Paul Nelson

The design, development, and operational record of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, a legendary American icon of WWII

B17 Flying Fortress

Legend in its time.

This documentary describes the development and deployment of the four-engined Boeing B-17, the most popular American bomber of World War II.

It was designed in the late 1930s to be a heavy bomber capable of defending itself from attack by enemy fighters. The nickname of Flying Fortress stuck, but the early models were failures. Several experimental ships crashed. And when improved versions were sent to the RAF they were found unsuitable.

Mount Everest is the highest mountain peak on earth and it&apos;s 22,000 feet high. The altitude limit on the supercharged B-17s was 19,000 feet. That&apos;s high. And it cold too. Later models were flown at 30,000 feet. The airplane was not pressurized and the waist gun ports were open. The result was that the guns froze. Bombing from high altitude also led to wildly inaccurate placement of the bombs. The RAF relegated it to low-level bombing.

But the USAF continued using it in unescorted daylight raids over Europe. It didn&apos;t work. The flak was often fierce and there was no defense against the superb German 88 mm. anti-aircraft gun. Furthermore, despite the B-17s heavy armament of ten .50 caliber machine guns, German fighters took a terrible toll. Stacking the bombers to maximize their defenses helped little. The film doesn&apos;t mention it but a number of YB-40 Flying Fortresses accompanied the squadrons on some raids. These dispensed with bombs entirely and were turned into gunships, bristling with .50 calibers, a massive ammunition supply, and armor plating to protect the gunners. In the event, the added weight and drag made it impossible for them to keep up with the squadron.

I&apos;ve always wondered why it was relatively easy for German fighters to down a bomber, and so difficult for a bomber to defend itself. I think Einstein might have shed some light on the problem. From the perspective of the fighter pilot, the bomber is a large, slow-moving target that can&apos;t maneuver. All the pilot has to do is quickly fly up to the target, aim his nose at it, get off some round, and be away. From the point of view of the B-17&apos;s gunners, the fighter seems to be darting around, a small, fast target, even smaller when seen head-on, and although the bomber may offer a relatively stable platform, the gun mounts don&apos;t. On top of that, the German pilots were highly skilled tacticians and attacked the squadrons head on, where defenses were weakest. None of that has anything to do with the program but it&apos;s a question that&apos;s always nagged me and I&apos;m happy to get it off my chest. Thank you for your kind attention.

Raids over two important targets demonstrated once and for all that the daytime bombing program was costing more than it was worth. Of 270 B-17s send to a ball-bearing plant in Schweinfurt, 60 were lost and more than 25% of the rest were damaged. It was unsustainable and an informal halt to the program was effected. Later, with effective fighter protection, losses were lightened.

The film consists of a few talking heads -- participants and one or two experts -- but mostly of combat footage. It&apos;s quite candid about the strengths and weaknesses of the airplane and the tactics used. The devastating raids on Hamburg and Dresden aren&apos;t mentioned.

I&apos;d like to close this discursive review with a footnote, a quote from Andy Rooney, a war correspondent who flew on a combat mission in the B-17.

&quot;I was always impressed with the idea that each .50-caliber bullet cost about $1 then and when all ten guns were firing over a target with German fighter planes diving in on the formation, the air gunners could fire away about $10,000 worth of ammunition in a few minutes. The tail gunner&apos;s machine gun had to be fed by a track of ammunition from a storage magazine amidships. The ammunition on his track alone would have probably sent him to college. The ball turret rotated and revolved on a complicated set of geared wheels inside a piece of equipment worth five times as much as any car the gunner ever owned.&quot;

This documentary describes the development and deployment of the four-engined Boeing B-17, the most popular American bomber of World War II.

It was designed in the late 1930s to be a heavy bomber capable of defending itself from attack by enemy fighters. The nickname of Flying Fortress stuck, but the early models were failures. Several experimental ships crashed. And when improved versions were sent to the RAF they were found unsuitable.

Mount Everest is the highest mountain peak on earth and it's 22,000 feet high. The altitude limit on the supercharged B-17s was 19,000 feet. That's high. And it cold too. Later models were flown at 30,000 feet. The airplane was not pressurized and the waist gun ports were open. The result was that the guns froze. Bombing from high altitude also led to wildly inaccurate placement of the bombs. The RAF relegated it to low-level bombing.

But the USAF continued using it in unescorted daylight raids over Europe. It didn't work. The flak was often fierce and there was no defense against the superb German 88 mm. anti-aircraft gun. Furthermore, despite the B-17s heavy armament of ten .50 caliber machine guns, German fighters took a terrible toll. Stacking the bombers to maximize their defenses helped little. The film doesn't mention it but a number of YB-40 Flying Fortresses accompanied the squadrons on some raids. These dispensed with bombs entirely and were turned into gunships, bristling with .50 calibers, a massive ammunition supply, and armor plating to protect the gunners. In the event, the added weight and drag made it impossible for them to keep up with the squadron.

I've always wondered why it was relatively easy for German fighters to down a bomber, and so difficult for a bomber to defend itself. I think Einstein might have shed some light on the problem. From the perspective of the fighter pilot, the bomber is a large, slow-moving target that can't maneuver. All the pilot has to do is quickly fly up to the target, aim his nose at it, get off some round, and be away. From the point of view of the B-17's gunners, the fighter seems to be darting around, a small, fast target, even smaller when seen head-on, and although the bomber may offer a relatively stable platform, the gun mounts don't. On top of that, the German pilots were highly skilled tacticians and attacked the squadrons head on, where defenses were weakest. None of that has anything to do with the program but it's a question that's always nagged me and I'm happy to get it off my chest. Thank you for your kind attention.

Raids over two important targets demonstrated once and for all that the daytime bombing program was costing more than it was worth. Of 270 B-17s send to a ball-bearing plant in Schweinfurt, 60 were lost and more than 25% of the rest were damaged. It was unsustainable and an informal halt to the program was effected. Later, with effective fighter protection, losses were lightened.

The film consists of a few talking heads -- participants and one or two experts -- but mostly of combat footage. It's quite candid about the strengths and weaknesses of the airplane and the tactics used. The devastating raids on Hamburg and Dresden aren't mentioned.

I'd like to close this discursive review with a footnote, a quote from Andy Rooney, a war correspondent who flew on a combat mission in the B-17.

"I was always impressed with the idea that each .50-caliber bullet cost about $1 then and when all ten guns were firing over a target with German fighter planes diving in on the formation, the air gunners could fire away about $10,000 worth of ammunition in a few minutes. The tail gunner's machine gun had to be fed by a track of ammunition from a storage magazine amidships. The ammunition on his track alone would have probably sent him to college. The ball turret rotated and revolved on a complicated set of geared wheels inside a piece of equipment worth five times as much as any car the gunner ever owned."

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