll.

  • In the 1st 3 months against these oil targets,

  • the 8th lost 922 'heavies'

  • - a staggering number.

  • Another 10,000 men

  • would never make it home.

  • "The defense of those targets was immense.

  • If I recall,

  • there was something on the order of

  • 3,300 anti-aircraft guns around Leipzig

  • at the end of the war.

  • What happened with the Germans

  • is they would pull all their anti-aircraft guns back in

  • as they started losing territory.

  • So the later part of the war,

  • it wasn't fighters that was your major opposition,

  • It was anti-aircraft

  • because they had the concentration of those guns.

  • And those 88's would come right there with us."

  • By September,

  • German fuel production was down to a quarter of its normal capacity.

  • The remnants of the Luftwaffe were grounded

  • out of gruel,

  • and became target practice

  • for the B-17's escort fighters.

  • "Fighters returning from unchallenged escort missions

  • were ordered to seek targets of opportunity.

  • Since the enemy did not come up to fight,

  • down they went to blast his planes and burn them in their airdromes."

  • 500 enemy aircraft were being destroyed each week

  • --- many of them on the ground.

  • By late November 1944,

  • almost the entire might of the 8th Air Force

  • was directed at destroying German oil facilities.

  • Leading from the front,

  • the B-17 spearheads

  • what the Reich's Armaments Minister Albert Speer called,

  • "the end of German armament production".

  • Without fuel,

  • entire units of the German army

  • were forced to abandon their vehicles.

  • For them,

  • the game was up.

  • Berlin was still to be taken.

  • But with the Allies closing in for the kill,

  • the strategic bombing campaign was over.

  • The B-17 had done its job.

  • By May the 7th 1945,

  • as Germany surrendered,

  • it had lost 95% of its fuel industry.

  • Its war machine

  • had ground to a halt.

  • In just over 1,000 days of combat,

  • the 8th Air Force had used up 99 million rounds of ammunition,

  • and destroyed 18,810 enemy aircraft.

  • Of the 1.5 million tons of bombs

  • dropped by all Allied aircraft in Europe,

  • the B-17 Flying Fortress accounted for almost a third.

  • The airplane that crashed during testing back in 1937

  • and was almost never built

  • had become a war winner

  • - and a legend in combat history.

  • "17'S came back

  • with some of the most horrible damage you've ever seen,

  • almost broken in 2 some of them, but they'd get back

  • and they land.

  • They could take more punishment, I think, than any other bomber aircraft."

  • "Well, I think It was a wonderful airplane,

  • and it took a heck of a lot of beating

  • and

  • if it hadn't been for the B-17,

  • I more like wouldn't be sitting here talking to you.

  • Because it could be any other aircraft, I would more likely have been dead."

  • In just 4 years,

  • more than 12,000 B-17s were built.

  • 250,000 Men had flown them in Europe,

  • and more than 46,500

  • American airmen had been killed or wounded.

  • The B-17 Flying Fortress had lived up to its billing.

  • Despite the losses,

  • it'd proved itself to be a durable

  • and dependable aircraft.

  • And one that extracted a high price in combat

  • helping to end German resistance in the 2nd WW.

  • "I don't think we could have won it without the B-17 or something

  • by another name

  • that did the same thing

  • that a B-17 did.

  • And there was no other plane at the time that could do that."

  • Everyone that I've known that flew in the B-17

  • was just proud as punch about the unit in its entirety.

  • to good engine,

  • good unit.

  • It's a good plane.

  • The epitaph, if there is one, it shout be it.

  • This is the best airplane -

  • bomber

  • that ever flew in WWII.

  • My testimony.

It was the most potent symbol of the American airpower in military history.

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