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Message Subject B-17 Losses in WW2
Poster Handle CharlieMurphy
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Have you ever watched the movie "Memphis Bell" OP? If not I think you should. I will also recommend any of Stephen Ambrose's books about WW2, they are very good.

Before deployment of the P-51, the losses of the bomber forces were horrendous. Life expectancy was really low.

We paid a high price in the skies over Western Europe, but in the end it paid off. Germany was having horrible troubles with Oil. Also, the use of strategic bombing against railroad targets during the Battle of Normandy enabled Allied forces to maintain their beachhead.

If Hitler had decided to use the ME-262 (world's first jet aircraft) as it was intended, as an air to air interceptor, those casualty numbers would be much higher.

I highly recommend Stephen Ambrose books, I recently just re-read D-Day. The movie "Saving Private Ryan" is based on this book, you will be stunned as you read it at how much of the movie follows the book.

Getting back to your OP, I have a piece of historical fiction called "Aces", it centers around the B-17 forces. In one part of the book they talk about a B-17 with damaged landing gear and the ball turret being stuck in the down position so the the gunner could not get out. They had to make a belly landing. While this was fiction, I imagine this probably happened once or twice.

Midair collisions were also a problem in the English overcast and fog. Life was not easy for these guys.

It was a rough war, history will never see a time like that again.
 
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