how many b17s were shot down during ww2

[74] In July 1942, the first USAAF B-17s were sent to England to join the Eighth Air Force. A large radome for an S-band AN/APS-20 search radar was fitted underneath the fuselage and additional internal fuel tanks were added for longer range, with the provision for additional underwing fuel tanks. [100], A second attempt on Schweinfurt on 14 October 1943 later came to be known as "Black Thursday". These included B-17G 44-85531, registered as N809Z. Fewer than 10 are airworthy . Craven, Wesley Frank, James Lea Cate and Richard L. Watson, eds. As the Americans flew further into Europe and Germany, the missions became deadlier. [citation needed], Another early World War II Pacific engagement, on 10 December 1941, involved Colin Kelly, who reportedly crashed his B-17 into the Japanese battleship Haruna, which was later acknowledged as a near bomb miss on the heavy cruiser Ashigara. All of these modifications made the YB-40 well over 10,000lb (4,500kg) heavier than a fully loaded B-17F. [166] Perhaps the most famous B-17, the Memphis Belle, has been restored with the B-17D The Swoose under way to her World War II wartime appearance by the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. "[141] Martin Caidin reported one instance in which a B-17 suffered a midair collision with a Focke-Wulf Fw 190, losing an engine and suffering serious damage to both the starboard horizontal stabilizer and the vertical stabilizer, and being knocked out of formation by the impact. One of these Taiwan-based B-17s was flown to Clark Air Base in the Philippines in mid-September, assigned for covert missions into Tibet. The electrical systems were less vulnerable to damage than the B-24's hydraulics, and the B-17 was easier to fly than a B-24 when missing an engine. By the end of the war, the B-17 was an obsolete aircraft which had been surpassed by another Boeing bomber, the B-29 Superfortress. [79][80] On 24 July three B-17s of 90 Squadron took part in a raid on the German capital ship Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen anchored in Brest from 30,000ft (9,100 m), with the objective of drawing German fighters away from 18 Handley Page Hampdens attacking at lower altitudes, and in time for 79 Vickers Wellingtons to attack later with the German fighters refuelling. [152] According to these allegations, the practice was initially successful, but Army Air Force combat aircrews quickly developed and established standard procedures to first warn off, and then fire upon any "stranger" trying to join a group's formation. [160][168] PB-1Ws continued in USN service until 1955, gradually being phased out in favor of the Lockheed WV-2 (known in the USAF as the EC-121, a designation adopted by the USN in 1962), a military version of the Lockheed 1049 Constellation commercial airliner. [149] Others, with the cover designations Dornier Do 200 and Do 288, were used as long-range transports by the Kampfgeschwader 200 special duties unit, carrying out agent drops and supplying secret airstrips in the Middle East and North Africa. Lieutenant General Jimmy Doolittle wrote about his preference for equipping the Eighth with B-17s, citing the logistical advantage in keeping field forces down to a minimum number of aircraft types with their individual servicing and spares. ", "B-17 Flying Fortress to join CF - the Collings Foundation", "414th Squadron Planes and Crews circa 1943", "Memphis Belle bomber newly restored and unveiled at US Air Force museum", "Going from lucky in love to lucky to be alive in 1943", "The Swoose comes home to roost at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force", "A Higher Call: autographed by JG 27 Bf-109 ace Franz Stigler and Charlie Brown of the B-17 "Ye Olde Pub", "Airpower Classics: B-17 Flying Fortress. 2012-04-07 03:53:31. The operation did not work as expected, with 90 Squadron's Fortresses being unopposed. [12], The first flight of the Model 299 was on 28 July 1935 with Boeing chief test-pilot Leslie Tower at the controls. [75], Three damaged B-17s, one "D" and two "E" series, were rebuilt during 1942 to flying status by Japanese technicians and mechanics, using parts salvaged from abandoned B-17 wrecks in the Philippines and the Java East Indies. Frisbee, John L. "Valor: Colin Kelly (He was a Hero in Legend and in Fact). "[22][23], The crashed Model 299 could not finish the evaluation, disqualifying it from the competition. In contrast, of the nearly 1,100 Cobras delivered to the Army, 300 were lost. The authors of a photo book about the planes and . It was a relatively fast, high-flying, long-range bomber with heavy defensive armament at the expense of bombload. The experience showed both the RAF and USAAF that the B-17C was not ready for combat, and that improved defenses, larger bomb loads and more accurate bombing methods were required. Flight crews ferried the bombers back across the Atlantic to the United States where the majority were sold for scrap and melted down, although significant numbers remained in use in second-line roles such as VIP transports, air-sea rescue and photo-reconnaissance. This articleis part of an ongoing series commemorating the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II made possible by Bank of America. Covering 12,000 miles (19,000km) they returned on 27 February, with seven aircraft setting off on a flight to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, three days later. For other uses, see, "Flying Fortress" redirects here. The only prototype XB-38 to fly crashed on its ninth flight, and the type was abandoned. [103], To rectify the Fw 190's shortcomings, the number of cannons fitted was doubled to four, with a corresponding increase in the amount of ammunition carried, creating the Sturmbock bomber destroyer version. The current total of surviving B-17 bombers located in the United States stands at 40: Nine (9) B-17 planes are airworthy, such as "Texas Raiders", "Sentimental Journey" and "Aluminum Overcast". [98], Operation Pointblank opened with attacks on targets in Western Europe. [97], The two different strategies of the American and British bomber commands were organized at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. At the Arcadia Conference, held in Washington, DC, from December 24, 1941 to January 14, 1942, the Western Allies agreed to a Germany First policy to govern global strategy, but the question where to engage Germany, and when, remained unsettled. [14] The most distinct mount was in the nose, which allowed the single machine gun to be fired toward nearly all frontal angles. [91], The USAAF began building up its air forces in Europe using B-17Es soon after entering the war. Gift of Peggy Wallace, 2010.308.034, B-17 Flying Fortress bomber dropping bombs on targets in Europe, 1944-45. [38] The aircraft was delivered to the army on 31 January 1939. [57] The B-17's turbocharged Wright R-1820 Cyclone 9 engines were upgraded to increasingly more powerful versions of the same powerplants throughout its production, and similarly, the number of machine gun emplacement locations was increased.[61]. B-17 Flying Fortresses The B-17 Flying Fortress became a symbol of the power of the United States and its air force. 2. How many b17s were shot down? [17], At the fly-off, the four-engined Boeing's performance was superior to those of the twin-engined DB-1 and Model 146. These losses amounted to 25 percent of the attacking force. [citation needed] After the defeat in Java, the 19th withdrew to Australia, where it continued in combat until it was sent home by General George C. Kenney when he arrived in Australia in mid-1942. Originally, the B-17 was also chosen because of its heavy defensive armament, but this was later removed. The B-17's greatest success in the Pacific was in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, in which aircraft of this type were responsible for damaging and sinking several Japanese transport ships. Did any American B-17 crewman ever shoot down a German fighter plane while flying over Germany during World War II? Operational History. [140], After the first Y1B-17s were delivered to the Army Air Corps 2nd Bombardment Group, they were used on flights to promote their long range and navigational capabilities. "The Battle of the Bismarck Sea", pp. It had a crew of ten and could carry 6,000 pounds of bombs at 300 miles per hour for a range of 2,000 miles. coast. This type replaced the vulnerable twin-engine Zerstrer heavy fighters which could not survive interception by P-51 Mustangs flying well ahead of the combat boxes in an air supremacy role starting very early in 1944 to clear any Luftwaffe defensive fighters from the skies. The SB-17 served through the Korean War, remaining in service with USAF until the mid-1950s. The Germans shot down 36 aircraft with the loss of 200 men, and coupled with a raid earlier in the day against Regensburg, a total of 60 B-17s were lost that day. Categories Video World War II Related Topics World War II ", "890th Bryanskiy Bomber Aviation Regiment", "The Surprising Story of Japan's B-17 Fleet", "Warbird Registry Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress", "US Coast Guard Aviation History: Boeing PB-1G 'Flying Fortress'. Work on using B-17s to carry airborne lifeboats had begun in 1943, but they entered service in the European theater only in February 1945. A sobering statistic: Out of 1,419 Loaches built, 842 were destroyed in Vietnam, most shot down and many others succumbing to crashes resulting from low-level flying. Gift of Austin Loree, 2011.160.029, Flying Fortresses dropping bombs and smoke markers over Goppingen, Germany in 1945. No traces of the 3 captured Flying Fortresses were ever found in Japan by Allied occupation forces. ", "Second-Generation Norden Bombsight Vault", "Aviation Photography: B-17 Flying Fortress. Browne, Robert W. "The Rugged Fortress: Life-Saving B-17 Remembered.". Sakai, Saburo with Martin Caidin and Fred Saito. . There are very few films left in existence showing the Me 262 in action, especially shooting down allied bombers with P-51 escorts. German ground-based antiaircraft artillery and 300 fighters shot down 60 of the aircraft, with 600 crewmen killed or taken prisoner, the largest Army Air Force loss of the war to date. About 130 B-17s were converted to the air-sea rescue role, at first designated B-17H and later SB-17G. One of the worst days of the war for the B-17 and its crewmen was the second raid on German ball bearing production in Schweinfurt, Germany on October 14, 1943. It should have been a peaceful Sunday morning in Hawaii. [150][151] One B-17 of KG200, bearing the Luftwaffe's KG 200 Geschwaderkennung (combat wing code) markings A3+FB, was interned by Spain when it landed at Valencia airfield, 27 June 1944, remaining there for the rest of the war. A Fortress IIA from No. Later that year, two groups moved to Algeria to join Twelfth Air Force for operations in North Africa. Kelly's B-17C AAF S/N 40-2045 (19th BG / 30th BS) crashed about 6mi (10km) from Clark Field after he held the burning Fortress steady long enough for the surviving crew to bail out. It is part of the USAAC World War II Memorial Flight and makes dozens of appearances across the United Kingdom and Northern Europe.

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