Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress: libros - historia, modelos y técnica

There is no such thunder in history - nor ever will be again - as the deep-throated roar of the mighty, four-engined B-17s that streamed across the skies in World War II. The long runways are silent now, the men and planes are gone.

But out of the massive files of records available, and the memories of the men who flew, Martin Caidin has assembled this dramatic portrait of America's most formidable heavy bomber of the war. "The B-17: The Flying Forts" recreates a vanished era and a great and gallant plane - a plane that could absorb three thousand enemy bullets, fly with no rudder, and complete its mission on two engines.

A plane that American pilots flew at Pearl Harbor, Tunis, Midway, Palermo, Schweinfurt, Regensberg, Normandy, and Berlin, in thousands of missions and through hundreds of thousands of miles of flak-filled skies. A plane that proved itself in every combat theater as the greatest heavy bomber of World War II.

Its full potential still not explored, the model 299 crashed at Wright Field on 30 October 1935 on takeoff, with the control locks inadvertently engaged. Much as the crash of the new XP-38 Lightning several years later did not kill that promising program, so did the Flying Fortress outlive the demise of the prototype.

Features:
- Factory Assembly Photos
- Vintage 1930s Pictures
- Engineering and Tech Drawings
- Battle Damage and Accidents
- Famous Combat Aircraft
- Gun Turret Installation.

Without doubt Boeing Flying Fortress B-17F 41-42285 Memphis Belle and her crew generate an image that is an all-American icon. Indeed, it has been claimed that the Memphis Belle is in the top five of the most famous American aircraft of all time.
In September, 1942, a new Flying Fortress was delivered at Bangor, Maine, to a crew of ten eager American lads headed by Robert K. Morgan, a lanky 24-year-old USAAF pilot from Asheville, N. C. The boys climbed aboard, flew their ship to Memphis, Tenn. and christened her Memphis Belle in honour of Morgan's fiancée, Miss Margaret Polk of Memphis, and then headed across the Atlantic to join the US Eighth Air Force in England.

Between November 7 1942 and May 171943 they flew the Memphis Belle over Hitler's Europe twenty-five times. They dropped more than 60 tons of bombs on targets in Germany, France and Belgium. They blasted the Focke-Wulf plant at Bremen, locks at St. Nazaire and Brest, docks and shipbuilding installations at Wilhelmshaven, railway yards at Rouen, submarine pens and power houses at Lorient, and airplane works at Mortsel near Antwerp. They shot down eight enemy fighters, probably got five others and damaged at least a dozen.
Memphis Belle flew through all the flak that Hitler could send up to them. She slugged it out with Goering's Messerschmitts and Focke-Wulfs. She was riddled by machine gun and cannon fire. Once she returned to base with most of her tail shot away. German guns destroyed a wing and five engines. Her fuselage was shot to pieces but Memphis Belle kept going back. The Memphis Belle crew has been decorated 51 times.

This directory is the product of years of statistical research by author Wallace Forman. It lists over 8,200 Boeing B-17s from the World War II era on which some sort of name identification was obtained, showing name and where available, group, squadron, and serial number.

The Boeing B-17 was the first mass-produced, four-engine heavy bomber. Used throughout World War II for strategic bombing, the plane earned a reputation for its toughness and versatility.
Carrying a crew of ten, and 8,000 pounds of bombs on long range missions, the '17 wreaked havoc on Germany during the critical years 1942-45.

The "Memphis Belle", the first B-17 to fly 25 missions over Europe, is perhaps the most famous plane to emerge from the European Theatre.

Originally printed by the United States Army Air Force in December of 1942, the B-17 Bomber Pilot's Flight Operating Manual taught pilots everything they needed to know about the "Queen of the Skies." Originally classified "Restricted", the manual was declassified long ago and is here reprinted in book form. Color images appear as black and white.

"B-17 Missions de combat" emmène le lecteur visiter les postes de chaque membre d'équipage de la Forteresse volante, pour lui raconter l'aventure de ceux qui ont volé et combattu à bord d'un des plus fameux bombardiers de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Des témoignages uniques d'aviateurs sont réunis avec des photos d'archives qui rendent vivantes les histoires de ces gladiateurs de l'air jusque dans les moindres détails.

Ce livre comprend plus de 100 témoignages, pour la plupart jamais publiés jusqu'alors, de membres d'équipage de B-17. Chaque membre d'équipage raconte son expérience tout à tour - le pilote, le copilote, le navigateur, le radio, le bombardier, le mécanicien-mitrailleur, les mitrailleurs de queue, de tourelle... - pour donner une vision complète d'une mission de guerre sur B-17.
Une centaine de souvenirs, près de 40 photos tirées des archives militaires et 180 photos d'archives illustrent ce livre.

The Boeing B-17 has come to epitomise the American war effort in Europe, the huge four-engined heavy day bomber taking the fight to Germany from the late summer of 1942 through to VE-Day. The primary operator of the Flying Fortress in Western Europe was the 'Mighty Eighth'.
This volume, which is the first of two dealing exclusively with the 'Mighty Eighth', covers the 15 Bomb Groups of the First Air Division, each of which controlled four squadrons. The evolution of the force is traced through first-hand accounts of those individuals that took part in the action.

Contents: Yankee Doodle Goes To War - Spreading the Wealth - 'Black Thursday' and beyond - 'Big Week' and 'Big B - Final Victory - Appendices.

The Boeing B-17, which has come to epitomise the American war effort in Europe, took the fight to Germans from the late summer of 1942 through to VE-Day. Its primary operator in Western Europe was the 'Mighty Eighth', who controlled 27 bomb groups for much of the war.

This second of two volumes covers the 14 Bomb Groups of the Third Air Division. First hand accounts, period photography, profile artworks and nose art scrap views bring to life aircraft from each of the groups within the Third Air Division.

Although the Fifteenth Air Force was dismissed as 'minor leaguers' by the Eighth Air Force, strategic bombers from this outfit had done a 'major league' job on Axis targets in southern Europe following its formation in Italy in November 1943. And the heavy bombers employed by the Fifteenth were of course the venerable B-17 and B-24.

At its peak strength, the Fifteenth's B-17 force comprised six groups of four squadrons each, all controlled by the 5th Bomb Wing. Having been a part of the Fifteenth Air Force in 1944, author Bill Hess has long been waiting to write a definitive account on 'his air force'.