The latest bomber in the house, I just received in my office last friday. This free scaled model due to my order to Fighter Aircraft Magazine Malaysia. I'm too satisfied with myself because now in my collection has this legend WW2 Europe Bomber. The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the then United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Competing against Douglas and Martin for a
contract to build 200 bombers, the Boeing entry
outperformed both competitors and more than met the Air Corps' expectations.
Although Boeing lost the contract because the prototype crashed, the Air Corps
was so impressed with Boeing's design that they ordered 13 more B-17s for
further evaluation. From its introduction in 1938, the B-17 Flying Fortress
evolved through numerous design advances.
The B-17 began operations in World
War II with the RAF in 1941 (but
was not successful), and in the Southwest Pacific with the U.S. Army. The 19th
Bombardment Group had deployed to Clark Field in the Philippines a few weeks
before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor as the first of a planned heavy
bomber buildup in the Pacific. Half of the group's B-17s were wiped out on 8
December 1941 when they were caught on the ground during refueling and rearming
for a planned attack on Japanese airfields on Formosa. The small force of B-17s
operated against the Japanese invasion force until they were withdrawn to
Darwin. In early 1942, the 7th Bombardment Group began arriving in Java with a
mixed force of B-17s and LB-30/B-24s. After the defeat in Java, the 19th
withdrew to Australia where it continued in combat until it was sent back home
by Gen. George C. Kenney when he arrived in Australia in mid-1942. In
July 1942, the first B-17s were sent to England to join Eighth
Air Force. Later that year two groups moved to Algeria to join Twelfth Air Force
for operations in North Africa. The B-17s were primarily involved in the
daylight precision strategic
bombing campaign against German targets ranging from U-boat
pens, docks, warehouses and airfields to industrial targets such as aircraft
factories. In the campaign against German aircraft forces in preparation for the invasion of France, B-17 (and B-24 Liberator) raids were directed
against German aircraft production while their presence drew the Luftwaffefighters into battle with Allied fighters.
Early
models proved to be unsuitable for combat use over Europe and it was the B-17E
that was first successfully used by the USAAF. The defense expected from
bombers operating in close formation alone did not prove effective and the
bombers needed fighter escorts to operate successfully.
During World War II, the B-17 equipped 32
overseas combat groups, inventory peaking in August 1944 at 4,574 USAAF
aircraft worldwide. B-17s dropped 640,036 short tons (580,631 metric tons) of
bombs on European targets (compared to 452,508 short tons (410,508 metric tons)
dropped by the Liberator and 463,544 short tons (420,520 metric tons) dropped
by all other U.S. aircraft. The British heavy bombers, the Avro Lancaster and Handley Page
Halifax, dropped 608,612 and 224,207 long
tons respectively
SOURCES : Wikipedia
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