Watching Black Sheep Squadron

[RonJ]

They show a lot of raids by B17s. I thought the B17s was used primarily in the European theatre? Any comments?

 

[John Frederick Bell]

Not much color footage of the air war in the Pacific, unfortunately.

I seem to recall Twelve O'Clock High getting around the issue of splicing stock footage by shooting the first season or two in black and white.

 

[gunfighter48]

We used many B17s in the Pacific, especially after victory in Europe. But until we were able to take back many of the Pacific Islands held by the Japanese, there was no where to land the large B17s or the larger B29s. You just don't see a lot of war footage of the Pacific B17s.

 

[GatorFarmer]

B17s were in combat in the Pacific from the first day of the war, with mixed results. A flight landing in Hawaii from the mainland was attacked diring the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor. Others were destroyed on the ground in the Philippines, but a few remained operational there and carried out missions. Some evacuated to Australia, where additional units were sent.

There were also B17s at the Battle of Midway

They saw additional use as long range patrol aircraft, and later as air sea rescue, with a lifeboat in the bomb bay.

The B17 saw much less use in the Pacific after 1943.

There were attempts to use B17s with conventional gravity bombs to sink warships. From higher altitudes,this was not very effective.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

B-17 pilot Colin Kelly died on 10 Dec 1941 fighting the Japanese.
It's a little confusing on what actually happened. He was flying from Clark Field, Philippines.
But this was the first B-17 lost in combat.

Colin Kelly - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

re: Black Sheep Squadron..........Loved those Corsairs.....One Bad A&& looking airplane.

 

[zzzippper]

Like gatorfarmer said, they were at Pearl Harbor, in fact the Japanese formation was mistaken for an expected incoming flight of B-17s. A high altitude attack by B-17s at Midway helped scramble the Japanese fleet and was the beginning of a combination of events that led to the successful Dauntless attack.

As the war geography opened up the B-24 was more common because it had much longer range to cover the Pacific.

Also, watch for an episode where two USAAF P-38s come to visit.

 

[GatorFarmer]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_666_(B-17)

Details a particularly harrowing B17 mission in the Pacific. Two members of the crew received the Medal of Honor, the rest of the crew received DSCs.

 

[the ringo kid]

Wasnt Louis Zamporini (SP?) on a B-17? I still have not had the chance tosee the movie about him: Unbroken.

 

[Dennis The B]

Wasnt Louis Zamporini (SP?) on a B-17? I still have not had the chance tosee the movie about him: Unbroken.

I believe he was on a B24 when he was shot down.

 

[black1970]

Saw Red West at a Kroger in East Memphis a while back. Also used to work at Chevy dealership in the 80's and worked on this old man's camper. Lunch time came and he was setting with me at the lunch table and we got to talking. He said that he was a B-17 pilot in WW II and flew missions over Germany. He was a Major and the copilot was a First Lt. He said he flew his 25 missions and went home. The next mission the plane was shot down and all the crew was killed. I asked him what was his worst day and he told me that his group was to meet their fighter escort over the English Chanel and they were 40 minutes late. Most of them were shot down. I asked him how cold it was up there and he said 60 degrees below zero. He said that if your flight suit got a hole in it that you repaired it before the next mission. I also worked on an old guy's dump truck that rode a glider down on D-Day. They looked for a place to land and went down in a hay field at night. They had a jeep in it. They landed hard and the jeep ran over the pilot and everyone in it rolled out the front. It broke both of his legs but he told me he was very lucky he was not killed. If I remember right he said he was in the 82ND.

 

[the ringo kid]

Saw Red West at a Kroger in East Memphis a while back. Also used to work at Chevy dealership in the 80's and worked on this old man's camper. Lunch time came and he was setting with me at the lunch table and we got to talking. He said that he was a B-17 pilot in WW II and flew missions over Germany. He was a Major and the copilot was a First Lt. He said he flew his 25 missions and went home. The next mission the plane was shot down and all the crew was killed. I asked him what was his worst day and he told me that his group was to meet their fighter escort over the English Chanel and they were 40 minutes late. Most of them were shot down. I asked him how cold it was up there and he said 60 degrees below zero. He said that if your flight suit got a hole in it that you repaired it before the next mission. I also worked on an old guy's dump truck that rode a glider down on D-Day. They looked for a place to land and went down in a hay field at night. They had a jeep in it. They landed hard and the jeep ran over the pilot and everyone in it rolled out the front. It broke both of his legs but he told me he was very lucky he was not killed. If I remember right he said he was in the 82ND.

I always wondered what happened with Red West. I thought he was great as SGT. Micklin. Also,if I recall? he spent quite a lot of time with Elvis Presley.