how many b17s were shot down during ww2

[102] Of the 291 attacking Fortresses, 60 were shot down over Germany, five crashed on approach to Britain, and 12 more were scrapped due to damage a loss of 77 B-17s. [84], As use by Bomber Command had been curtailed, the RAF transferred its remaining FortressI aircraft to Coastal Command for use as a long-range maritime patrol aircraft. And of those 276,000 planes, 68,000 were lost. The Soviets restored 23 to flying condition and concentrated them in the 890th bomber regiment of the 45th Bomber Aviation Division,[153] but they never saw combat. Did any American B-17 crewman ever shoot down a German fighter plane while flying over Germany during World War II? [92], The U.S. did not offer B-17s to the Soviet Union as part of its war materiel assistance program, but at least 73 aircraft were acquired by the Soviet Air Force. It should have been a peaceful Sunday morning in Hawaii. With its usual nose-mounted armament of four MK 108 cannons, and with some examples later equipped with the R4M rocket, launched from underwing racks, it could fire from outside the range of the bombers' .50in (12.7mm) defensive guns and bring an aircraft down with one hit,[147] as both the MK 108's shells and the R4M's warheads were filled with the "shattering" force of the strongly brisant Hexogen military explosive. Later on footage shows German paratroopers and American P-51 mustangs. Tora! How effective was WWII bombers self defense anti-air armament? Frisbee, John L. "Valor: First of the Few". These modifications resulted in a 20% increase in aircraft weight. She was featured in a USAAF documentary, Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress. ", "German wonder weapons: degraded production and effectiveness. [11] It combined features of the company's experimental XB-15 bomber and 247 transport. These included B-17G 44-85531, registered as N809Z. [70] Initially designated SB-17G, a number of B-17Gs were also converted for search-and-rescue duties, later to be redesignated B-17H. As the raids of the American bombing campaign grew in numbers and frequency, German interception efforts grew in strength (such as during the attempted bombing of Kiel on 13 June 1943[96]), such that unescorted bombing missions came to be discouraged. Of the 12,731 B-17s built, about 4,735 were lost during the war. 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. [101] While the attack was successful at disrupting the entire works, severely curtailing work there for the remainder of the war, it was at an extreme cost. Though initially surviving the impact, Hill died within a few hours, and Tower on 19 November. [42] Improved with larger flaps and rudder and a well-framed, 10-panel plexiglas nose, the B-17Bs were delivered in five small batches between July 1939 and March 1940. But help soon arrived when the North American P-51 Mustang began to reach the beleaguered Eighth Air Force in large enough numbers to make a difference. [160][163] Coast Guard PB-1Gs were stationed at a number of bases in the U.S. and Newfoundland, with five at Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, two at CGAS San Francisco, two at NAS Argentia, Newfoundland, one at CGAS Kodiak, Alaska, and one in Washington state. Instead of building models based on experimental engineering, Boeing had been hard at work developing their bomber and now had versions ready for production far better than would have been possible otherwise. As the war intensified, Boeing used feedback from aircrews to improve each new variant with increased armament and armor. [114], By 1941, the Far East Air Force (FEAF) based at Clark Field in the Philippines had 35 B-17s, with the War Department eventually planning to raise that to 165. Of the 291 attacking Fortresses, 60 were shot down over Germany, five crashed on approach to Britain, and 12 more were scrapped due to damage - a loss of 77 B-17s. "Boeing Model 299 (B-17 Flying Fortress).". Four B-17s were shot down in these operations.[171]. At the same time, the German nightfighting ability noticeably improved to counter the nighttime strikes, challenging the conventional faith in the cover of darkness. Life and Death Aboard a B-17, 1944 - EyeWitness to History [142] Its toughness was compensation for its shorter range and lighter bomb load compared to the B-24 and British Avro Lancaster heavy bombers. [14] The most distinct mount was in the nose, which allowed the single machine gun to be fired toward nearly all frontal angles. No traces of the 3 captured Flying Fortresses were ever found in Japan by Allied occupation forces. [223][224] Works such as The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell and Heavy Metal's section "B-17" depict the nature of these missions. The Unknown Aces of the Eighth - National Museum of the Mighty Eighth How many B-17s were shot down? - Wise-Answer For many, the B-17 is the iconic bomber of the war, and the Flying Fortress"remains a symbol of American might. Though the crash of the prototype 299 in 1935 had almost wiped out Boeing, now it was seen as a boon. Who manufactured the Norden bombsight? - TimesMojo After Dallas airshow crash, how many B-17s are still flying? [12] The Ball turret itself has inspired works like Steven Spielberg's The Mission. 60 Of the 291 attacking Fortresses, 60 were shot down over Germany, five crashed on approach to Britain, and 12 more were scrapped due to damage - a loss of 77 B-17s. Frisbee, John L. "Valor: A Rather Special Award. 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. Unlike the fighter pilots, individual bomber gunners did not receive official credit for any of their shootdowns. In 1964, the latter film was made into a television show of the same name and ran for three years on ABC TV. A merica joined Britain's strategic air campaign designed to destroy Nazi Germany's industrial capacity soon after her entrance into World War Two. B-17s flown by the Eighth saw some of the fiercest combat of the war. It was code-named "Tachikawa 105" after the mystery aircraft's wingspan was measured (104-ft.) but never identified. The B-17s attracted a number of Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters, which were in turn attacked by the P-38 Lightning escorts. Frisbee, John L. "Valor: Crisis in the Cockpit". Swiss aircraft attempted to intercept and force individual aircraft to land, interning their crews; one Swiss pilot was killed, shot down by a U.S. bomber crew in September 1944. Given German Balkenkreuz national markings on their wings and fuselage sides, and "Hakenkreuz" swastika tail fin-flashes, the captured B-17s were used to determine the B-17's vulnerabilities and to train German interceptor pilots in attack tactics. [40] The Y1B-17A had a maximum speed of 311 miles per hour (501km/h), at its best operational altitude, compared to 239 miles per hour (385km/h) for the Y1B-17. [7] Of the roughly 1.5 million tons of bombs dropped on Nazi Germany and its occupied territories by U.S. aircraft, over 640 000 tons (42.6%) were dropped from B-17s.[8]. [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. 12962; History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Dictionary of American Naval Aviation Squadrons: Volume 2: The History of VP, VPB, VP(HL) and VP(AM) Squadrons, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Boeing_B-17_Flying_Fortress&oldid=1141348576. [57] The B-17E was an extensive revision of the Model 299 design: The fuselage was extended by 10ft (3.0m); a much larger rear fuselage, vertical tailfin, rudder, and horizontal stabilizer were added; a gunner's position was added in the new tail;[note 4] the nose (especially the bombardier's framed, 10-panel nose glazing) remained relatively the same as the earlier B through D versions had; a Sperry electrically powered manned dorsal gun turret just behind the cockpit was added; a similarly powered (also built by Sperry) manned ventral ball turret just aft of the bomb bay replaced the relatively hard-to-use, Sperry model 645705-D[60] remotely operated ventral turret on the earliest examples of the E variant. While the US had less than 200 at the start of the war, more than 12,000 B-17s were produced by the end and served in every theater. ", "Durable B-17s hard for pilots to forget: Love for plane outweighs bitter memories of war", "World War II War Production Why Were the B-17 and B-24 Produced in Parallel? 11,846 helicopters According to the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association, a total of 11,846 helicopters were shot down or crashed during the war, resulting in nearly 5,000 American pilots and crew killed. The German fighters found that when attacking from the front, where fewer defensive guns were mounted (and where the pilot was exposed and not protected by armor as he was from the rear), it took only four or five hits to bring a bomber down. From then on, red and white neutrality bands were added to the wings of Swiss aircraft to stop accidental attacks by Allied aircraft. This aircraft, now restored to its original B-17G configuration, was on display in the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon until it was sold to the Collings Foundation in 2015. On landing, the aircraft overran the runway and ran into a ditch, where it was then strafed. B-17 Flying Fortress in World War II - ThoughtCo More than 250 aircraft crashed or made emergency landings in Switzerland during the Second World War. Of the 291 B-17s in the attack force, 60 were lost, 17 were heavily damaged and most of the others incurred some damage, but were repairable. Bigger WWII bombers like e.g. The aircraft was powered by four Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet radial engines, each producing 750 hp (600 kW) at 7,000 ft (2,100 m). Trescott, Jacqueline. [7] The USAAF bombers attacked by day, with British operations chiefly against industrial cities by night. Ten of the 12 Fortresses survived the attack. It was also employed as a transport, antisubmarine aircraft, drone controller, and search-and-rescue aircraft. 60 B-52s Shot Down In One Day? Today's U.S. Air Force Can - Forbes How many b-17s were shot down during World war II? [167], During the last year of World War II and shortly thereafter, the United States Navy (USN) acquired 48 ex-USAAF B-17s for patrol and air-sea rescue work. The plane was pulled out of front-line service and used as a transport plane and even drones. [122][124] Actual Japanese fighter losses for the day were seven destroyed and three damaged. How many B-17s were shot down during the Second World War? Even though it was the Japanese who attacked the Americans at Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the official policy of the United States and its allies was to defeat Germany first. Serial number 44-85784 is the last airworthy B-17 in the United Kingdom and is based at the Imperial War Museum Duxford. This was operated by German-speaking radio operators who were to identify and jam German ground controllers' broadcasts to their nightfighters. [172] N809Z was used to perform a Skyhook pick up in the James Bond movie Thunderball in 1965. [133] Defensive armament increased from four 0.50in (12.7mm) machine guns and one 0.30in (7.62mm) nose machine gun in the B-17C, to thirteen 0.50in (12.7mm) machine guns in the B-17G. B-17, also called Flying Fortress, U.S. heavy bomber used during World War II. [20] While the air corps was still enthusiastic about the aircraft's potential, army officials were daunted by its cost;[24] Douglas quoted a unit price of $58,200 (equivalent to $916,000 in 2021) based on a production order of 220 aircraft, compared with $99,620 (equivalent to $1,568,000 in 2021 ) from Boeing. 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. It was a relatively fast, high-flying, long-range bomber with heavy defensive armament at the expense of bombload. It was not until the advent of long-range fighter escorts (particularly the North American P-51 Mustang) and the resulting degradation of the Luftwaffe as an effective interceptor force between February and June 1944, that the B-17 became strategically potent. About 130 B-17s were converted to the air-sea rescue role, at first designated B-17H and later SB-17G. The aircraft was turned over to the Swiss Air Force, who then flew the bomber until the end of the war, using other interned but non-airworthy B-17s for spare parts. Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress - The National WWII Museum The FEAF lost half its aircraft during the first strike,[117] and was all but destroyed over the next few days. [111], By September 1944, 27 of the 42 bomb groups of the 8th Air Force and six of the 21 groups of the 15th Air Force used B-17s. Hess, William N. and Jim Winchester. His views were supported by Eighth Air Force statisticians, whose mission studies showed that the Flying Fortress's utility and survivability was much greater than those of the B-24 Liberator. Wagner, Ray, "American Combat Planes of the 20th Century", Reno, Nevada, 2004, Jack Bacon & Company, This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 16:26. the B-17 Flying Fortress were equipped with lots of machine guns for self-defense against single-seat fighter aircraft. Mayday! [38] The aircraft was delivered to the army on 31 January 1939. A number of B-17Gs, redesignated B-17Hs and later SB-17Gs, were used in the Pacific during the final year of the war to carry and drop lifeboats to stranded bomber crews who had been shot down or crashed at sea. [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. [160] At first, these aircraft operated under their original USAAF designations, but on 31 July 1945 they were assigned the naval aircraft designation PB-1, a designation which had originally been used in 1925 for the Boeing Model 50 experimental flying boat. In 1946 (or 1947, according to Holm) the regiment was assigned to the Kazan factory (moving from Baranovichi) to aid in the Soviet effort to reproduce the more advanced Boeing B-29 as the Tupolev Tu-4. Ramsey, Winston G. "The V-Weapons". However, the USAAF continued using the B-17 as a day bomber, despite misgivings by the RAF that attempts at daylight bombing would be ineffective. Footage from Twelve O' Clock High was also used, along with three restored B-17s, in the 1962 film The War Lover. the Germans broke off to refuel having shot down 15 B-17s. 206 Squadron RAF sank U-627 on 27 October 1942, the first of 11 U-boat kills credited to RAF Fortress bombers during the war.[86]. [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. [21] Doyle notes, "The loss of Hill and Tower, and the Model 299, was directly responsible for the creation of the modern written checklist used by pilots to this day. ", "WWII gunner 'Babe' Broyhill dies: Set record for downing Nazi jets", "100th Bomb Group Foundation Personnel LT COL Robert ROSENTHAL", "The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944). Of the 291 attacking Fortresses, 60 were shot down over Germany, five crashed on approach to Britain, . [180], Many B-17 crew members received military honors and 17 received the Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration awarded by the United States:[197], Data from The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft[38], Hollywood featured the B-17 in its period films, such as director Howard Hawks' Air Force starring John Garfield and Twelve O'Clock High starring Gregory Peck. [10] The B-17's armament consisted of five .30 caliber (7.62mm) machine guns, with a payload up to 4,800lb (2,200kg) of bombs on two racks in the bomb bay behind the cockpit. Initially, it could carry a payload of 2200 kg along with 5x .30-inch machine guns. The B-17s were primarily involved in the daylight precision strategic bombing campaign against German targets ranging from U-boat pens, docks, warehouses, and airfields to industrial targets such as aircraft factories. Bomber wrecks were fewer but more expensive. How many Cobras were shot down in Vietnam? - 2023 Smith and LeSchack parachuted from the B-17 and searched the station for several days. During World War II approximately 40 B-17s were captured and refurbished by Germany after crash-landing or being forced down, with about a dozen put back into the air. 2. The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). [143] This durability, together with the large operational numbers in the Eighth Air Force and the fame achieved by the Memphis Belle, made the B-17 a key bomber aircraft of the war. [36], A 14th Y1B-17 (37-369), originally constructed for ground testing of the airframe's strength, was upgraded by Boeing with exhaust-driven General Electric turbo-superchargers, and designated Y1B-17A. The B-17 finally had a fighter which could escort them in and out of Germany, and began to overwhelm German defenses and industry. The prototype B-17, with the Boeing factory designation of Model 299, was designed by a team of engineers led by E. Gifford Emery and Edward Curtis Wells, and was built at Boeing's own expense. [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. AFA Statement on Loss of Historic B-17: Painful Reminder of the The YB-40s with their numerous heavy modifications had trouble keeping up with the lighter bombers once they had dropped their bombs, so the project was abandoned and finally phased out in July 1943. [140] Making it back to base on numerous occasions, despite extensive battle damage, the B-17's durability became legendary;[138][139] stories and photos of B-17s surviving battle damage were widely circulated during the war. [citation needed], Two additional groups arrived in Britain at the same time, bringing with them the first B-17Fs, which served as the primary AAF heavy bomber fighting the Germans until September 1943. On 8 August 1934, the USAAC tendered a proposal for a multiengine bomber to replace the Martin B-10. Major General Frank Maxwell Andrews of the GHQ Air Force believed that the capabilities of large four-engined aircraft exceeded those of shorter-ranged, twin-engined aircraft, and that the B-17 was better suited to new, emerging USAAC doctrine. In 1957 the surviving B-17s had been stripped of all weapons and painted black. The. The Eighth Air Force vs. The Luftwaffe - The National WWII Museum The B-17 saw early action in the Pacific War, where it conducted raids against Japanese shipping and airfields. The ammunition load was over 11,000 rounds. In the infamous "Black Thursday" raid of 14 October 1943, B-17 gunners claimed 288 German fighter aircraft kills whereas in actuality about 40 were shot down. The 4x Hornet Radial Engines could produce 750 HP at 2100 meters. [74] In July 1942, the first USAAF B-17s were sent to England to join the Eighth Air Force. Air Corps doctrine dictated bombing runs from high altitude, but they soon found only 1% of their bombs hit targets. Designed by Dr. Sanford Moss, engine exhaust gases turned the turbine's steel-alloy blades, forcing high-pressure ram air into the Wright Cyclone GR-1820-39 engine supercharger. 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. "Boeing's Battle Wagon: The B-17 Flying Fortress An Outline History". Blast damage was caused over a radius of 5 miles (8.0km). The prototype B-17 Bomber was built at the company's own expense and was a fusion of the features of Boeing XB-15 and Boeing 247 Transport Aircraft. [140] Despite an inferior performance and smaller bombload than the more numerous B-24 Liberators,[179] a survey of Eighth Air Force crews showed a much higher rate of satisfaction with the B-17. [37] Scheduled to fly in 1937, it encountered problems with the turbochargers, and its first flight was delayed until 29 April 1938. How many B 52 bombers were shot down in Vietnam? - 2023 Frisbee, John L. "Valor: Gauntlet of Fire". ", "Chapter 18: Rouen-Sotteville, No. [138][139][140] Wally Hoffman, a B-17 pilot with the Eighth Air Force during World WarII, said, "The plane can be cut and slashed almost to pieces by enemy fire and bring its crew home. The Americans, on the other hand, were proponents of daylight, precision bombing using their state-of-the-art and top-secret Norden bomb-sight. [131] These aircraft were nicknamed Dumbos, and remained in service for many years after the end of World War II.[132]. But because the bombers could not maneuver when attacked by fighters and needed to be flown straight and level during their final bomb run, individual aircraft struggled to fend off a direct attack. Create. Losses were so heavy on the mission it became known as Black Thursday." 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. [122] Five of the Japanese fighters strafing the B-17 aircrew were promptly engaged and shot down by three Lightnings, though these were also then lost. 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. How many b17 bombers were lost in ww2? Although the conversion was not complete until mid-1943, B-17 combat operations in the Pacific theater came to an end after a little over a year. [105] The 8th Air Force alone lost 176 bombers in October 1943,[106] and was to suffer similar casualties on 11 January 1944 on missions to Oschersleben, Halberstadt, and Brunswick. The B-17F variants were the primary versions flying for the Eighth Air Force to face the Germans in 1943 and had standardized the manned Sperry ball turret for ventral defense, also replacing the earlier, 10-panel framed bombardier's nose glazing from the B subtype with an enlarged, nearly frameless Plexiglas bombardier's nose enclosure for improved forward vision. Fewer than 10 are airworthy . On 28 May 1962, N809Z, piloted by Connie Seigrist and Douglas Price, flew Major James Smith, USAF and Lieutenant Leonard A. LeSchack, USNR to the abandoned Soviet arctic ice station NP 8, as Operation Coldfeet. Study now. How many b17 are still flying? [164] One hundred and seven B-17s were converted to drones. Copy. Though many were shot down, many more severely damaged aircraft were able to return their crews safely to base. The bombers were assumed either lost by various means or scrapped late in the war for their vital war materials. As the production line developed, Boeing engineers continued to improve upon the basic design. Frisbee, John L. "Valor: Rabaul on a Wing and a Prayer". The four-engine plane typically carried a crew of 10, several of whom. [44][note 3] The aircraft went on to serve in every World WarII combat zone, and by the time production ended in May 1945, 12,731 aircraft had been built by Boeing, Douglas, and Vega (a subsidiary of Lockheed).[45][46][47][48]. How many b17 bombers were lost in ww2? - Answers However, B-17s were operating at heights too great for most A6M Zero fighters to reach. Many historians have written about the famous Buffalo Soldiers of the all-Black 92nd Infantry Division, who fought with distinction during World War II. 223 Squadron, as part of 100 Group, operated a number of Fortresses equipped with an electronic warfare system known as "Airborne Cigar" (ABC).