Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Four Crew Members of the 401St Bomb Group in front of their Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress 'Hell's Angel' at an 8Th Air Force Base in England, on January 20, 1945.

 


11 comments:

  1. 4 months to go guys... Then you can go to the Pacific & start again...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Impossible to measure the amount of courage it took to fly daylight bombing missions in WWII. God Bless them all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Equally so that of RAF Bomber Command flying night shift. Each aircraft downed was 8-10 men killed or in the bag as POW. Casualty rate may have surpassed Marine-Army island-hopping campaigns.

      Delete
    2. The 8th Air Force alone had the highest casualty rate of any other outfit in the war. Yes, even the Marines.

      Delete
    3. @Anonymous, Lancasters had 7 men in their crew, but they were deathtraps compared to US bombers. Very difficult for most of the crew to escape from, especially in the dark.

      Delete
  3. www.americanairmuseum.com/unit/349

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. From what I seen on the above link, I'm guessing this planes crew is heading home..................

      Delete
  4. After flying in a B 17 I gained a huge amount of respect for these crewmen - and even more after I met some of them who served in WW II.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm a small guy, and it was tight inside a b-17 just wearing summer weight clothing. Dancing around in all that winter, heated outerwear would have been a job in itself.

      Delete
    2. Ditto. I climbed into one an an airshow in San Diego and was shocked at how small it really was. About the size of a modern King Air.

      Delete