B-17's that took a beating

[wilbur1]

Man, could you imagine being in that plane trying to get home. Not only is it falling apart, but you got some crazy guy trying to shoot at you also
God i wanna try it

[seesul]

Man, could you imagine being in that plane trying to get home. Not only is it falling apart, but you got some crazy guy trying to shoot at you also
God i wanna try it

never in my life!

[wilbur1]

Yeah would be scary, but still imagine what joe was thinking when it was happening one brave individual

[B-17engineer]

me 2

[seesul]

Yeah would be scary, but still imagine what joe was thinking when it was happening one brave individual

yes, here are two pics of the rests of his b-17 and the picture of the grave of his 2 fellows that weren´t so lucky...

[B-17engineer]

mmmmm good photos take my hats off to the B-17 crew

[Lucky13]

[wilbur1]

Great photos seesul

[seesul]

thank you friends...
and here are the pics of those two who didn´t survive:
Joe Marinello, ball turret gunner- Joe belives he was KIA onboard yet when the attack began. The ball turret got jammed so Joe Owsianik tried to crancle it by hand to get into position for opening the gate but no chance...So he run to the emergency door behind the right waist, kicked them out and bailed out...
Russell Meyrick, bombardier- bailed out but his chute was full of fuel and caught fire. So Russell fell down without chute. People from nearby village Rudice (where they were later buried) heard him yelling... He hit the ground by his head so fast that they even weren´t able to pull him out...

A sad story as millions of others...

[seesul]

and since 2004 there´s a Holy Mess at the Meyrick´s tree (next to the place where Merick fell down) every year on last August Sunday...

[B-17engineer]

Gotta give your hats off to those brave bomber crews who knew there fate was in the hands of there plane..........

[evangilder]

That is really awesome that the people there hold a memorial for someone they never met, who was a foreigner to them. The amount of people in the pictures is what surprised me.

[lesofprimus]

Me too, makes it feel like it was worth it to those guys....

[Micdrow]

That's awesome that they did it for some one they didn't know.

For those of you looking for a life and death struggles of a B-17 read the book Valor at Polebrook, The last flight of Ten Horsepower by Rick School and Jeff Rogers. Ten Horsepower is probably the single highest awarded crew for valor of any B-17 crews with two Medal of Honor winners and may other awards for just one mission. A good show of heroism yet at the same time very sad.

[Henk]

What is the story behind the bomb going for the B-17?