B17 log
- Thread starter Let'sgoflying!
- Start date
jasc15
Pre-takeoff checklist
Wow. What a treat to get an inside look without all the hero worship.
tonycondon
Gastons CRO (Chief Dinner Reservation Officer)
very neat. too bad the last entry was so short...
David7700
Pre-takeoff checklist
Thanks for posting that--I am reading "Memphis Belle" right now, and the author (the pilot) does not get that graphic with the missions.
nyoung
Pre-takeoff checklist
Teller1900
En-Route
It took me two days to find time to read the whole thing, but wow was it worth it! That was absolutely fascinating. Last weekend I got to see a B-29 Nav speak and he some harrowing tales as well. It's the nonchalant tone they both take when talking about the incredible danger they were in that completely astounds me. "500-600 forts on this raid. We had three large holes in our plane. One engine was taken out by flak, another was on fire. One fort went down, two minutes later, another. Then another. Then another. I went to the show tonight."
Incredible. We ***** and moan about an approach to mins in continuous turb. They did all that without decent nav aids, at the end of a 1600nm trip being chased by enemy fighters, hammered by flak, knowing their friends aren't coming home behind them, and often with large (and important) parts of their aircraft missing or on fire.
Reading this stuff never gets old.
Incredible. We ***** and moan about an approach to mins in continuous turb. They did all that without decent nav aids, at the end of a 1600nm trip being chased by enemy fighters, hammered by flak, knowing their friends aren't coming home behind them, and often with large (and important) parts of their aircraft missing or on fire.
Reading this stuff never gets old.
brcase
En-Route
I agree excellent story.
High points for me were
1. took off at 8:30
2. left England at 11:15
3. something like 6 forts shot down
4 landed at 12:45
I had heard this before, especially for dog fights, that the actual combat times were often very short. I remember reading about one account during the Battle of Britain where there were something like 50 airplanes in a dog fight that lasts only about 5-10 minutes after that all that is left the guys that bailed out still floating to the ground.
The other thing I thought was interested was the time bombs set to go off between 15 minutes and 36 hours after dropping. What a great way to disrupt production on the ground with minimal casualties.
Brian
High points for me were
1. took off at 8:30
2. left England at 11:15
3. something like 6 forts shot down
4 landed at 12:45
I had heard this before, especially for dog fights, that the actual combat times were often very short. I remember reading about one account during the Battle of Britain where there were something like 50 airplanes in a dog fight that lasts only about 5-10 minutes after that all that is left the guys that bailed out still floating to the ground.
The other thing I thought was interested was the time bombs set to go off between 15 minutes and 36 hours after dropping. What a great way to disrupt production on the ground with minimal casualties.
Brian
Steve
En-Route
Len Deighton's Bomber might be of interestif you haven't already read it.
A bit more on the reality side of things compared to other books based on WWII.
A bit more on the reality side of things compared to other books based on WWII.