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00:00it was the most potent symbol of American air power in military history designed to fend off
00:26ferocious attacks of the German Luftwaffe it dealt a death blow to Nazi wartime industrial production
00:32and raised Hitler's capital to the ground to me it was the most beautiful thing ever built there
00:39a great plane still is each crewed by 10 men thousands of them would fly the most perilous
00:45missions of the Second World War many would never return if it hadn't been for a b-17 I'm more likely
00:52wouldn't be sitting here talking to you using calorie enactments and rare archive film battle
00:59stations takes to the skies in the legendary b-17 flying fortress 1918 with the conclusion of the
01:12war to end all wars military powers around the world recognized that warfare would never be the same
01:18military thinking moved away from the stalemate of trench warfare and focused on the use of the
01:27new wonder weapons aircraft it had become apparent that bombers would prove decisive in any future
01:35conflict the bomber it was believed would always get through in the 1930s this bomber doctrine gathered
01:46real momentum attention now turned to modernizing America's obsolescent air corps modern bombers were
01:54needed to replace the fabric and wooden aircraft of the last war on August the eighth 1934 the US Army
02:03Air Corps issued a circular proposal that called for a bomber with a maximum speed of 250 miles per hour
02:09it must operate at 10,000 feet and have a range of 2,000 miles designs would be company funded and submitted
02:23for testing within the year the victor would win a production run of 220 aircraft teetering on the brink of
02:33bankruptcy the Boeing aircraft company left at the challenge in a bold move Boeing under the visionary
02:42leadership of Edward C Wells committed most of its capital and manpower to the project they called model 299
02:49it was a fantastic gamble in August 1934 Boeing began building a radical all-metal four-engined aircraft it had
03:00beautiful lines it was a low-wing airplane it had all the turrets were were attractive it was just a
03:08nice-looking airplane and Boeing has always been noted for making beautiful airplanes Boeing's new
03:15plane would be fitted with an array of machine guns and an internal weapons bay it was a bold design one
03:23that far exceeded the requirements of the proposal on July the 28th 1935 just 11 months after the
03:35competition had started Boeing's model 299 rolled out of the company's factory in Seattle becoming
03:41America's first all-metal four-engined bomber closely guarded the army's newest bomber and America's largest
03:52land plane is prepared for its first flight at Seattle it's Boeing 299 note her machine gun
03:59turrets the ship weighs 15 tons and is reported to have cost nearly half a million a newspaper
04:06reporter attending the event was impressed by the immense size and the number of gun
04:10emplacements on the aircraft and exclaimed why it's a flying fortress well my father used to
04:17say look at all that armor you got and I said dad you could put your finger through the side of the
04:21airplane if you really pushed real hard it was just an aluminum box flying in the sky is all it
04:26was was some guns sticking out of it with a load of bombs you know like a paper bag with all of the
04:33hardware and all the guns that you had on it it truly was a flying fortress Boeing's legendary
04:39aircraft was born but the all-important contract was still to be one alongside Boeing's offering
04:48two rival twin-engine designs were also evaluated by the Army Air Corps Martin's B12 and Douglas's DB1
04:57on the morning of the 30th of October disaster struck during evaluation the Boeing prototype bomber
05:06stalled after takeoff and crashed at right field the Boeing aircraft company had invested in the model
05:14299 projects without any commitment from the Army Air Corps and now the program lay in tatters in addition
05:20they lost their two pilots which effectively put them out of running for the contract
05:24Boeing's model 299 was disqualified from the competition and the company lost the contract
05:32Douglas's DB1 triumphed and a hundred and thirty-three of the bombers were ordered
05:40but despite the crash model 299 had impressed the air core and a small number were purchased for further
05:50evaluation it was not the order Boeing had hoped for but it was a start modifications to the aircraft
05:59followed and in February 1937 the air core ordered 10 more aircraft now called YB 17 these aircraft fitted
06:08with superchargers had a ceiling of 30,000 feet but in the dark days of September 1939 as Europe
06:23descended into war Douglas's bombers were taking too long to get off the production lines and were
06:29proving underpowered Boeing's B17 was the only operational heavy bomber in the United States but
06:38the air core owned just 30 new YB 17's would now be fitted with power operated turrets above and below the fuselage and two more sets of twin guns were added to the tail and radial operators positions
06:53by March 1941 B17's were being transformed from an advanced prototype to a full-powered super bomber ready for war
07:03under the terms of its lend-lease agreements America sent 20 of these fortress YB 17's to Britain's Royal Air Force
07:10but the B17's first delivery flight ended in disaster at high altitude over the skies of England the bomber experienced a power failure and crashed it was an inauspicious start
07:22but despite its problems on the 8th of July 1941 two fortress ones belonging to the RAF bombed Wilhelmshaven in Germany
07:29Wilhelmshaven the main target is a number one target for it's a major naval base and a great shipbuilding center
07:37this first mission also ended in disaster at high altitude all of the guns froze and the bombs were dropped wide of the target
07:44later eight fortress ones were shot down it looked as though the B17 would go down in history as a failure
07:52the British experience of the fortress one was a resounding failure the aircraft was found to suffer from a number of mechanical failures
07:59the guns froze when a high altitude it lacked defensive armament to fight off a determined attack by the enemy
08:06and it was also difficult to put ordnance on target from that high
08:21the RAF therefore concluded that the best thing would be to increase its defensive armament, use it in greater numbers for protective purposes
08:27and also to use it at lower altitudes. Now the RAF immediately pulled the fortress from European combat and promptly reassigned it to the Middle East.
08:46As war intensified in Europe and diplomatic relations between the USA and Japan deteriorated America moved its YB-17s to bases in the Pacific
08:56On the 7th of December 1941, as a flight of unarmed YB-17s arrived at Hickam Field, Hawaii, Japan ended America's isolationism
09:18At Pearl Harbor, 12 B-17s were destroyed on the ground and all of the unarmed aircraft flying in were damaged
09:25or lost
09:28From the ashes of the destruction in Hawaii, America's troubled B-17s had to prove its doubters wrong
09:34With America at war, the flying fortress is about to be throwing Pearl Harbor
09:39As America rushed headlong into war, production of YB-17s went into full swing
09:44On December the 8th, 1941, Boeing executive Jake Harmon made a phone call to Plant 2 at Seattle
09:53His conversation was concise and to the point
09:56Start building airplanes
10:00How many? Just start building
10:03Never mind the schedules
10:05Tell us how much money and what things you need and when
10:14As Harmon made his call, B-17s in the Pacific started flying reconnaissance missions to track the Japanese battle fleet
10:20Off the coast of Luzon, a Japanese convoy was spotted
10:24Five YB-17s attacked
10:27And the flying fortress became the first US aircraft to drop its bombs in World War II
10:32But it was in Europe that the fortress would become a legend
10:42By early 1942, in accordance with the Allied Europe First policy
10:47Major General Carl Spatz suggested that the 8th Air Force be designated the core of the Army Air Forces in Britain
10:53Now America prepared to send its new heavies to frontline units in England
11:02Recognising the value of bombing to the war in Europe
11:05Britain's Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt agreed on the use of air power in the theatre
11:13Churchill and Roosevelt both unequivocally endorsed strategic bombing
11:17In January 1943, they had called for the unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan
11:22And they saw strategic bombing as the overwhelming force that would quickly end the war
11:28By destroying the German industrial complex and demoralising its civilian population
11:33They reasoned that they could grind to a halt Hitler's war machine
11:38Early in 1942, Allied Command identified special targets to be given absolute priority
11:45Submarine construction facilities, aircraft factories, ball bearing production plants
11:51And oil refineries were at the top of the list
12:00The RAF and 8th Air Force planned a coordinated non-stop day and night bomber offensive
12:06From then on, B-17s would operate by day in full view of the German Luftwaffe
12:11Flying a B-17 in combat without a fighter escort was pretty close to being suicidal
12:19It wasn't until they learned the lesson the hard way that you can't fly these airplanes
12:23They were just not well protected
12:26Because the enemy that we were contending with was highly sophisticated, good weapons and good airplanes
12:34On August the 17th 1942, the US launched its first raid of the war in Europe
12:40With no fighter cover, the B-17s made the attack on their own
12:43At 1526 hours, the first daylight mission from a base in England was launched
12:51Strategic air power was born
12:54As B-17s were to be operated without fighter escort, great emphasis was placed on flying in a defensive wedge formation
12:57By stacking the aircraft in an orderly pattern, it was believed that their arcs of fire would be enough to repel fighter attacks
13:16But this theory would be severely tested
13:18We in the United States, the Army Air Corps at that time had no tactics, they didn't know how to go at it
13:34And our adversary over in Germany, they'd been fighting and flying since 1939
13:41So they were old hands of what we were just learning
13:43You had the high squadron, you had the low squadron, and then the middle squadron
13:48You flew in a formation basically like this
13:51The tighter you flew, and the reason for tight formation is
13:55That the fighters could not go through your formation and break it up, which they would attempt to do
14:02No matter what angle a fighter came at you from
14:06He had a lot of 50 caliber machine guns shooting at him
14:09Because the way the formation was stacked, almost every gunner on the right side of the aircraft, for instance, could shoot at the fighter
14:20Though the unescorted bombers had some protection against fighters
14:24There was nothing they could do to avoid Flieger Abwehrkanonen
14:28Flak
14:31Fired from the ground, these lethal 88mm shells were set to explode at the same altitude as the aircraft
14:37Once the German gunners zeroed in on the B-17s, the results could be devastating
14:44I always thought that flak was more dangerous than fighters were
14:50Because you could see a fighter coming and you could shoot back
14:53But you never knew when you might get hit by the flak shell
14:57And there was lots of it
14:59They used to say the flak smoke was so thick you could walk on it up there, and it was almost true
15:03Well, any aircraft, it's like going down a bumpy road, with a car with no shock absorbers on it
15:10And every time the thing would go off, you'd be bumping, jumping, up and down
15:15I mean, you're going this way, you're going right, you're going left, you're going up and down
15:19In January 1943, Churchill and Roosevelt met at the Casablanca Conference
15:26And agreed policy on the strategic bombing campaign
15:29In what became known as the Casablanca Directive, the Eighth Air Force was given the responsibility
15:35To ensure the progressive destruction and dislocation of the German military, industrial and economic system
15:41But flying unescorted in daylight hours, posed a real threat to the bombers' crews
15:52Flying at a mere 200 miles per hour, the B-17s were sitting ducks for the German Luftwaffe
16:00At 30,000 feet, the crews of the unpressurized B-17s operated in extreme conditions
16:13Encumbered by bulky clothing, engaging an enemy fighter was no easy task
16:18It's 55 below zero up there, and even though we had heaters in the cockpit, the poor gunners back in the rear
16:27They had no heat, and even though they wore heated suits, some of them, and wore a lot of clothing
16:35It was still very cold back there, and frostbite was a problem for them
16:40The biggest thing, people don't realize, people sweat at 45 degrees below zero
16:44You sit there sweating
16:48Maybe it was fair sweat, I don't know
16:51The crews had good reason to be fearful
16:54As German pilots identified a weakness in the aircraft's defenses
16:58A frontal attack, concentrating on the nose with its minimal armor, was the best way to down a heavy
17:05Well, when we first got there, they'd make most of their attacks from the tail
17:10And that didn't bother the pilots, because we couldn't see them
17:15Then, about halfway through, when they switched to the head-on stuff
17:21And it wasn't just one plane coming head-on, it was a whole flight
17:25Like four to six planes coming in
17:27They had more guts than Dick Tracy, I'll tell you, it amazed me that one of these guys could take a Me 109 and fly right through the middle of your group
17:40You knew that they were showing off, they were trying to scare the heck out of you, and they were doing it
17:44The head-on attacks by the German airplanes would shoot out the people in the nose
17:49It was a vulnerable position, they would get the pilots, or get the bombardier, or get the navigator
17:56In April 1943, during an attack on a Fokker-Wulf plant at Bremen, 16 B-17s were destroyed
18:05The heaviest loss rate to date
18:07But for the 8th Air Force, things were about to go from bad to worse
18:11On August the 17th, American forces planned to attack the ball-bearing factories at Schweinfurt
18:18The factories at Schweinfurt produce 52% of the total number of anti-friction bearings manufactured in Germany
18:26This concentration of critical production capacity caused the Allied Chiefs of Staff to assign a top priority to the target
18:34The Germans, of course, were determined to defend the place, because it was important
18:41And so they put every fighter up that they could get a hold of, I guess
18:49And they did some real bad damage to the 8th Air Force that day
18:54Of the 211 fortresses dispatched on the raid, 60 were lost, over a quarter of the attacking force
19:04The attrition rate in crewmen on B-17s was extremely high
19:12And in the early days, your chance of survival was 1 in 3
19:16That's a sobering experience to know that you have to fly 25 missions
19:22And your chance of survival was just almost nil
19:26By 1943, the U.S. 8th Air Force in Britain suffered the highest attrition rate of the war
19:33Less than a third of B-17 crews were expected to survive
19:37At this rate, the 8th Air Force would only last another few weeks
19:41Something needed to be done
19:42And Quiz 943 nearly ended the American Daylight Bombing Offensive in Europe
19:49Realizing that its loss rate was unsustainable
19:53The Army Air Force halted its offensive to rethink and regroup
20:00For the crews of the B-17s, it was an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the aircraft
20:07And form bonds that would last a lifetime
20:09There were ten men in the crew
20:13Four officers, a pilot and a co-pilot, a navigator and a bombardier
20:18They were officers
20:20All the rest were enlisted men
20:22Each man had his own battle station on the aircraft
20:25The navigator and the bombardier were in the nose of the aircraft
20:29And you'd call through a hatch and then you'd go up into the pilot's compartment
20:36Here the pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer had their stations
20:41Quite naturally the pilot and co-pilot were real buddies
20:44Because they had to look at each other side by side
20:47And they had to make sure that all of these buttons were punched
20:49All of this electric and all this hydraulics was functioning and everything
20:53So they were very, very close, they needed to be
21:00And then the engineer, when he wasn't manning his turret
21:03Would stand between the pilot and co-pilot and read off airspeed indicators
21:08And that kind of stuff
21:10Behind the cockpit, in his own room, was the radio operator
21:13He had a little space in there, it was kind of like a room
21:17And he had all his radios and everything set up there
21:20Further back, behind the radio operator
21:23The ball turret gunner had a slightly smaller room all of his own
21:27Well, if you ever open a can of sardines, you know how it looks, it's all full
21:33And the ball turret was that way
21:36I wouldn't get in that ball turret if they gave me the airplane
21:40I don't know how else to put it
21:44The guys that got in there, I think, deserved a medal just for doing it
21:49Behind the ball, in the largest compartment of the fortress
21:53The two waste gunners kept up a constant vigil for enemy fighters
21:57Then you had your tail gunner, that added up to your ten people
22:02I depend on you, you're the pilot, you depend on me because I'm a gunner
22:06And et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, each position has a responsibility to the other guys
22:16It was a very close-knit little family
22:19I mean, everybody had to do their job, everybody depended upon the other guy to do his job
22:24If somebody failed to do his job, something could go wrong
22:27In picturesque rural England, surrounded by friendly civilians, the young American airmen of the 8th Air Force adjusted to life on the front line
22:38Many would not survive the war, but in the tranquil surroundings of the English countryside, there were plenty of opportunities to make the most of their tour
22:46Well, to say the least, coming from a big city like Chicago, there was like a culture shock
22:55Of course, we had to buy a bicycle, the only way we could get around over there
23:00And without their help, we couldn't even have found a place to buy a bicycle
23:04And there was no shortage of American money
23:08The shortage was in finding something to buy to spend our money
23:12You usually got yourself a bicycle as soon as you got over there
23:17And we would ride that 7 miles into Allendoll in the evening
23:21And hit the pub
23:23And have a few pints of mild and bitter or nut and brown or whatever
23:27And fraternize with the Brits
23:31One of the expressions they used was
23:34The only problem with the Yanks was they were over-sexed and overpaid and over there
23:39And we heard this once in a while
23:41We were doing the same thing their guys were doing
23:44And the kids got close to us because they'd be coming looking for gum chew
23:48They're looking for candy, because you had no sugar
23:50You had nothing like that
23:52And we were, we're not a heck of a lot older than some of those kids
23:55Maybe they were 6 or 7 years old and we were 19 or 20 years old
23:59We're kind of like their big brothers
24:00A tour of duty in England was 25 missions
24:07But with an average life expectancy of just 14 missions for a B-17 crew in the European theatre
24:14Many would not survive
24:15We had to fly 25 missions and they told us, okay, all you have to do is fly 25 missions and go back to the States
24:23Right now we're currently running a 4% attrition rate
24:274 times 25 is no go, you know
24:31But that's how bad it was
24:33Studies carried out in 1943 show all too clearly that about half of the B-17s lost in combat had left the safety of the formation
24:45The conclusion was that a B-17 on its own stood little chance of survival
24:50In 1944, efforts were made to revise the standard bomber combat formation and a new 36-plane formation was devised
25:03Three clusters, each consisting of 12 B-17s, replaced the existing 18-strong grouping
25:13Flying in a V-shaped echelon, the aircraft were packed tightly together in the sky
25:17Never before could the massed ranks of the B-17s concentrate firepower with such accuracy and volume
25:29But flying so close together provided new dangers
25:34When you're flying very tight formation and a plane within the formation, let's say, got a direct hit and the thing blew up
25:43He'd take quite a few other airplanes which and that did happen
25:48What you were supposed to do was to back off a little bit and not fly so close
25:53Unless you were under fighter attack
25:56Now if you're under fighter attack, well then you're supposed to really get up there close and get a concentrated firepower
26:02In the busy skies over Europe
26:05Accidents could and did happen
26:07I looked off to the left and here were two B-17s that had collided
26:12And we saw one cut the other one in half and the tail go one way, the plane go another way and the other plane go to the right
26:19And we looked out, saw these fellows falling out of the waist with no parachutes
26:24The sad thing that happened was that the tail gunner bailed out and he did not have his chute hooked to the harness when he bailed out, it was a chest chute
26:33He just had it in his hand and the slipstream tore it away from him
26:37So he had 27,000 feet to fall with no support
26:41My thought was he had plenty of time to say his prayers before he hit
26:45By the end of 1943, the latest model of the B-17 had additional mountings for hand held machine guns in the cheek of the aircraft
27:02And a power operated turret in the chin
27:05This G model was the last and most extensively produced version of the fortress
27:09Boasting a total armament of 13 .50 caliber machine guns
27:14Transforming the B-17 from a tough bomber to a true fortress
27:27After the disastrous Schweinfurt raids in August and September 1943
27:32Deep penetration raids into Germany were halted
27:34The arrival of the P-51 Mustang, a single-seat long-range fighter, meant that the fortresses would at last have the additional protection they so badly needed
27:50By December, the B-17 was ready for re-entry into European operations
27:55Now the Allies concentrated on delivering a knockout blow to the Nazi war machine
28:04By February 1944, the Army Air Force was ready to begin its attack against the German aircraft manufacturing industry
28:11By destroying the Luftwaffe and the factories, it would be possible to conduct further strikes against other strategic targets
28:17It was to be the biggest bombing missions yet, some 3,500 aircraft
28:21All to bomb within the space of a week, that would soon become known as the big week
28:28For the crews of the B-17s, this big week began much the same as any other
28:34Bank is at 3, briefing at 4
28:37You start in the middle of the night, actually
28:40To go to the briefing
28:42They'd put a yarn deal across a map up there
28:47From our field to where the target was
28:51And most of the time it looked like it was going halfway around the world
28:55There were certain cities that if they pulled the curtain back at the briefing in the morning
29:00You saw the string going to that place, you knew you were in for it
29:03When they pulled that curtain back up there to show you where you were going
29:15You should have heard the moaning and groaning from all the crews that were out there listening
29:21The cost of the big week was heavy
29:26244 bombers and 33 fighter planes were lost
29:302,600 men were killed or wounded in just seven days
29:36It was living hell
29:38It was bad going in there and coming back
29:41That's the most flack I ever saw in one place
29:45That was the heaviest, the heaviest defence I have ever seen in my life
29:50These raids played a crucial role in helping to reduce the overall strength of the Luftwaffe
29:56Paving the way for D-Day
29:58During the offensive, the back of the Luftwaffe was broken
30:02Now the B-17 crews could turn their attention to the most perilous bombing mission of them all
30:09Berlin
30:12Hermann Goering, commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe
30:16Had claimed that enemy bombs would never fall on Berlin
30:19And he had good reason to believe it
30:22As Hitler's capital and the heart of the Nazi war machine
30:26Berlin was the most heavily defended city in all of fortress Europe
30:30It was ringed by tens of thousands of lethal 88mm anti-aircraft guns and fighters
30:37But by early 1944, production of new fighters had all but dried up
30:43The crews of the B-17s knew that they would be the targets of highly trained German fighter pilots
30:48German fighters were a big problem, I'll tell you
30:54And there were a lot of them
30:56And these guys have been flying since 1939
30:59And they had the tactics down perfect
31:02They'd come right at you, roll over, come on out, come back up again
31:06There was a group of German fighters
31:11Yellow-nosed fox wolves
31:13The Abbeville kids, we called them
31:16Those guys were sharp
31:18Really sharp
31:20We hated to see those things get in the air
31:23Because they were good packed
31:26To make a successful bombing run
31:28The B-17s relied on their bombardier
31:31And a top secret device known as the Norden bombsite
31:36The Norden bombsite was basically a computer, a mechanical computer
31:40It was a unique piece of equipment
31:43It was classified at the time
31:46But we had a set of crosshairs in it
31:49And my job was to put the crosshairs on the target
31:52And keep them on the target
31:54Now the other factor would be in drifts
31:56Our wind would affect the drifting of the airplane
31:59And my job was to kill the drift
32:01And keep making adjustments into our heading
32:05To the point where crosshairs would not drift off the target
32:08They used to say they could drop them in a pickle barrel from 10,000 feet
32:11But that was fiction, it wasn't that good
32:13But they did some very good bombing
32:17Over Berlin, the B-17s would have to fly straight and level
32:22Through the heaviest flak barrage imaginable
32:25Before the bombardier could release his bombs accurately
32:28The bombardier actually flew the airplane on the bomb run
32:31The airplane would be put on an automatic pilot
32:35And his bombsite would automatically compute the angle that the bomb should drop
32:40It would do a very good job of getting the bomb on the target
32:44What will drive you up a wall is if whoever that lead bombardier is up there
32:49Goes over the target and doesn't drop
32:53Then you make a 360 degree circle around and come back over the target again
32:59And you gotta go through that same flak all over again
33:02And if you could, you'd get out there and beat that guy after death
33:08Nicknamed the Big B by the crews of the B-17
33:14The heavies of the 8th Air Force prepared for a grim attrition fight over Berlin
33:19For many, it would be their last mission of the war
33:22On March the 4th, 1944, William Menzies was on his way to Berlin
33:29And I called the top turk and I says, we got fighters coming in
33:34He says, no, no, they're ours, I can see the contrails
33:37I said, below them, look at them
33:39And about that time they opened up
33:40I said, what the hell you think, those are landing lights?
33:42They're shining at us?
33:44You've become only one person on that old airplane
33:47They're all after you, that's what I'm saying
33:48When they're shooting at you, you're in the smallest part of the airplane
33:51But that point still ends right between your eyes, you know
33:55Like an inverted ice cream cone
33:58I saw somebody go out and I got on my intercom
34:01Find out what was happening and I had no intercom
34:04I thought, well, I better find out what's happening
34:08So I left my guns because they weren't doing me too much good
34:13And I crawled out of my gun position
34:15I crawled through there with my harness on
34:17I'd left my parachute where it was
34:20There was one guy laying in the waist
34:22His chute was pulled, but he wasn't moving
34:26So I assumed he was dead
34:28Smitty, my co-pilot, and I could see him down on the bomb bay
34:32I don't know if he was getting ready to jump or not
34:34And he says, you know, like that
34:36I assumed he said to go
34:38Well, I couldn't go, my chute was back in the tail
34:40So I turned around, I crawled back
34:43And as I was crawling back in, I hooked my harness on something
34:45And I backed up, I couldn't get off of it
34:49I went forward, I couldn't get off of it
34:51And panic filled with a sudden
34:53And now I got talking to the man upstairs in a hurry
34:56I told him I'd even go back to church
34:58Or he gets me out of this one
35:00When people up front leave, it's time for me to leave
35:02I didn't want to be in it if it started to spin
35:05I had made up my mind, I wasn't going to be in it if I ever hit the ground
35:08William Menzies parachuted safely away from the aircraft, but was captured
35:21For him, the war was over
35:22On March the 4th, 1944, the B-17s pounded a suburb of Berlin
35:32And two days later, revisited the city
35:35But this second raid was costly
35:37Sixty-nine bombers were shot down over the city
35:40The largest loss of heavies the 8th Air Force had suffered on a single raid
35:44But the men of the 8th had fought hard
35:47160 German fighters were destroyed
35:50And Berlin was in flames
35:54In the sustained and ruthless bombardment
35:56Boeing's flying fortresses reduced almost 60% of the city to rubble
36:01But the crews of the B-17s had little time for remorse
36:09Our war was up there with the fighters
36:12You know what I'm saying?
36:14I'm not trying to make little of this
36:16I'm just saying, that's the way we looked at it
36:18This was our war, 5 miles in the sky
36:21Down in there, we didn't even
36:23I didn't consider that people were dying
36:26Out of the smoky haze of the battle for Berlin
36:29Emerged an icon of the American air war in Europe
36:32The B-17 Flying Fortress
36:35With Berlin in ruins
36:37And the Luftwaffe down to a mere token force
36:39The B-17s and their crews were given a new target
36:44One that would end the war in Europe
36:47Once and for all
36:55By early 1944, German oil production
36:58The lifeblood of the Reich's war machine
37:00Had remained largely immune to the air war
37:02Though the Allies had already attempted to knock out the oil production facilities at Ploesti and Romania
37:12German synthetic oil supplies continued to be produced
37:15At the end of March 1944, when final plans for the Allied invasion of Europe were being drawn up
37:20About 30% of the total petroleum available to Germany came from the refineries at Ploesti and Romania
37:31At the beginning of 1944, following the systematic destruction of the German aircraft manufacturing industries
37:37The strategic bombing target became oil
37:39Oil and lubricants are the lifeline of any army
37:42And the Army Air Force reasoned that by striking oil production sites
37:47The enemy could be hampered in its ability to wage war
37:51With its oil reserves, Hitler's war machine could, and would, fight on
37:58As a matter of urgency, plans were put in place to smash Germany's fuel production
38:04Once again, the B-17 Flying Fortresses would be in the front line
38:08On May the 12th, 1944, the American attacks on German oil production began
38:18During the month, strategic bombers dropped some 5,100 tons of bombs on oil targets
38:27In August, the tonnage skyrocketed to 26,300 tons
38:33And in November, it reached a climax
38:35No less than 35,000 tons of heavy-duty explosives were dropped on crucial oil installations
38:43But the offensive was taking its toll
38:47In the first three months against these oil targets
38:50The 8th lost 922 heavies, a staggering number
38:54Another 10,000 men would never make it home
38:58The defense of those targets was immense
39:01If I recall, there was something on the order of 3300 anti-aircraft guns
39:08Around Leipzig at the end of the war
39:11What happened with the Germans is they would pull all their anti-aircraft guns back in
39:16As they start losing territory
39:18So the latter part of the war, it wasn't fighters that were your major opposition
39:23It was anti-aircraft, because they had the concentration of those guns
39:26And those 88s would come right there with us
39:30By September, German fuel production was down to a quarter of its normal capacity
39:35The remnants of the Luftwaffe were grounded, out of fuel
39:39And became target practice for the B-17's escort fighters
39:42Fighters returning from unchallenged escort missions were ordered to seek targets of opportunity
39:52Since the enemy did not come up to fight, down they went to blast his planes and burn them in his eardrums
40:00500 enemy aircraft were being destroyed each week, many of them on the ground
40:04By late November 1944, almost the entire might of the 8th Air Force was directed at destroying German oil facilities
40:22Leading from the front, the B-17 spearheaded what the Reich's Armaments Minister Albert Speer called
40:28The end of German armament production
40:33Without fuel, entire units of the German army were forced to abandon their vehicles
40:38For them, the game was up
40:41Berlin was still to be taken, but with the Allies closing in for the kill
40:46The strategic bombing campaign was over
40:49The B-17 had done its job
40:51By May the 7th 1945, as Germany surrendered, it had lost 95% of its fuel industry
41:00Its war machine had ground to a halt
41:03In just over a thousand days of combat
41:19The 8th Air Force had used up 99 million rounds of ammunition
41:24And destroyed 18,810 enemy aircraft
41:27Of the 1.5 million tons of bombs dropped by all Allied aircraft in Europe
41:34The B-17 Flying Fortress accounted for almost a third
41:38The aeroplane that had crashed during testing back in 1937
41:42And was almost never built
41:44Had become a war winner
41:46And a legend in combat history
41:48The 17's came back with some of the most horrible damage you've ever seen
41:52Almost broken in two, some of them, that they'd get back and they'd land
41:57They could take more punishment, I think, than any other bomber aircraft
42:01Well, I think it was a wonderful aeroplane
42:03And it took a heck of a lot of beating
42:06And if it hadn't have been for a B-17
42:09I more likely wouldn't be sitting here talking to you
42:11Because it couldn't have been any other aircraft
42:14And I more likely have been dead
42:16In just four years, more than 12,000 B-17s were built
42:20250,000 men had flown them in Europe
42:25And more than 46,500 American airmen had been killed or wounded
42:30The B-17 Flying Fortress had lived up to its billing
42:35Despite the losses, it had proved itself to be a durable and dependable aircraft
42:41One that had extracted a high price in combat
42:44Helping to end German resistance in the Second World War
42:48I don't think we could have won it without the B-17 or something
42:55By another name that did the same thing that a B-17 did
42:59And there was no other plane at the time that could do that
43:02Everyone that I've known that flew in a B-17
43:06Was just proud as punch about the unit in its entirety
43:10It's a good engine, it's a good unit
43:14It's a good plane
43:16The epitaph, if there is one, it should be that
43:20This is the best airplane, bomber, that ever flew in World War II
43:26My testimony
43:28I don't know
43:29Pyram мои
43:30Good morning
43:31Transcription by CastingWords
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