The B17 Flying Fortress in detail.

[colt45]

Ade, I flew in the Collings B - 17

[appie]

Very nice plane! I have a story about a B 17f;
One day I was searching in Holland for relics on a field with a metal detector, and after a while a farmer came walking towards me. I thought it was the land owner, as I didn't ask anybody for permission.
He asked me what i was looking for, and I told him wwII stuff. Oh he said, in that case you should have a look on one of my fields, just a bit down the road, there's a airplane under the ground that crashed in 1944.
He couldn't tell me what kind of plane it was, but took me to a field, and believe it or not, the ground was still a greyish colour where the plane had crashed! I started to look with the detector, and found some parts of it, fuel leads, cable, a winch(?), a dynamo, some instruments, and some parts were marked Boeing Detroit. Then I did a bit of research and found out it was a B17F on its way to Germany, that got hit by Flak on the coast. It was burning, and some crew jumped out while the pilot tried to land the plane on land, because he was heading for water. I went back a few times, and always found some bits and pieces, alot of burnt aluminium too, that drove the detector mad. Lot of exploded cal 50 too. A few years ago the farmer phoned me up if it was possible to dig out the engines, because it was damaging his ploughs every year. I never did go back to do it, I think it will take a crane to pull them out! So they still lay there, with the rest of the aircraft.
If anybody has interest in the site I can give the excact coördinates of it. The landowner has no problem with digging on his land, if there are no crops on the field. If the crops are of the land you can clearly see the crashsite, and the different colour of the soil on google maps.

[colt45]

I met Col. Bob Morgan at Mc Guire air force base, he signed my book we shook hands & I saluted him

[colt45]

Bombs away

[spectre68]

Thanks Ade & Bob, Great Link!
Here in East Tennessee we have a small warbird museum and occasionally one of the few flying B-17's land here for a show. So far I have seen Sentimental Journey & Aluminum Overcast here. Also, the grand father of a good friend of mine was a ball turrent gunner on the Lady Lorraine. His name is Doug Worsham and he still lives here in Pigeon Forge, TN. I found a link listing the planes of the 477 Bomber Group. Here's the link for those interested. 447th Bomb Group Association