B17 Bomber

 

 

 Months before the USA started its
participation in WW2, the B-17 four-engine bomber had
seen combat and had been shot down.
RAF’s Bomber Command acquired 20 B-17C ‘Fortress
I’ (photo) from the US in late 1940, flying their first
combat mission on 8th July 1941, (6 months before Pearl
Harbor), when three B-17C departed RAF Watton to
bomb the German naval base at Wilhelm
shaven from
high altitude (30,000 ft) in broad daylight.

The Germans fighters failed to intercept the high-flying
bombers, but the engine of one of them failed and it
diverted to a secondary target. The other two bombers
proceeded to the German port but at the high altitude
they were flying the low temperature congealed the
machine guns’ lubricant rendering them non-operational
Bombing is reported as ‘ineffective’.

By September, eight B-17Cs had been lost in operations
(combat and accidents). Bomber Command retired the
bomber due to numerous mechanical breakdowns and
its vulnerability to fighters caused by light defensive
armament and light armor. Relatively small bomb loads
and low aiming accuracy are sometimes reported -it
seems the B-17C did not employ the Norden bombsight-
The remaining bombers were handed out to Coastal
Command for anti-submarine patrols.

The Luftwaffe claimed to have shot down nine RAF
B-17s but three of the claims precede the Fortress
debut, so they are probably misidentified.
The first B-17 shot down can probably be attributed to
Uffz. Karl Pfeiffer, flying a Bf 109E-7 or F (1 or 2) from
3./JG 2 over La Pallice in France on 23rd July 1941 at
sunset

The B-17C (see picture) lacked the machine gun turrets
later installed in the B-17E. It had one MG in the dorsal,
nose, and ventral (bathtub) positions and one each in
the port and starboard side blisters. Its empty weight of
30,900 pounds was 1351 pounds lighter than the B-17E,
the model initially used by the USAAF in Europe.