5 Things You Never Knew About the B-17 Flying Fortress

you know the b-17 the mighty flying fortress that took to the skies in world war ii to pound enemy targets and help propel the allies to victory as they bombed the axis into submission but in this video we will cover the things that you do not know 5 fascinating and relatively unknown facts about this famous bomber [Music] the b-17 has gone down as one of the most renowned aircraft in history even today more than 80 years after it entered service history enthusiasts will travel from hundreds of miles to see this legendary warbird but despite how popular and distinguished this famous bomber is there are a few facts that even the most seasoned history buffs have never heard of here are 5 of these impressive truths on the famous b-17 at number 5 we will look at a relatively unknown aspect of the b-17s early development its terrible first impression that almost caused it to never exist the first design of the b-17 began when boeing entered a competition to design a new heavy bomber for the u.s army air corps their competitors were douglas and martin but boeing had clearly put together the best plane after it exceeded the air corps performance expectations its heavy bomb load and defenses were easily the winner of the contest but boeing and the b-17 would actually lose the contract after a tragic accident on the second evaluation flight right after the first had gone flawlessly the prototype experienced mechanical issues while in the air and as a result the heavy bomber would end up crashing into the ground and killing both airmen on board obviously after this occurred there was no way that the air corps could award the contract to boeing and instead gave it to the douglas b-18 bolo thus putting the future of the promising design into jeopardy but fortunately the initial impression and features of the b-17 were too good to walk away from despite the unfortunate accident and so the air corps opted to order 13 more for additional evaluations continuing the project that would eventually go on to bring about the legendary flying fortress next up we will look at the first time the b-17 would see combat this would actually take place in the hands of the royal air force in mid-1941 as the war in europe raged at this time the united states was still technically neutral and had no side in the conflict but despite this they had agreed to supply their english allies with a small force of the newly developed bombers in particular b-17c models these would be used on a handful of bombing raids over german ground and sea targets in july for the most part these raids were not successful the results were not noteworthy bombings were not always accurate and they had experienced numerous mechanical problems in fact the initial results were so poor that the royal air force abandoned most use of the b-17 it is noteworthy however that the raf bomber command had little success with any of their own heavy bombers in the daytime raids either so this could have simply been more of an issue with overall strategy at this time but nonetheless this would be a less than impressive introduction to combat for the flying fortress from the american side of the conflict however the first wartime combat of the b-17 is actually quite bizarre and these b-17s were not even on a combat mission when they took off but upon landing they would find themselves in the midst of a famous battle in world war ii this would occur over the island of oahu on the morning of december 7 1941 as the japanese approached pearl harbor for the famous attack that drew the united states into the war there was a famous mix-up that took place early that morning a newly implemented radar system on the island actually detected and reported a large flight of aircraft approaching hawaii but as many of you know they were mistakenly identified as b-17s they were scheduled to fly in from california that morning that's too big to be planes right relax this flight of b17s coming in from the mainland a heck of a lot of obviously we know that the planes spotted by the radar were in fact the japanese strike force but the b-17s that they were in fact referring to did later come as scheduled and when these b-17s famously arrived the attack was well underway at pearl harbor this scene was famously depicted in the 1970s classic tora toratora there's hickam sir hey major i just heard something funny on the honolulu radio i was trying to tell you sir the radio said something about an attack they're japs sir these unfortunate bombers were unarmed and unable to fight back but were able to safely land in the midst of the attack this would be the first time that the b7 team would actually ever see combat in american hands and as a bonus i have even added in an extra fact with this point in the famous filming of the movie tour toratora one of the actual b-17s that was used in this scene actually had a landing gear failure during the filming of its flight it would be forced to crash land with a single wheel down and the camera crews on hand made sure to film it these shots of the unplanned landing came out so well that they were still included in the final cut of the famous movie next we will go on to one of the strangest tales of the b-17s lengthy combat record now during this time the germans have notoriously gone down in history as the side of secret weapons and experimental aircraft but the allies also had their share of bold ideas as well this would be one of them originally brought to jimmy doolittle in 1944 for usage over europe operation aphrodite was a plan that sought to use a similar style of attack to that of the japanese kamikaze loading a b-17 to the brim with high explosives and then crashing it directly into an enemy target of value but unlike the japanese the americans were not willing to sacrifice an american life to achieve this goal so they instead chose to attempt to operate these aircraft by remote control the plan would involve taking a war weary b-17 that was near the end of its service life and then having it stripped of all parts that it would not need seats guns armor and everything else it would then be loaded with as many explosives as could be fit into the bomber often more than twice its normal payload they would then be taken off and flown towards the target but it was found that they could not take off without human pilots however so this operation actually involved the b-17s being brought into the air by two airmen who would then bail out of the bomber at around 2000 feet then after that the b-17s would be remotely controlled by a crew aboard another b-17 flying above name the mother ship they would then proceed to the target area where the main bomber was supposed to be flown directly into a german objective a total of 14 of these strange missions were launched but overall none of them were able to fully neutralize their target and the strategy was mostly unsuccessful it was found to be difficult to fly the explosive laden bombers remotely and the program was eventually scrapped in january of 1945. at number two on this list we will dive into one of the most commonly known characteristics of the flying fortress its durability the b-17 was absolutely loved by american air crews for its ability to take an incredible amount of punishment and still make it home one particular b-17 survived a bombing mission after taking heavy damage and flew all the way back home on just two of four engines after landing grounds crews counted a total of 180 holes from flack throughout the aircraft this was one of the primary reasons that it was preferred among aircrews when compared to other bombers like the b-24 the german bf-109 fighters the most common luftwaffe aircraft of the time was known for its deadly 20 millimeter cannon that wreaked havoc on allied aircraft just a quick burst in the right spot was often enough to destroy any mustang or spitfire that it encountered but when attacking the b-17 it was determined by german pilots that on average it took around 20 hits with their 20 millimeter to bring down a flying fortress while this may not seem like a lot this was a great deal of well-aimed firepower for a german pilot to have to execute considering that on average each pilot had about a 2 percent accuracy rate when flying in the air it would take roughly 1 000 rounds fired from a 20 millimeter cannon to bring down a mighty b-17 and considering that each 109 only carried around 200 rounds for their cannon the math is clear it would take either a team effort to bring down a b-17 or a very well-placed burst of fire from a skilled german pilot this is clearly a testament to just how rugged this famous aircraft was and finally going off of this point we will move to the final fact on our list german fighters in the later years of the war had the nearly impossible task of defending against the allies as they pushed in closer on germany these messerschmitt and fokkerwolf pilots had to defend their homeland from the most heavily defended aircraft in history all while the american air raids were hammering into their airfields and fuel supplies thus as they took on the mighty american bombers they had to put together the best possible plan to give them a fighting chance with the heavy firepower of the b-17 there were very few vulnerabilities nearly every direction was heavily defended especially the six o'clock where most air attacks would come from thus a different strategy was devised many german pilots came to soon realize that one of the best ways to attack the bomber formations was actually in one of the most difficult methods to execute head on while approaching directly at the bombers closing speed was extremely fast this meant that as you approached your target would quickly begin to move faster and faster in your gun sight now if you were attacking a large formation of bombers this was not necessarily a problem considering that they were large targets and grouped together but if you were trying to shoot a single machine gun at a nimble fighter this presented a substantially more difficult challenge in addition the b-17 did boast a machine gun in the nose of the aircraft but when attacked from head on it was usually only one or two firing positions that german pilots had to worry about this was because despite the large number of gunners that the b-17 did have only two of the positions could realistically fire when attacked from head-on this made it less heavily defended than most of the other angles of attack but most importantly with the b-17 being so rugged and able to take so much fire aiming to destroy the aircraft in the air was a daunting task for the german pilot killing the b-17 pilots or destroying the cockpit however was not quite so difficult a well-placed round of fire to the front of the mighty b-17 would often take it down even if the rest of the aircraft was mostly untouched it was certainly a difficult shot to execute but was definitely safer and a wiser strategic move than a traditional attack from behind this made the head-on attack one of the very few vulnerabilities that the b-17 did have when attacked by skilled german fighters comment what plane you think i should cover next and please consider subscribing

Channel: TJ3 History

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Keywords: IL-2 Sturmovik, IL2, Flight Sim, World War II Flight Sim, IL-2 Great Battles, IL2 Game, IL-2 Highlights, IL-2 Flight Sim, Combat Flight Sim, War Thunder, Realistic, History Channel Dogfights, Historic, Documentary, Mark Felton, Yarnhub, TJ3 Gaming, Dark Skies, WW2 Air Combat

Id: crsfNW8SKkI

Length: 12min 56sec (776 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 08 2022