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  • Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.

    Post 16 Update

    Post 17 Warning

Helldiver (B-17G)

PRB

PRB

Administrator
Staff member
I thought of you, Helldiver, while reading a book called The Fall of Fortresses, by Elmer Bendiner, who was a navigator with the 379TH BG. He flew in B-17Fs, and this book is about his experience, particularly on the Schweinfurt missions. After his plane went down over the English Channel, they received a new plane just in time for the next Schweinfurt mission in October 1943. He writes:

"Our crew, with replacements, had a brand-new shiny plane, a B-17G, with twin guns in a nose turret. It was the only one of its kind on the field. No one else would have it, because the double chin was a drag in flight. It would take more power to keep in formation..."

He does note that the bombardier was in love at first sight of that power turret. He would, after all, get to shoot them!
 
And....

....it's nice to realize that history lives on, as the 379 Air Expeditionary Wing is currently operational over at Al Udeid, Qatar...

K.
 
The front turret was bourne out of frontal attacks made by Germans pilots. But they had abandoned that approch because the closing times were too short to get much ammuntion on target. So the Gs were stuck with it. That and the added armor made the G overweight and cut into the range and payload. Compared to the Lancaster the B-17 was a piker.
 
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