Mission4Today Many, many photos, of which these three are just a sample.
The nose gunner grabs a smoke.
After the bombing run over Germany the pilot should inform him that smoking is hazardous to his health.
Dauntless dive bomber,1944
B-17 ball turret 1942
Hat tip to Val Brose; Santa Maria, CA.
This next data comes to us from a childhood friend, Irma Dedera Sannes of San Francisco. I have made a few edits and comments to add clarity. TD
(It's Battle of Britain Day
today, commemorating the unbelievably fantastic efforts of the "few"
young RAF pilots of Spitfires and Hurricanes whose defeat of Hitler's invading
Luftwaffe over southern England in Sep 1940 caused that bastard dictator to
abandon his plan and look eastwards instead. That gave us a brief chance to
build more planes to replace the heavy losses and to train up new young men to
replace the hundreds of dead ones, until our American allies came in to help us
after Pearl Harbour. Without them, we might have been speaking German now.)
The following document shows just how much the Americans helped us in the air:
Amazing WW2 Aircraft Facts;
These are very moving statistics and people who were not around during WW2 have no understanding of the magnitude. This gives some insight.
On average 6600 American service men died per MONTH, during WW2 (about 220 a
day).
276,000 aircraft manufactured in the US.
43,000 planes lost overseas, including 23,000 in combat.
14,000 lost in the continental U.S.
The staggering cost of aircraft in 1945 dollars
B-17 $204,370. P-40 $44,892.
B-24 $215,516. P-47 $85,578.
B-25 $142,194. P-51 $51,572.
B-26 $192,426. C-47 $88,574.
B-29 $605,360. PT-17 $15,052.
P-38 $97,147. AT-6 $22,952.
From Germany's invasion of Poland Sept. 1, 1939 until Japan's surrender on
Sept. 2, 1945 = 2,433 days. (America entered the war over two years after that. Until then, Britain stood alone against Hitler in Western Europe, the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and North Africa.)
America lost an average of 170 planes a day.
A B-17 carried 2,500 gallons of high octane fuel and carried a crew of 10
airmen.
9.7 billion gallons of gasoline consumed.
108 million hours flown.
460 thousand million rounds of aircraft ammo fired overseas.
7.9 million bombs dropped overseas.
2.3 million combat flights.
299,230 aircraft used.
808,471 aircraft engines used.
799,972 propellers.
