Oscar,
I definately remember the people lining up for scraps and the remainder of our coffee.
Also,most tents had a gofer, a young boy who lived with us. We would cut down a uniform so that the lad had a warm outfit, we also fed the youngster.
After the war in my home, there were times when food had to be discarded for one reason or another, my wife would never discard food in my presence.

My guess is that the lipsticks were used for trading.

Hi Stephen,
I prefered the G model because of the nose turret, more armament,otherwise there was no dfference. When fully loaded, takeoff was more hairy, once in the air, it handled beautifuly. During my 50 mission tour I flew in about 7-9 different planes, nothing major about the handling except for the condition of the engines. I spent most of my tour in Tunis July ’43-Dec’43, Foggia, Dec to Feb. We lived in tents, 4 officers per tent (my tent 4 pilots), enlisted, usually the same crew 6 per tent. The food wasn;t great but we survived, on missions we had K rations which we couldn’t eat because they were frozen. At breakfast you kept coffee to a minimum to eliminate having to urinate at altitude. On off days we went to town sometimes, or trips if jeeps were available.
After returning to US, I was an instructor for B17 crews preparing to go overseas. I had put in for different schools and after 6 months I went through and completed Navigation school. Shortly after I was discharged and remained in reserve until I had 20 years.
While at Nav school at Hondo,Tx I would go to Kelly Fld and fly AT-6 in order to get my 4 hours per month so that i would get flying pay, great plane.
I’d be glad to answer any questions as long as my memory works.
I monitor a great website in US titled ARMY AIR FORCES.

b17

Andy
I was in Italy from Dec to Feb 1943-44, my field was Tortarella, a few miles from Foggia. We had Wimpy Wellingtons on our base, they flew at night, they took quite a beating. I’m not familiar with the town that you mentioned, it is over 60 years and my memory is a bit vague

There were many bases within a 10 mile radius of Foggia, we bombed the area several times from N.Africa. The network of airfields was most important because when we got there it enabled B17’s and B24’s to go all over Europe. My group went to Berlin, about 10 times to Ploesti, also a shuttle raid to Russia, among other distant targets.