Posted on 05/17/2022 6:20:03 PM PDT by lgjhn23
I was outside the shop changing the deck belt on the lawnmower this morning, and I could hear it coming. It's not unusual to have propeller-driven air traffic here in this rural area, mostly crop dusters though, and few private aircraft. But this was a different sound...more than one or two engines, a loud, deep, steady drone sound....unusual. I stopped what I was doing and stepped out from under the awning, looking up. It was a partly cloudy, but sunny day, and then I saw her. She was up maybe 5000' heading due east. There was no mistaken her for what she was even at 5000'; a B-17 Flying Fortress...beautiful! I immediately thought of the old movie, The Memphis Belle. Then, my thoughts turned to the reality those days, and our boys that flew em. Men that were our father's and grandfather's generation. Young men that unselfishly sacrificed their very lives for the cause of freedom. I, then thought of the vile, godless, communist/socialist regime that now rules over us versus the men of those days. We have let them down.
Down Bound Train
But a Large segment
Will Not go Quietly.
Ausgeseignit!
(Outstanding!)
CC
Roosevelt was a leftist twit. But the whole “jew bankers run the world” crap gets old after awhile. Especially since it isn’t true.
CC
Good post.
i don’t focus on that
commie socialist totalitarians come in all shapes and sizes, and while some groups may be “over-represented” more than others, i don’t really care
“They used to fly into our local airport for the CAF shows. You could hear them miles away. Always thought the same thing about what a 1000 plane raid sounded like. Not sure the Germans would have needed radar to know they were coming.”
Circa WWII a weatherman gave the pilots their weather briefing and ended it with “Aluminum overcast.”
PS I in the past flew out of Norfolk as a passenger commercial back in the seventies. It was near a once USA Army Air Force base of WWII. In the hall they had pictures of those air crews. They were kids. The “old man” in the front left seat would be in his early twenties. They were kids but they were giants!
When I learned to fly in England one of my instructors was a kind and gentle man. He was a Lancaster pilot in WWII. He related a most amusing story. He was not 21 years of age and flew Lancaster’s and bombed Germany. He was not old enough to drive a car in England. He said, “My majesty’s government would give me a Lancaster to bomb Germany but would not let me drive a car off base.”
As mentioned he was a kind and gentle man. His backbone was made of iron. Students that were a little bit nervous were given to him as was I. His kind and expert guidance soon set us straight. He was an outstanding gentleman and instructor. Post WWII he became a teacher and headmaster, which is a principal to us. His students were most lucky to have a man such as him.
We always called him, “Mr. Frank.”
Just imagine if the plane is damaged, in a spin, and you try to make your way to an exit to bail out. It is difficult to get around in a B-17 when it is sitting on the ground and you don’t have anything cumbersome like a parachute.
“They used to fly into our local airport for the CAF shows. You could hear them miles away. Always thought the same thing about what a 1000 plane raid sounded like. Not sure the Germans would have needed radar to know they were coming.”
Circa WWII a weatherman gave the pilots their weather briefing and ended it with “Aluminum overcast.”
PS I in the past flew out of Norfolk as a passenger commercial back in the seventies. It was near a once USA Army Air Force base of WWII. In the hall they had pictures of those air crews. They were kids. The “old man” in the front left seat would be in his early twenties. They were kids but they were giants!
When I learned to fly in England one of my instructors was a kind and gentle man. He was a Lancaster pilot in WWII. He related a most amusing story. He was not 21 years of age and flew Lancaster’s and bombed Germany. He was not old enough to drive a car in England. He said, “My majesty’s government would give me a Lancaster to bomb Germany but would not let me drive a car off base.”
As mentioned he was a kind and gentle man. His backbone was made of iron. Students that were a little bit nervous were given to him as was I. His kind and expert guidance soon set us straight. He was an outstanding gentleman and instructor. Post WWII he became a teacher and headmaster, which is a principal to us. His students were most lucky to have a man such as him.
We always called him, “Mr. Frank.”
:...I got to see Fifi once (the last flyable B-52)...”
-
“Fifi” was a B-29.
Sometimes, it takes a splash of cold water to shock us awake. Thanks for that.
Looks like all countries are run by evil f***holes and it is just a matter of which one is slightly less evil.
My uncle was a navigator. Shot down in January of 1944. Spent the rest of the war in Stalag Luft I. He was one of three survivors from a crew of ten.
Imagine arriving at a German POW camp five months before D-Day. One could easily have thought that the war could last quite a few more years.
It's a shame I never got a chance to know him.
Whatever else may be true of FDR, he probably deserves credit for supporting Great Britain long before Pearl Harbor. Our fake neutrality bought time to prepare.
There is a Latin saying, "Bis das si cito das." "You give twice if you give quickly." FDR quickly came to the aid of Great Britain and prevented the outcome you described.
E (greenhouse), F (bubble), or G (chin turret)? (The nose knows.)
As I recall, those are Wright Cyclone R-1820 radials (with Hamilton Standard Hydromatic three-blade propellers): loud and brash, with turbo-superchargers.
The turbo-superchargers and the Norden bombsight made high-altitude bombing possible.
By my count, there are at present only seven airworthy B-17s in the US. A little research might identify which one it was.
I wish I could disagree, but I cannot.
As for those who cite that Japan attacked us: The very same closet communist FDR provoked war, not only by embargoes, but by moving the Pacific Fleet a full continent’s width away from native soil, thus encroaching on Japan’s part of the world.
That was done in Summer 1940, just over a year before the attack. Note well: Hawaii was a Territory, not a State!
FDR wanted war with Germany, but to guarantee acceptance by isolationist Americans, he had to provoke an Axis ally of Germany into attacking us first.
“In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt
Believe the communist: The Pearl Harbor disaster was not an accident. It was planned - like the current events crippling America.
Now imagine 1,300 of the bombers flying overhead along with thousands of fighters. The noise must have been overwhelming.
Each bomber dropping their bombs. The B-17 could carry 8,000lb internally and more externally so on a 1,000 bomber raid use the numbers below. No wonder entire cities were destroyed.
12) 500lb demolition bombs. (16) 300lb demolition bombs. (12) 500lb incendiary clusters. (16) 250lb British incendiary bombs.
Photos of aircraft being scrapped.
https://www.airplanes-online.com/b17-flying-fortress-scrapping-after-wwii.htm
What was the life expectancy of a B-17 crew?
Although such statistics were not circulated among Army Air Forces crews, the average life expectancy of an Eighth Air Force B-17 in late 1943 was 11 missions.
There Are Still Thousands of Tons of Unexploded Bombs in Germany, Left Over From World War II
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/seventy-years-world-war-two-thousands-tons-unexploded-bombs-germany-180957680/
Following on are a list of jet-powered designs/types - B-45, ... Swept-wing B-47, ... even two flying-wings (prop and jet).
The B-17 lost a few years ago at Harford CT was determined to have several maintenance/up-keep issues (e.g., spark-plug gap setting, ...). To note, at Harford is also a static display B-29 ... analog computers, et al.
Moving on to "Operation Keelhaul" ... USA involvement? Comments, reactions, ...?
Also, to end ... perhaps a quick scan ... been there before???
A. The Cardinal Spellman Story, Robert I. Gannon, JS, Fordham University, Doubleday, 1962. N.B., Chapter 14 - note date of interview with FDR.
B. FDR: The Other Side of the Coin, Hamilton Fish, Vantage Press, New York, New York, 1976.
History repeating itself???
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