Dave,
I visited London many years after the war. I heard from friends who were in 8th AF,that they used to frequent a pub in the east end, If my memory serves, I think it was called the Prospect of Whitby. While in London I went to that pub it was jam packed. There was a back terrace that backed on the river, I was pushed through ,out to the terrace, it took me 2 turns to reach the bar.

I dont’t know how to post pictures on this site. If someone sends me their e-mail, I will send a couple of B17s shot during WW2.

During my tour in Tunis, N.Africa in 1943, I had to slow time a plane that had an engine change. I had a ground officer who wanted a ride, so he, a copilot and I took off to put in some time on the engine. Prior to this flight I found a British air base about 30 miles away with a straight 3 mile road, with traffic. I said to myself that this was a perfect buzzing target.

Today was the day. I had the copilot check to see that the ball turret guns were in a horizontal position, my virgin passenger was in the nose, the scene was set. To this day I can recall the incident.

I dove down from about 2000 ft and got to several feet above the road, I came up behind an Arab riding atop of load of hay. I saw a bucking mule take off running across an open field with a capsized wagon. Then there was a British lorry with soldiers in the back, going in my direction. The driver didn’t see or hear me when I came up on the lorry, I had to rise a little , otherwise I would have hit it. As I came close I saw the soldiers jump out of the moving vehicle, it was a sight to see. I then took off like a scared deer and went back to my base. About a week later another B17 was in the general area at a normal altitude, a Spitfire came up alongside of him and ecorted him out of the area, after identifying him. Later I heard that a British General lodged a complaint with an American General, I never knew what happened to the U.S. pilot. Actually I was lower then I intended to be, but I’m sure that my passenger had the ride of his life.

A series of programmes is to start on Discovery Channel much like Spitfire Pilot but this one is learning to fly the Bombers of WW2.

Some amazing shots of B17 up very close in flight.

I think its about the 19th July.

Are the close flying shots of B17s during WW2?

Kansan,
Just e-mail jim peters

I saw a picture in my local newspaper today, of the Vickers Vimy aircraft over Ireland, after completing a trans Atlantic flight. It was a reenactment of the first trans Atlantic flight in 1919.

Dave,
I don’t know how I overlooked your post of April 17th. I will try to give you some of my impressions

I had 50 combat flights and I can tell you that I was scared 50 times. Among them were some milk runs (easy missions) and a number of hairy, close calls. also several 3 engine returns. My only casualty was my navigator, he was hit by flak, also I think that over half the time I returned with holes in the plane. My personal opinion was that flak was worse then fighters, but the reason might be because I could see the flak but I rarely saw fighters, because my job was to keep very tight formation. I always maintained thet the copilots position was the worst, the pilot flew and everyone else had a gun to shoot except the the guy in the right seat.

To give you an idea how physically trying it was. at altitudes of 20 to 28,000 ft. and temp of -50 to -60 F and no heat, it was mighty cold. I couldn’t wear the sheep lined jacket because of the tight space. I wore coveralls and a thin flight jacket, and a mae west, over shirt and trousers. At altitude deep in hostile territory, I would have perspiration on my brow, there would be condensation from my oxygen mask, which would leave as much as an inch of ice on my chest, and from the top of my thighs down to my feet, no feeling whatsoever, completly numb. I often wondered that if I had to bail out, would I be able to stand and get to an exit.
Other then that everything was just ducky, I loved flying the B17.