Written fourteen years after the end of W.W. II, this five page article lucidly explains why Boeing’s B-17 Flying Fortress has a unique place in the annals of military aviation:
“Perhaps more than any other plane, the B-17
beat Hitler. Its 640,036 tons of bombs on Europe, nearly the total dropped by all other U.S. planes combined, knocked out much of his industry, oil and railroads.”
“In Europe, until mid-1942, Allied bombing had been limited to night ‘area’ raids. But with the B-17, high-altitude daylight bombing became a reality. Unescorted Forts even reached an unexpected range of 200 miles east of Berlin, smashing a Focke-Wulf plant without touching an adjacent prison camp… Forts went down on some raids like leaves. But they blasted their targets first.”
“The B-17 unveiled the era of strategic air power and turned man’s eye to the stratosphere and beyond”
Click here to read about the P-47 fighter plane.
Click here to read about the Japanese Zero.
