My experience in 99th Bomb Group B17 WW2

[kfz]

To US and British forces in the UK?

What postion did you fly? Did you have much contact with the Italian air force, what did you think of them. Most accounts Ive read site them a pretty well skilled but lacking modern tactics and aggression/determination??

[39thmilitia]

The problem with the Italians was that most Italians wanted to be on the Allied side and only fought to survive, not win.

Could you blame them?

[jhor9]

Originally Posted by kfz

To US and British forces in the UK?

What postion did you fly? Did you have much contact with the Italian air force, what did you think of them. Most accounts Ive read site them a pretty well skilled but lacking modern tactics and aggression/determination??

I was the pilot A.C. (the boss). The only time I saw Italians was on my first mission. He flew in just far enough to get a few bullet holes and then left.

My personal opinion is that the Italian people are among the warmest people that one could find. Two years ago I was invited to come to Italy as a guest of the Historical Society of Reggio Emilia (city) because I bombed their city in Jan 1944

Nice of them, i think. As i understand it the RAF crews always considered Italian targets to be Milk Runs. Was that the same for the USAAF?

[jhor9]

Originally Posted by mosquito617

Nice of them, i think. As i understand it the RAF crews always considered Italian targets to be Milk Runs. Was that the same for the USAAF?

We had some of both. We had Wellingtons based at our field that flew at night, ask some of their crews. I met some of their people and was told that they had heavy losses,
My crew and 2 other crews were replacements for 3 out of 6 planes in my sqdn that were shot down. My group of 28 planes were bombing an airfield in Sicily. They destroyed 20 planes on the ground, in the area of the target they were attacked by over 100 190s and 109s, they got credit for shooting down 49 and damaged/some probables 22 more. This is from official records. I wouldn't call missions to Foggia , Naples, Mestre near Venice and Bolzano area plus others as milk runs.
Also, any target worth hitting was very well protected wuth flak batteries, my personal opinion is that flak was worse then fighters

Originally Posted by jhor9

We had some of both. We had Wellingtons based at our field that flew at night, ask some of their crews. I met some of their people and was told that they had heavy losses,
My crew and 2 other crews were replacements for 3 out of 6 planes in my sqdn that were shot down. My group of 28 planes were bombing an airfield in Sicily. They destroyed 20 planes on the ground, in the area of the target they were attacked by over 100 190s and 109s, they got credit for shooting down 49 and damaged/some probables 22 more. This is from official records. I wouldn't call missions to Foggia , Naples, Mestre near Venice and Bolzano area plus others as milk runs.
Also, any target worth hitting was very well protected wuth flak batteries, my personal opinion is that flak was worse then fighters

Did they have to modify the seats in bombers so that people with "big ones" who flew them, could sit down? Hats off to you bomber guys. Man, where do people like you come from?

[jhor9]

[quote=jimbotosome]Did they have to modify the seats in bombers so that people with "big ones" who flew them, could sit down? Hats off to you bomber guys. Man, where do people like you come from?[/quo

Jimbo

I never heard of anyone who had to have the seats modified. I couldn't wear the fleece lined jacket because it was too bulky, I just wore a thin flying jacket over coveralls.I never saw an electriclly heated flying suit.

The cold was pretty bad at altitude -50 to -60F, in the target vicinity, I would be sweating, condensation from my oxygen mask would leave about an inch of ice on my chest, and from the top of my thighs to the tip of my toes I was completely numb. One had to be young to fly missions, I had an old man of 33 who was a misfit.

To answer your question. When I enlisted I knew that I would have a job to do, I did it, simple !!

[quote=jhor9]

Originally Posted by jimbotosome

Did they have to modify the seats in bombers so that people with "big ones" who flew them, could sit down? Hats off to you bomber guys. Man, where do people like you come from?[/quo

Jimbo

I never heard of anyone who had to have the seats modified. I couldn't wear the fleece lined jacket because it was too bulky, I just wore a thin flying jacket over coveralls.I never saw an electriclly heated flying suit.

The cold was pretty bad at altitude -50 to -60F, in the target vicinity, I would be sweating, condensation from my oxygen mask would leave about an inch of ice on my chest, and from the top of my thighs to the tip of my toes I was completely numb. One had to be young to fly missions, I had an old man of 33 who was a misfit.

To answer your question. When I enlisted I knew that I would have a job to do, I did it, simple !!

By the necessity for seat modification, I meant in reference to large male genitalia metaphor that is used to symbolize people with courage and audacity beyond those of normal males. -60F, man that's insane!

jhor9,

Where you there when General Doolittle was heading it up and if so did you ever meet him?

Did you guys fly with the escort of the Tuskeegee airman?

I attended a presentation of our flying club from a couple of the local Tenn pilots from the 15th (I don't remember the groups but they did fly the B-24s) They gave a presentation on the Ploesti raids. Ploesti might have been the singlemost devastating asset to lose in WWII for the Germans. If I am not mistaken, I don't believe there was a single target that could compare to its importance, not even the fighter factories.

It has been about 10 years now but I seem to recall he had mentioned how the initial raid on Ploesti had a navigation problem so not all the groups found the target but it woke the Germans up about the risks to the Romanian fuel production and caused the Germans to bring in flak defenses out the ying yang trying to protect it from subsequent raids.

Glad you are here. The 15th AF never got the fame or glory the 8th AF did but had just as profound affect on the Luftwaffe and ETO air supremacy because of what it did to the German fighter factories in spring 44. That was a real back-breaker.