B-17 Flying Fortress Explained

What do you think about the B-17 Flying Fortress? Do you think it was one of the best bombers of WWII?

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More guns than bombs the plane never made any sence to me.

The B17 was okay but it was an expensive aircraft in cost of man power, ,materials and running costs only to deliver what the British Mosquito could deliver with only 2 men flying it and only a fraction of the materials used to build and run the Mosquito and the B17 is not in the same league as the Arvo Lancaster being able to carry over three and a half times what the B17 could carry and about half the man power.

Honour to all the crew's, but maybe look at the video " the b17 was crap"

The B-17 will always be my favorite aircraft because my Dad was a top turret gunner on one before getting shot down on the 5th mission and being a POW.
Such an amazing aircraft.

Its purpose was not clear from the outset, it was originally conceived as a long-range scout and coastal defense bomber. But when the need arose, it lent itself very well to the role of strategic bomber

Over 20000 US airmen are believed to be buried in unmarked graves.

The first pilots to know how tough the B-17 was were the Japanese when they attacked the Phillippines.The Japanese ace Saburo Sakai was witness of such a strength.

Nice video 👏

The B-17 was the most mass produced bomber of WW2. Thousands were made for the USAAF between 1938 and 1945 seeing use across both theatres especially in Europe against the German war machine

I love the defensive armament with 13 machine guns on the B-17, but compared to the Lancaster the bomb load capacity is a bit disappointing.

My late father flew in those out of high wycombe england ww2. He was a staff sergeant. He was in photo recon. He had a camera mounted in the b17's belly. They would fly over enemy held territory and take photos. After they were developed several planes would be sent to bomb those areas. After that my dad went back to photo the results to see if the bombing raid was successful. He was part of the 8th.air force.

I’m not convinced that it had wing “hard points” for external ordinance.

You wanna know what I think about the B-17? I am turgid about the B-17. Is that weird?

Good job!

I like both b17 and b 29 the are amazing and alike but super,does not mean better then b 17

As a kid in the 90s, i remember watching documentaries with my dad on the history channel back when they played good content. I was always fascinated by this plane and the p51. To me it really symbolizes that ingenuity and drive to liberate europe and defeat the germans no matter the cost.

Flying without escort, long range, armed to the tits with machine guns. Its such an american solution to a difficult problem.

I miss information about the reverse of the medal, e.g. the horrendous losses while "flying above the reach of anti aircraft", the defiencies of the bomb sight, etc.

I always preferred the B24 Liberator, probably because was given a model as a kid, a very informative video I remember seeing the Sally B flying many years ago. Thank's.

Terrific summary...I really appreciate the film and pictures you used, and your delivery is flawless. However, with the risk of making your excellent short video a lot longer, but definitely not with that intent, I feel like a little bit more should be in the script for the B-17. It definitely was one of the best bombers of WW2, and it definitely made a big contribution to the war, and I already mentioned something I thought maybe should have been added about the Norden bombsight...but perhaps there should have been some mention that the B-24 had better range, speed and payload and flew about 60 percent of the heavy bomber missions in Europe and Africa to the B-17's roughly 40 percent...and that while 12700 B-17 aircraft of all variants were produced, over 18100 B-24 aircraft were built. It would not be true to say the B-24 was "better" than the B-17...except in certain roles where the B-24 excelled...but it would be true to say that the B-24 was much more of a workhorse to the Allies than the B-17 was.
Anyway...it was a great video, and I just thought a couple of more sentences added to the script with a bit more info would just make it that much better.

I feel like there could/should have been a little bit more details given about the shortcomings of the Norden bombsight. Its claims for accuracy were almost entirely based on how it performed in the environment of testing grounds in dry and calm air of the vast Western US, but its real world performance was far more dismal. Perhaps an extra sentence noting how its actual abilities never came anywhere near being able to hit that pickle barrel, nor the building it was in, nor the block it was on...and barely managed to be able to hit the correct post code.

Not bad, though prefer its successor the B-29.

What do you think about the B-17 Flying Fortress? Do you think it was one of the best bombers of WWII?

Welcome back! If you are new here make sure to hit subscribe to expand your knowledge on Military History and join the growing Premier History Community!