Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: The Most Honored Photograph - The Eager Beavers B-17 Crew

  1. #1
    Ryan Dembroski's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
    Posts
    72

    The Most Honored Photograph - The Eager Beavers B-17 Crew

    I'm sure all of you Warbird guys and gals have heard this story before, but it was a new one to me.
    It's got a few B-17 details wrong and some hyperbole (every good war story does), but it's pretty great: http://petapixel.com/2013/10/29/honored-photograph/

  2. #2
    jjhoneck's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2013
    Location
    Port Aransas, TX
    Posts
    103
    That is a great story!

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Posts
    2,575
    A great tale of determination. One question, it talks about "replacing the light .30 cal machine guns with .50 cals". As for as I know B-17 s always had .50 cals, never heard of them with .30s. Some British bombers only had .30 cals and it hurt them.

  4. #4
    Ryan Dembroski's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
    Posts
    72
    I'm definitely not a B-17 expert, so I don't know. A few commenters on the article had the same observation that you did Bill.

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Jul 2012
    Location
    Circle Pines MN
    Posts
    245
    An excellent story of determination and bravery.
    Here's a little more information on the story of the crew and the specific B-17 involved. It was an E model and they did come from the factory with a mount for a .30 caliber machine gun in the nose,
    they were delivered with 8 .50's and 1 .30 caliber so the part about switching from .30's to .50's sounds true.
    That information is from my book B-17 in Action, by Squadron/Signal publications. The D model was delivered with 6 .50's and 1 .30 cal., of course only 42 were built of that model, whereas 512 E models were built, even the later F model had 9 .50's and 1 .30 cal. guns installed.
    This last bit of information is from Flying Fortress The illustrated biography of the B-17's and the men who flew themby Edward Jablonski.

    http://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/b-17/41-2666.html

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    NW FL
    Posts
    405
    I thought that tail number rang a bell. About a year ago, someone sent me a link and I saved w/o looking at it. Check this out.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Im086TCu3I

    Bob

  7. #7
    Rick Rademacher's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Urbana Ohio
    Posts
    184
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeV4y...ature=youtu.beTalking about 50's. This is an interesting video about making them for the B-17 restoration in Urbana Ohio.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •