Warbird Information Exchange

Received this in my e-mail, thought it was interesting.

> Subject: Fw: ALL AMERICAN - The Miracle B17
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> The Flying Fortress was one tough bird!
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> An attacking German Bf 109 fighter tumbled through the tail of a 97th
Bomb Group B-17F named "All American" on a mission to Tunis, Tunisia, on February 1, 1943. Flyers in other B-17s were astonished to see the stricken bomber pitch up, recover, and keep flying. An airman aboard the Flying Flint Gun snapped a photograph that would become famous. It shows All American struggling to make it home with no port horizontal stabilizer and a terrible gash through the fuselage. The photo was sent home with the following message: "Censor, Should there be some law, rule, or regulation against sending the picture below to my wife, please seal the flap above and return---It is an unduplicateable shot and one I should hate to lose."
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> All American made it back to Biskra, Algeria, with all aboard safe.
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> National Archives/Army Air Forces.

Excerpt from Martin Caidin's "Flying Forts, The B-17 in World War II" on the All American:

...It was impossible for the airplane to fly. But it flew. It shook and rattled and the tail swayed wildly. The tail gunner scampered with monkey swifness out of his small position and into the dubious safety of the fuselage. Every man aboard tightened his parachute, ready to go out the moment the tail separated -- as every man expected it would at any moment. Accompanying bomber crews stared in awe. It's not often you see a miracle before your eyes.

For an hour and a half Ken Bragg flew that impossible plane home. They gave him a long straight-in approach to Biskra. And Bragg landed that impossible plane in an impossible landing.

"You know what happened when that damned airplane came to a stop?" a crewman ventured in awe. "They got a small hatch back there in the fuselage. When someone pulled the open hatch that airplane broke in half..."

But it flew home --- first.

You gotta love Caidin's writing. He missed from time to time in the historical accuracy department, but he wrote some great aviation prose, especially when it came to the B-17.

I take issue with his use of the word "impossible." By calling it impossible, he under-rates the rugedness and excellent design of the B-17. Sure it wasn't designed for that kind of damaged, but it was designed to bring you home. By calling it an impossible landing, he also under-rates the ability of the pilot (likely younger than 95% of us here) to fly that plane.

I am curious whether any of the control surfaces on the tail still functioned, or whether the tail was just there to keep the plane stable and the pilot had to compensate for loss of rudder and elevator control.

Just to add to the notion of the B17s toughness. Here's a color shot of Lt. Alan Butt's 301st BG B17G that took a direct hit in the waist from flak, killing one gunner and ripping open the plane. This was February 14, 1945. I got a copy of the image from the co-pilot of the B17 off his wing, who was trying out his camera with color film for the first time.

They made it back too.

Dan