The First B-17 Shot Down in Combat (A Tragic Story)

the B-17 is one of the most iconic and well-known aircraft in all of World War II but in this video we will cover a story that has been mostly forgotten in the pages of History the very first B-17 that was shot down in combat and the courageous story of Sacrifice from One Pilot that would see him become the first American hero in World War II [Music] thank you immediately after December 7th of 1941 when the Americans were thrown into the conflict U.S forces from all over the Pacific began to take on the Japanese as the forces of the Rising Sun attempted to quickly take as much territory as they could surprised and often unprepared American commanders quickly found themselves in a war and the United States aviators had to quickly transition from a relaxed peacetime existence to The Perils and dangers of all-out war in the chaos of this great conflict however some of these men would be destined to go down as Heroes and one of these Heroes would be a man by the name of Colin Kelly Captain Kelly was the pilot of a B-17 Flying Fortress with serial number 40-2045 this bomber was stationed in the Philippines at the time that Pearl Harbor was attacked and this region of the South Pacific would immediately become the central location for much of the early combat against the Japanese as their Fleet pushed through and captured various American Islands so quickly as the need to try and slow them down became their top priority Captain Kelly and his crew became part of the effort to try and Strike Back Against the Japanese Naval targets and as this new role began Kelly and his crew were ordered to take off on December 10th of 1941 an attempt to locate the Japanese carriers and if possible tried to bomb them now if you have studied the B-17 before then you likely know that the vast majority of this bomber's missions in the conflict were high-level strikes of strategic factories cities and docks that typically included large formations flying together as one fortified unit to strike the enemy but in these early months of World War II the B-17 actually primarily played a very different role in this time period the best high-level bombing strategies were not yet perfected and in the Pacific there were no strategic ground targets that could easily be hit from the American Islands the most common Japanese assets that they needed to instead attack were naval ships and unlike factories and cities these ships were moving targets and even oftentimes executed zigzag patterns in the water to make themselves even more difficult to hit because of these factors that negated many of the advantages of the B-17 the Flying Fortress was instead more commonly used as a Recon and solo attack role attempting to find Targets hit them if possible and Report their location so that the fleet could then be attacked by more effective torpedo bombers and dive bombers in addition because the U.S war machine had not yet come to life on the home front American forces truly lacked the numbers to send up large flights of heavy bombers even if they desired to do so in fact the total number of b-17s in the Pacific and ready for combat at this time was likely less than 50. because of this mini b-17s were lost in the early combat in the Pacific as they were sent up alone and without fighter escort eventually this strategy would be changed and these aircraft would be implemented into more effective roles but on December 10th of 1941 this outdated tactic was the best the United States Army Air Force had at their disposal and so Colin Kelly and his crew left the ground in their B-17 for a solo scouting attack Mission at around 9 30 a.m This Crew departed from Clark Airfield only partially armed with three 600 pound bombs after a short amount of time Captain Kelly spotted Japanese Heavy Cruiser ashigara which was misidentified as the battleship Haruna it was not the carrier force that they were hunting but they were still valuable Japanese targets from 22 thousand feet of altitude Bombardier mayor Levin then proceeded to drop their three bombs on the target where he claimed one hit and one near Miss on the ship but as commanders would eventually Discover it was nearly impossible for the b-17s to hit moving Naval Base targets from such a high altitude and their reports of damage or hits to the enemy were often wrong this would be one of these occasions where despite American reports of damage inflicted there was actually no serious reports of damage from the Japanese in this attack following this Kelly turned their bomber back towards Clark Field and began the flight home unfortunately however there was a predator in the skies awaiting them a flight of Japanese A6 m20s was nearby on a patrol flight and had just been made aware of their position and even worse unbeknown to them one of these zero Pilots would be none other than Saburo Sakai this legendary Japanese Ace was very young in his career at the time but would eventually go on to become one of the most successful pilots in the entire Imperial Navy Downing more than 60 American planes by the end of the war there was no doubt that Kelly and his lone B-17 were in grave danger as the flight of zeros led by the young Sakai headed straight towards them the fighters quickly dove in for their first pass on the lone bomber although armed with plenty of defensive guns these were usually not incredibly effective without the aid of a large formation also pouring fire upon the attackers so as the zeros opened fire rounds tore into Kelly's B-17 striking the instrument panel damaging the nose and also killing their flight engineer Staff Sergeant William de la Hunte win a bullet struck him in the head as the fighters pulled away significant damage was done but the attack was not over they turned and began another Pass opening fire on the B-17 again this time their rounds would do critical damage and started a fire on board of the plane recognizing that there was no way that they would be able to fly their aircraft back to Friendly lines Captain Colin Kelly immediately gave the order for the rest of his crew to bail out but with heavy damage and losing altitude fast there was a problem the plane could not be kept level without Colin Kelly at the controls in the midst of a life or death situation Captain Kelly did not hesitate he told his crew to bail out and held the controls firm doing everything he could to keep the burning B-17 level the seven remaining crew members who were still alive began to jump from their exits one by one they leapt from the plane and pulled their shoots Captain Kelly continued to give the plane everything he had to keep it level as the last of their crew members jumped from the plane this would be co-pilot Donald Robbins as he was climbing out of the bomber however he was about to jump and an explosion broke the plane apart and sent him plummeting towards the ground he was able to pull his shoot but tragically watched as the bomber fell downward in flames and struck the ground it exploded upon impact with Captain Colin Kelly still inside all of the other crew members parachuted down safely and although they were strafed repeatedly by Japanese Pilots while in the air their only injury would be one of the crew who was struck in the ankle fortunately for them they were less than 10 miles from their home Airfield when they bailed out and would be quickly picked up by friendly forces on the ground instead of captured and likely tortured by the Japanese thanks to the heroism and sacrifice of their Captain they would all make it back to base and would continue on with their combat tours it would have been very easy for Captain Kelly to give the order to bail out and then to try and save himself shortly after but Kelly instead opted to put others before himself and ensure that his entire crew was safely out of the plane before he ever thought of worrying about his own well-being following this event which was some of the first combat for the United States in the war news of Kelly's action was widely published in newspapers all across America he became one of the first true heroes of the war and was nominated for the Medal of Honor he would not receive it but was instead awarded the distinguished flying cross for giving his own life for that of his crew please comment what story I should cover next and please consider subscribing

Channel: TJ3 History

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Keywords: B-17 Shot Down, Colin Kelly, B-17, B17 Flying Fortress, B17, B17 Bomber, B-17 Flight Sim, WW2 Bombers, B17 WW2, B17 Shot Down, B17 War Thunder, B-24, Masters of the Air, World War II Bombers, Flying Fortress, B-29, IL-2 Sturmovik, IL2, Flight Sim, World War II Flight Sim, WW2 Air Combat, IL-2 Great Battles, IL2 Game, IL-2 Highlights, Combat Flight Sim, War Thunder, Realistic, History Channel Dogfights, Historic, Documentary, Mark Felton, Yarnhub, TJ3 Gaming, dark Skies

Id: kIlm77Xt5Qs

Length: 9min 44sec (584 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 30 2022