Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Inside of a WW2 American bomber after being shot up during a mission.


9 comments:

  1. Looks like a B-24. Also, looks like antiaircraft. No observed damage to ribs.

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  2. Looks like a direct hit, flak holes everywhere, a really, really bad place to be when that hit...

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  3. Info on the photograph.

    WOW!
    This plane made it home.

    English: Royal Air Force- Italy, the Balkans and South-east Europe, 1942-1945.
    Interior of the fuselage of Handley Page Halifax B Mark II, JP321 'V', of No. 614 Squadron RAF, showing some of the many holes caused by splinters from an anti-aircraft rocket which hit the aircraft during an early pathfinding operation over central Europe. The aircraft was successfully flown back to the Squadron's base at Celone, Italy, but was struck off charge as a result of the damage.

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Handley_Page_Halifax_-_Royal_Air_Force-_Italy,_1942-1945._CH17867.jpg

    Take care, be safe.
    God bless.
    Griz - Alaska

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  4. Lots of flak. We don't make them like we used to.

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  5. These aircraft were built for war. I am not to sure about the stuff we build now. Seems to fragile.

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    Replies
    1. Back then the threat from ground attack (ack-ack and machine gum fire) was fairly hit or miss. Now with missiles a lot less so.

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  6. There's an Air Canada pilot who has been running something called the Halifax Rescue organization for years - they recover these things out of swamps and lakes and assemble working versions from the pieces. Neat bunch of guys. There were a whole bunch of Canadians flying these things during the war, apparently.

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  7. It may seem counter intuitive but in WWII the military would study damage patterns on returning aircraft and beef up structures where bullet holes and flak damage were absent. They figured out that damage that the airframe survived was not as informative. Not sure what they could have learned from this one though. One wonders if they weighed it when it got back!

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