B-17

jules, u can write me at [email]altaffe80@hotmail.com[/email]

Alex

Alex,
Did you ever get my account of my trip to Reggio Emilia in June 2004 as a guest of their Historical Society? I can e=mail it.

B-17 man…I was in the 99th BG towards the end of the war….and they installed the Formation sticks…they were installed only about 2 weeks and they came right back out.

As Jules said….the close formations we flew were too close to use the Formation Sticks, and I understood the pilots refused to use them….I can recall a mission or two with them installed and my pilots did NOT use them.

My copies of the Dash-1,Dash-2 , do not show anything on the Formation Sticks….
the Dash -4 shows the installation and shows it applicable to 43-39209 and subsequent.

Jim 🙂

Lav,
I’m glad that you asked me about the planes, it made me go to my diary and count the different planes that I flew. I was flabbergasted, I flew 17 different planes, some once or twice.
There wasn’t much that we could do to modify the planes, my only concern was that the engines ran reasonably well.

Willy,
I don’t have a website of my own, I only have e-mail. Sometime ago Andy was able to get my pictures on this site, he also was able to set up an avatar.
I am not too computer literate.

Don’t worry jules your doing great,we look forward to your posts and like gnome i too would like to know of any modifications your self or your crew made to your aeroplane to make your job easier or more comfortable.
dave

Willy,
I don’t have a website of my own, I only have e-mail. Sometime ago Andy was able to get my pictures on this site, he also was able to set up an avatar.
I am not too computer literate.

Jules – you wondered if you had to bail out would you be able to stand (due to frozen legs ) – maybe the fear and adrenaline would give you amazing power – glad you didn’t have to in the end ,your accounts just raise my respect and appreciation for Men of your Generation . When I see 909 at Burbank in April I will imagine you stood at the back door being docent .I will also mention you to the crew and see what respone i get 🙂

Best Ron

Ron
When you talk to the flyboys or Rob and his wife make sure that you mention Ft Lauderdale, Pompano and Boca Raton

Bailing out

Jules – you wondered if you had to bail out would you be able to stand (due to frozen legs ) – maybe the fear and adrenaline would give you amazing power – glad you didn’t have to in the end ,your accounts just raise my respect and appreciation for Men of your Generation . When I see 909 at Burbank in April I will imagine you stood at the back door being docent .I will also mention you to the crew and see what respone i get 🙂

Best Ron

Alex,
Just browsed thru this thread today. Did I ever send you the account of my trip to Reggio?

Sir, you have my utmost respect and thanks for your service. It is an honour to be able to hold a conversation with such distinguished men. Thank you- your memories and pictures are facinating!
Kind regards,
BARNOWL
(Andy)

Bomberboy,
I had 50 sorties fromTunis and Foggia, from July ’43 to ‘Feb ’44.
I never saw the C-1 contraption. I still don’t believe I would have used it because of the close proximity to another plane. Better tired then dead.

Jules,

As B 17 man says, the ‘formation stick’ was fitted to a number of B 17s & could also be used on B 24s as they used the same C1 autopilot system.
It was an early crude form of ‘fly-by-wire’.
You would still have to Jockey with the throttles to keep the same speed as the other aeroplanes in the formation, but it’s intention was to relieve the pilots from a lot of physical manual flying input.

My father was in 53 sqdn, RAF Coastal Command flying B 24s and he was posted to his sqdn a few days after D-Day.

Regards

Bomberboy

Jules,

It’s nice to hear form a veteran and I wish you a very happy new year.
Over the years I have met many thousands of veterans
I read a book some while ago from another veteran based in italy with the 15th AAF.
The book is entitled Crew Umbriago and the authors name was Daniel P Carroll who was stationed at Foggia with the 463rd BG in B-17s.
If memory serves me right, I think the group marking was a Y in a pie shape but I am not able to check my books until later.
In it he describes many of the things you have described in your account, particularly in relation to the tents.

In 1996 B-17G Sally B went to italy for an airshow at a place called Forli.
which Is not far from San Marino.
One must not forget, it is very likely that it had been a long time since a B-17 had returned to Italy.
I remember speaking to one particular older man who said to me “During the war I am seeing these come and bomb us, but I am very glad to see this one here today”.
I found that very touching.

How many ops did you yourself complete?

Regards

Bomberboy

Hi all
here’s the latest picture from Jules.
Cheers
Andy

jules, u can write me at [email]altaffe80@hotmail.com[/email]

Alex

Italian
No, send me your e-mail address, I will send you a writeup of my recent trip to Italy as a guest of Reggio Emilia

Hello Jules, did u get my email? 🙂

Alex

RER,
I never passeed through Dow, I flew the southern route to N.Africa

The sheepskin jacket in the picture is just for effect. Aside from flak, the next worst thing about combat missions was the cold,
Because I needed freedom of movement, I couldn;t wear the bulky jacket that you see. I wore a thin flying jacket over coveralls,a mae west, and parachute harness. Electric flying suits came in until after I left, half the the time they did;t work. We had tempertures of -50 to -60F. Over a target with adrenaline flowing, I had sweat on my brow, condensation from my oxygen mask dripping to my chest, about an inch of ice, and from my harness at the top of my thighs, no feeling in my legs. I operated the rudders from my head since I had no feeling in my legs. I’ve often wondered if I had to bailout , would I be able to stand and get to the bombay.

Hello Sir,

Question when you deplode what route did you take to Europe,

The reason I ask is nearly all of the B-17 going to Europe seem to have stop in Maine. I was wondering if you passed thru Dow Field in Bangor Maine. If so what is your thoughts of the base.

Thank you in advance for any information.

Cheers
RER

Andy
The name of the plane is “Never Satisfied”. The swastikas denotes the # of enemy planes shot down, the bombs indicate the # of missions the plane flew.
I flew several sorties in this plane.

Other then patches and engine changes this plane had 104 missions flown, at wars end it was scrapped overseas.