B17

[lesofprimus]

Very cool and welcome to the site - my question...

How far forward was the pilots seat from the top turret?!?!

LMFAO Joe..... That was great....

Welcome Jules....

My questions revolve around the Fw-190A-8's and their increased 30mm armament.... Were u guys ever briefed and/or warned about this kites attack profile and destructive power, or was it just another FW???

It seems that some pilots were briefed and some werent...

 

[Gnomey]

Welcome Jules.

 

[jhor9]

Jhor, Im curious about the training that the pilots had.

Can you give us some idea's on the actual number of hours you and your colleagues actually flew during training. Was it more or less than the official required hours?

How did you get selected to fly B17's?

Thanks!

I enlisted Dec 8 1941 and requested flying in the army air corps, I was appointed as an aviation cadet. each segment of the following lasted about 8 weeks.I and many others were put on ice for a few months because of the large influx of recruits First was preflight at Maxwell fld ,AL then primary at Camden SC flying P19 or 17 Stearman. At basic the BT13 at Shaw fld Sumpter SC, then AT 10, twin engine at Moody fld Valdosta, GA. Each phase was about 60 flying hours.At that time between primary and basic there was about 35% washout rate, the reason was they couldn't advance fast enough in the time allotted,.I got my wings Dec12, 1942 at Moody fld. At that time their was a great need for bomber pilots, we were losing the war.

 

[jhor9]

Jhor, Im curious about the training that the pilots had.

Can you give us some idea's on the actual number of hours you and your colleagues actually flew during training. Was it more or less than the official required hours?

How did you get selected to fly B17's?

Thanks!

syscom3
I enlisted Dec 8 1941 and requested flying in the army air corps, I was appointed as an aviation cadet. each segment of the following lasted about 8 weeks.I and many others were put on ice for a few months because of the large influx of recruits First was preflight at Maxwell fld ,AL then primary at Camden SC flying P19 or 17 Stearman. At basic the BT13 at Shaw fld Sumpter SC, then AT 10, twin engine at Moody fld Valdosta, GA. Each phase was about 60 flying hours.At that time between primary and basic there was about 35% washout rate, the reason was they couldn't advance fast enough in the time allotted,.I got my wings Dec12, 1942 at Moody fld. At that time their was a great need for bomber pilots, we were losing the war.

 

[syscom3]

Thanks JHOR. At what point were you selected for bomber training and how did you end up in B17's. Was a whole class assigned the same type of aircraft to fly, or did you get split up for some to fly A20's, some for B24's, some for B17's, etc.

One other question. The student pilots who washed out, did they get another chance to qualify, or were they sent to bombardier or navigation school?

 

[delcyros]

Greetings!
Nice to have You here around. May I ask what Your first impression about the B-17 was?

 

[Erich]

Jules can you tell us why the diamond back design with the Y was used on the tail surfaces ? also in regard to the tail diamond, I see from the 99th bg web-site that some B-17's had a black diamond with white Y and others in same formation a white diamond with black Y. differences in squadron ?

many thanks

Erich

 

[Henk]

Welcome jhor9 to the site.

I would like to know which famous targets did you get to bomb if any and have you been in a raid where there were any Me-262? Wish mission would you never forget?

Henk

 

[jhor9]

Thanks JHOR. At what point were you selected for bomber training and how did you end up in B17's. Was a whole class assigned the same type of aircraft to fly, or did you get split up for some to fly A20's, some for B24's, some for B17's, etc.

One other question. The student pilots who washed out, did they get another chance to qualify, or were they sent to bombardier or navigation school?

I don't remember but I'm quite sure that at graduation when I got my wings, our class was split up and we were sent to various bases for training in different operational aircraft
During my time in 1942, washouts were sent to nav and bombardier schools,
Later all cadets had to take what was called stanine (?) tests which determined what schools they would be sent to. The latter part of 1944 after a stint as pilot instructor I requested nav school, I had to take the stanine tests , same as cadets, but since I was a student officer I asked for nav school only, i eventually earned nav wings and was dual rated,

 

[jhor9]

Greetings!
Nice to have You here around. May I ask what Your first impression about the B-17 was?

I was overwhelmed, on my orientation walk through to the cockpit, my instructor said to his 3 students "take a good look because in 10 days you will take a blinfold test, you will touch each instrument or object that is called off". 10 days later we all had no problem with his test.

 

[jhor9]

Jules can you tell us why the diamond back design with the Y was used on the tail surfaces ? also in regard to the tail diamond, I see from the 99th bg web-site that some B-17's had a black diamond with white Y and others in same formation a white diamond with black Y. differences in squadron ?

many thanks

Erich

The change in design was instituted after I left the group. During my time we had a white diamond on a black background with 1 to 4 white vertical stripes under the diamond. the later design still had the roman numeral stripes that denoted the sqdns

 

[jhor9]

Welcome jhor9 to the site.

I would like to know which famous targets did you get to bomb if any and have you been in a raid where there were any Me-262? Wish mission would you never forget?

Henk

My 1st mission 7/19/43 I flew copilot with our sqdn ops officer. Target was Rome marshalling yards, the day before, leaflets were dropped stating that no churches would be hit. At briefing we were told that if there were any malfunctions, not to drop bommbs. 3 newsmen went on the flight, we had Richard Tregaskis with us from Intl News Service. the following day my picture was on the front page of a major New York newspaper.

During my tour the most important target was Weiner Neustadt 30 miles below Vienna . I went there twice, once from Tunis, which was a 14 hour flight

On one of my last missions I was told that a ME262 flew over our group

There were several, but the most memorable was after flying copilot for several missions, I got my crew back and flew left seat. Our target was to Foggia. We had very heavy flak, the lead plane had their controls shot away, but they were able to get to friendly areas where they bailed out. The plane on the other wing had 1 or 2 men killed, my navigator was wounded, when we landed I counted over 100 holes in the plane, It was my baptism under fire.

 

[syscom3]

I was overwhelmed, on my orientation walk through to the cockpit, my instructor said to his 3 students "take a good look because in 10 days you will take a blinfold test, you will touch each instrument or object that is called off". 10 days later we all had no problem with his test.

Jhor, was that standard practice for the B17 training pilots to have three student pilots under his "wings".

What were the first few training flights like? Go up to altitude and take turns flying around? Did you actually get to stall the plane to get practice in recovery techniques?

 

[Henk]

Jhor that sound pretty hectic mate. I love hearing those kind of story's.

Thanks for sharing mate.

Henk

 

[jhor9]

Welcome aboard, jhor9! I am sure I speak for most of us here when I say thank you for your service.

Thank you for posting my avatar
Jules

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

hey, my question's more of a cultural one, what was the general American opinion of the British people? and what did you guys think of the RAF?

 

[loomaluftwaffe]

have any of your gunners shot down a fighter?

 

[gis-nl]

found this one for the B25, Is this a general book what all bomber pilots have to learn or was for each type off bomber ( like the B17) a different book ?

 

[jhor9]

hey, my question's more of a cultural one, what was the general American opinion of the British people? and what did you guys think of the RAF?

We considered the RAF groups as we considered a neighboring American group
When I was a cadet in training I roomed with a Brit flying Sgt, we got along very well

 

[Erich]

Jules looks like you have many questions coming your way .......... excellent !

thank you for answering mine on ID markings and another if I may. I am familiar with Austria but the ops on Wiener Neustadt was defended more heavily by flak or single/twin engine fighters. . ? I imagine your bomb group faced Bf 110G-2's from II./ZG 1 during your war time career of 1943 to late winter of 44 . .

Erich