"Damaged B-17 Bomber That Miraculously Made It Home"
This B-17G-75-BO (s/n 43-38071) landed at Brustem Airfield in Belgium on March 17, 1945, after a mid-air collision with another B-17G (s/n 43-38046).
Both aircraft were from the 490th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force. This plane took off with its standard crew of 10 but landed with 11 aboard one dead. The body of radio operator (Sgt. George Devlin) from the other B-17 was somehow thrown into the nose of this aircraft during the collision.

B-17 ditching rehearsal on a wreck
Attached File


Attached File


Attached File


Attached File


B-17 ditching mockup constructed for training by the 396th Bombardment Group RTU at Drew Field, Florida
Attached File


Attached File


Real thing
Attached File

Armored radio controlled dive bomb target speed boats tied up in St. Louis, enroute from Great Lakes Training Station to join naval units in Gulf of Mexico
Attached File


Attached File


Attached File


Similar RAF target boat
Attached File


Unusual "A4 High Altitude Bombing Target Boat".  Radio controls by Wright Field, plywood construction, twin hull catamaran, 50' x 200', 20 knots, 4 hours of fuel


Here's a bombing run against a speed boat target at 0:50

wish the early airframe at drew field would have survived.

B-17C
Attached File


B-17C's and D's of the 19th Bombardment Group about to depart for the Philippines, 1941
Attached File


Iba Field, Luzon, October 1941.  "Bathtub" gondola behind boarding ladder.
Attached File

US 92nd Bombardment Group at RAF Alconbury, UK   "This is where B-17F 42-29685 sat while being loaded with 10 500lb bombs when something went wrong on May 27 1943, killing 19 and injuring 20 more. In addition 3 other aircraft were destroyed."  11 others damaged
Attached File


Attached File


Attached File


Attached File


Attached File
c

I always thought the tail looked a little weak compared to the later F and on models. Had that not been changed would it have held up under actual field use?

The original tail was probably optimized for the aerodynamic needs of the aircraft.  The original models didn't have a tail gunner, and the waist gun blisters were quite a bit different and tucked in for stream lining.   As the US realized it was going to have to have a lot more fire power on board to fend off waves of enemy fighters, it had to make changes to the back of the aircraft.

The larger and sturdier tail was the result of a tail gunner position being added, and the fuselage was also lengthened.   With that came a larger diameter after section of the fuselage to accommodate those things.   I think the forward fairing was more to improve the aerodynamics due to the tail gunner position, and the larger vertical stabilizer was likely needed for aero balance with the longer fuselage.  It probably also was recognized at that point that having adverse yaw from an engine out may need more margin from the vertical stabilizer and rudder.

Those changes did make a more study tail which was very much beneficial, but I don't think beefing it up for combat use was the key driver.

The original Army model, with a small diameter tail fuselage and small shark fin rudder, was the YB-17 (or Y1B-17; same plane funded differently).  Seems they were already hell for stout.
Attached File


The Touch of Greatness: Colonel William C. Bentley, Jr., by by Stewart W. Jr. Bentley
"In the summer of 1938, Bill [Captain William C. Bentley, Jr., U.S. Army Air Corps, a B-17 test pilot at Langley Field] and his aircrew flew back to Seattle to pick up an additional aircraft, YB-17 tail number 36-149 from Boeing. This aircraft was different from the original thirteen. During its assembly phase at Boeing, it was packed with additional instruments for recording purposes. Once delivered to Langley, the plane was going to be subjected to a variety of stress tests in order to determine how much damage the plane could take and still operate. During its flight to Langley, Bill arrived over the field in a thunderstorm. The strength of the storm flipped the plane upside down, a stress never envisioned by the designers for such a large aircraft, much less one loaded to capacity with measuring instrumentation and a full crew. Using his fighter pilot training, Bill flew the aircraft at its maximum altitude then performed a slow roll to bring the airplane into its proper attitude. After recovering from a harrowing spin, Bill got control of the plane and landed successfully.  Much to the crew's amazement, the wings were slightly bent and some rivets were missing. But the measuring instrumentation had recorded all of the stress placed on the plane. . . ."

The B-17B/C/D got a somewhat larger shark fin rudder than the original YB-17 to improve low speed handling, apparently without modifying the fuselage substantially so I guess there might have been a little more stress than originally planned.  Nothing like that storm though.  

B-17D "The Swoose" flew to the Philippines in September 1941, got beat to hell in action as one of the few surviving B-17's in the region, then was flown extensively for the rest of the war as a general's personal transport and star of a war bond tour.  The Swoose in 1944
Attached File


"It Flys?"
Attached File


It did, and was rescued from the scrap yard at the end of the war and is gradually being restored by the USAF museum in Dayton
Attached File


I presume the wider fuselage of the B-17E and later was stronger yet, and the larger diameter would have made it more resistant to battle damage from explosive shells.  The long dorsal fin added to the B-17E and on must add a good deal to the strength of the tail.  A guy who fabricated the prototype of the first B-17 tail gun position writes a bit about it here: https://www.historylink.org/File/7137

The dorsal fin actually comes from the B-17 derived airliner Boeing 307 Stratoliner.   The Stratoliner prototype in 1938 had a shark fin rudder that was found to have inadequate authority, so the production model of 1939 had a dorsal fin long before the B-17.  Prototype with both starboard Hydromatics feathered requiring a lot of rudder to compensate - likely to be the case for a shark fin B-17 as well
Attached File


Dorsal fin production Stratoliner
Attached File

Howard Hughes had his own private Boeing 307 Stratoliner that he planned to use to set a new global circumnavigation record but the War in 1939 & 1940 made that flight impossible.

Hughes "lent" it to the USAAF for use in WW2 as an "executive transport" for high ranking officers.

Bigger_Hammer

Empty B-17 life raft stowage compartment; the radio compartment is aft of it, behind the small window
Attached File


Radio compartment, life raft deployment cables
Attached File


Stowage compartment on a training stand, rolled up rubber raft
Attached File


The cable from the radio compartment snakes through the hose to an air tank valve to inflate the raft
Attached File


Deploying
Attached File


Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.
Attached File

Experimental tracked landing gear, P-40
Attached File


Attached File


A-20 Havoc
Attached File


Attached File


Tested until about 1950 on the C-82, B-50, and B-36.  Didn't work on sand, too heavy and maintenance intensive to justify going into production.

Boeing disguised one of their main aircraft factories in Seattle during WW2 by building an entire fake neighborhood on top of its roof.
https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/operation-camouflage-hiding-aircraft-plant-under-fake-subdivision  

Another interesting camouflage attempt. This one by the Germans in Hamburg. It didn’t work…



Today-


Article-
https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/hamburg-bombing-camouflage/

Did it not work or did they miss?

Gfather was a B-17 pilot. Said the accuracy was terrible. Often they would get lost and RTB without finding the target.

The British developed H2S ground mapping radar for navigation and large area target blind bombing in early 1943, but it took awhile to work out the kinks and for production to spool up.  RAF night bombers had priority while the USAAF was discovering that navigation is hard and precision daylight bombing didn't work at all through clouds, and also didn't work particularly well in the clear for that matter.  Later USAAF daylight bomber formations would copy RAF tactics and be led by a "pathfinder" bomber equipped with improved H2X radar on a retractable turret for navigation and blind bombing through clouds, while crewed by the best navigator and bombardier of the squadron so that the lesser crews would follow their lead and drop when they did.  By late 1944 German cities had been carefully photo and radar mapped and camouflage was mostly useless, given away by large terrain features like rivers.

H2S teardrop radome and scanner, RAF Halifax
Attached File


H2S coastline image
Attached File


B-17 H2X deployed; the photographer's bomber will watch the pathfinder and drop a moment later
Attached File

Attached File

Free Arabian Legion patch, LINK   "the collective name of several Nazi German units formed from Arab volunteers from the Middle East, notably Iraq, and North Africa"  Fought in Iraq, North Africa, then used as support and anti-partisan troops in Greece and Yugoslavia

Greece
Attached File


There were a few tens of thousands of black Germans living scattered across urban Germany during WWII.  They were segregated and on the extermination list same as Jews and Gypsies but the Nazis never got around to organizing a program specifically aimed at them.  I've even read that a handful joined the Wehrmacht and confused the hell out of everybody.  However, Weimar-era Germans had a shit fit over the "Black Horror On The Rhine", French colonial troops participating in the occupation of the Rhineland, and later Hitler targeted several hundred children they had fathered and had them forcibly sterilized.

Barely reached deployment during the war, AN/APQ-7 Eagle ground mapping bombing radar.  
Attached File


Attached File


Attached File


Attached File


Attached File

I didn't know that technology existed that long ago.

Learn something new everyday here.

"Lady Moe, a Tunisian donkey, was the mascot of the 96th Bombardment Group.  Moe was picked up in an Algerian slum in August 1943 by a B-17 crew taking part in the Regensburg shuttle mission, she accompanied the crew back to England on August 24, 1943 on the return leg of the shuttle mission. On this return trip the crew bombed Bordeaux, France, making Lady Moe the only known donkey ever to fly on a combat mission."
Attached File


Attached File


"Moe became internationally famous as 'Queen of the Heath' even serving as a mascot at the Army-Navy football game at London's White City Stadium on November 12, 1944. At home at Snetterton she lent her name to the base cinema and ballpark, developed a taste for tobacco, toilet rolls and doughnuts and became increasingly irascible."
Attached File


Attached File


Attached File


"Moe died on 3 October 1945 when she wandered onto a railroad track near the base and was killed by a train. She was buried at the airbase in a simple ceremony."  RIP

You should read up on the fight between Bomber Command and the German night fighters. Lots of RADAR development moved really fast because of those 2 going at each other in the dark.

Interesting example - the arrow shaped antenna at the bottom of the tail is the RAF short range "Monica" tail warning radar, which alerted the bomber crew to a German night fighter setting up a rear approach, beginning 1942. Range only, no bearing, no firing solution for the turret.
Attached File


The Germans captured examples of Monica, determined the operating frequency, and built the Flensburg radar detector in 1944. Bomber crews were either poorly informed or not at all informed about the science behind Monica and left them on continuously (unless in formation, when they'd be turned off or else drive them nuts beeping with friendly contacts). Some Bf-110's had Flensburg antennas added to their wingtips, which would give them a rough directional fix on the transmitter, using Monica as a beacon to hunt the RAF bombers.

Wing tip Flensburg receiver; nose antenna array is a "Lichtenstein" search radar:
Attached File


Navigation over foggy Britain was always dicey and in 1944 a Bf-110 accidentally landed at a British airfield, thinking it was in France, and after examining Flensburg RAF bomber command realized what was happening and immediately discontinued Monica.

Monica still made sense in day fighters though, which were most commonly shot down by surprise rear attacks (I think - nobody has tried to do the math that I know of, but if you read pilot biographies it seems that most pilots were shot down from behind before they knew they were in a fight). Some P-38's, P-47's, and P-51's (at least) had the Monica-derived AN/APS-13 rear warning radar late in the war.

P-51 pilot's manual
Attached File


P-51 tail antenna, above 472
Attached File


And the same AN/APS-13's were adapted for use as radar altimeter triggers to air burst Little Boy
Attached File

P-47 RWR detection cone.  An enemy approaching at a sharp angle could avoid it, and there's an interesting point blank blind zone
Attached File


P-47 antenna installation and warning light next to the gunsight
Attached File


Attached File


Calvary radio horse just because
Attached File

Morse key on his leg



Attached File

What was the horse and team doing in the Holy Land?

Sigh.  At least I spelled "horse" right.
Attached File


Sweet nose art
Attached File

Finally got around to scanning some of my old family photos.

Here's a picture of my uncle (left) and grandfather (right) in their U.S. Army uniforms around 1943-44.

Attached File

Ummm....

You needed to post the back of the uniform with the Big P the GI's painted on them.

Bf 109 testing FuG 217 Neptun rear warning radar component, top of rear fuselage, undergoing compass calibration check
Attached File


FW190 with Neptun search radar on the nose and wings and rear warning radar
Attached File


Attached File


Attached File

"1st of June 1941 at the port of Alexandria and straight off the boat from Crete, a Maori soldier revealing understandable emotion after the Crete debacle"  The tongue thing is their deadly serious traditional war face, not tomfoolery.
Attached File


Attached File


Attached File

Umm, what?

Actually, my grandfather (right) was captured on the Western Front and became a P.O.W. He spent the last several months of the war with a cold concrete floor as his bunk and only toilet water for drinking.

It wasn't because his American captors were cruel or indifferent. They were just not prepared for the sudden capture or surrender of hundreds of thousands of German soldiers.

My uncle (left) was sent to the Russian Front, where he caught a belly full of machine gun fire. His comrades put him on the back of a retreating tank, but he fell off and was run over by the tank behind him.

Another guy in his unit was captured and spent ten years in a Russian prison. Upon release, he managed to find my mom and my grandparents in Lower Bavaria and told them what happened.

His bones are out there somewhere.

There's a French guy with a youtube channel called CrocodileTear. He's gone to Russia a number of times before the full scale invasion of Ukraine to help them dig for bones. Russians weren't big on dog tags. The most they find usually is a spoon with a name on it for the Russians. For the Germans, sometimes they find a dog tag that is in decent shape. He's also done a lot of work in France. It is an interesting channel.

Thanks for clearing up the cognitive dissonance from your post.

Some of the best of their kind on YouTube.   I haven't seen him post a new one in a several years.  Unlikely to happen now.

You should read up on Hans Massaquoi and his experience as a Black German during the Nazi era. His autobiography Destined to Witness. Growing up Black in Nazi Germany is interesting as hell. He served two years in the army as a paratrooper in the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division and fought in the Korean War.

Will do, thanks.

An article about him says he tried to sign up for the Hitler Youth during the drive for 100% participation, but was rejected.  Cover photo from his autobiography:
Attached File


Nobody wants to be the odd man out, especially when odd men out are disappearing in the night.

Seems there was a German made for TV movie based on his life
Part 1 with english subtitles   https://youtu.be/fojWHp3PUtY
Part 2 ruined by a computer voiceover, still has English subtitles so I guess you could watch on mute   https://youtu.be/OA7UmDguh54

@Lancelot  Wheeled Kingfishers
Attached File


Attached File


Attached File


Attached File


Walking a Kingfisher back to the hangar after a winter patrol, thought to be NAS Squantum December 1942
Attached File

How many in the crew of a Kingfisher?

Two.

Wow, that is a lot of cockpit glass for two.

The skinned over portion between cockpit and rear seat is taken up by the radio, which the rear seater operates.  Radio bearings were an important part of navigation, and he had much more room and attention to spare for charts, so I suspect he got tasked as navigator as well.  The rear seater is also the observer (searching for targets, or downed pilots in the water, or watching for enemy fighters, or observing splashes to correct the fall of shellfire) so it's helpful if he can see forward over the wing as well as straight down from behind the wing and aft.  And he's also sitting in a Scarff ring flexible gun mount with the barrel (or twin barrels) pointed aft, tucked under the canopy glass when not needed to reduce drag.  

And he was the rescue swimmer.  Also he gets to climb out on the wing to hook the plane to the recovery crane after landing. On rolling ocean waves, standing on smooth wet aluminum, the rear seater is kept from falling into the sea or into the spinning propeller blade by the pilot's grip on his belt as he hooks a Kingfisher for recovery aboard USS Arizona, September 19 1941.  
Attached File


Tough work.  The training must have been extraordinarily difficult, the job called for a warrior monk math genius gymnast with infinite patience and perfect eyesight. My respect for the rear seater climbs the more I think about it.  

Radio with direction finding ring antenna
Attached File


Flexibility of Scarff ring demonstrated, gun is pointed almost straight down over the starboard side
Attached File


Stowed position, aimed aft
Attached File


Attached File


Attached File

Kingfisher accelerates through a ship's wake towards recovery in severe conditions
Attached File


After hooks on the float snag the recovery mat towed by the ship, the rear seater climbs forward using handholds on top of canopy to hook the crane cable
Attached File


Wheeeeeee!
Attached File