Battle Damage and Maybe Repair

[Capt. Vick]

Agreed!

 

[special ed]

It could be the cold weather & long winters there.

 

[drgondog]

I suspect that aircraft was stripped of any operational gear, and pushed into the surrounding field for the duration of the war. And turned into beer cans shortly after.
That would have been an enormous repair, and probably not worth the effort, considering that 10 shiny, factory fresh B-17's were waiting at the depot

Not at that time. IIRC that was early 1943 and the 12th AF was at the end of the supply chain vs ETO. The boneyard probably had at least one B-17 with intact aft fuselage