Some more pics
A pic of the waist gunners positions. Notice that the gunners are now staggered in the "G" model of the B-17. This was an improvement over the previous models as it allowed the waist gunners a greater freedom of action.
A nother view of the waist position. The plywood ammunition boxes for the waist guns show up well in theis picture.
A picture of the Cheyenne tail guns on the B-17s. IIRC this mount was designed by the folks at the Cheyenne modification center, hence the name.
And a couple of shots that didn't make it at the beginning.
A final word for the night. Out of almost 13,000 B-17s produced there are only about 14 left flying in the United States. There are several still flying over seas as well.
The B-17 might not have had the range or bomb load of the B-24 Liberator or the Avro Lancaster but it was an easy aircraft to fly and built like the provebial Mack Truck. The Fortress crews knew that the B-17 would bring them back and many planes that should not have been flying did just that.
Sounds like an idea for another thread some day :-)
Some links on the B-17 for further reading. http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/air_power/ap16.htm http://www.warbirdalley.com/b17.htm http://www.collingsfoundation.org/tour_b-17g.htm
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This looks great alfa6, I promise to take a closer look at SAM's favorite plane in the morning. Off to bed now, thanks again for the day off. :-)
Over the years there has been a torrent of Leftist muling and puking over the bombing campaign against Germany and Japan. They say that it was not militarily effective, necessary, useful, or nice and imply therefore that the bombing campaign "was a crime against humanity because it targeted civilians".
Josef Goebbels, usually considered the most intelligent top Nazi, said in his diary on or about March 1945 that "We could have coped with the Russians or the bombing, but not both."
Not both, eh. War would have been lost without the bombers and their lost crew, Goebbels is saying.
And that is the way it is. Really. Lefties lie.