B-17E “Butcher Shop” August 17 was a red-letter day in the history of the Eighth Air Force. Eighteen B-17Es from the 97th Bomb Group - six each from the 340th, 341st and 342nd Bomb Squadrons, took off from their bases at Polebrook and Grafton-Underwood in Northamptonshire at 1530 hours, on the first bombing mission mounted by the USAAF in the ETO.
I had the opportunity to crawl around in a B-17 when it visited our local airport, it was called Sentimental Journey. What impressed me most at first was in size of the passageways and crew positions. I would venture the the average sized current American wouldn't fit through the door. Then looking at the controls and electronics I wondered how the thing flew at all. A tin can with guns pointing everywhere. Those guys were nuts. My ex-father-in-law flew in one of those, he's passed away now, nicest guy you could ever meet, the fucking hero that he was.
By the way this weekend the Empire State Aerosciences Museum is hosting a talk by Beverly Weintraub, author of "Wings of Gold: The Story of the First Women Naval Aviators.” In the article in the local newspaper about it she had some interesting things to say about the pushback the female pilots got. Here's an excerpt, “Jane Skiles O’Dea was sent overseas, and when she reported for duty they told her there was one bathroom and she couldn’t use it,” said Weintraub. “Joellen Drag-Oslund was the first woman to fly a helicopter, but they told her she couldn’t land it on board a carrier because women weren’t allowed on ships."
I was looking through my old airshow photos awhile back and found some crowd shots I took at Watsonville 50 years ago. 80 percent of the crowd was my build (slim-ish), very very few overweight people. The opposite of what you see now. The result of most people eating prepared food and fast food, full of corn syrup.
The 97th BG and 92nd BG trained here in Sarasota, when Sarasota-Bradenton Airport was leased to the USAAF. The 97th's contingent included Paul Tibbets, which was prominently noted in the small display about the WW II years inside the SRQ terminal. Both were transferred down from MacDill AFB in Tampa, still active today as the home of Central Command.
Their annual reunion is in Ontario,CA October 18-22, 2023
My dad was stationed in Polebrook with the 351st Bomb Group 43-45. Their claim to fame was Clark Gable spent some of his military time there. Dad never said anything, so he might not have met him.
BTW, the 351st still has as least one veteran still living.
I had the opportunity to crawl around in a B-17 when it visited our local airport, it was called Sentimental Journey. What impressed me most at first was in size of the passageways and crew positions. I would venture the the average sized current American wouldn't fit through the door. Then looking at the controls and electronics I wondered how the thing flew at all. A tin can with guns pointing everywhere. Those guys were nuts. My ex-father-in-law flew in one of those, he's passed away now, nicest guy you could ever meet, the fucking hero that he was.
By the way this weekend the Empire State Aerosciences Museum is hosting a talk by Beverly Weintraub, author of "Wings of Gold: The Story of the First Women Naval Aviators.” In the article in the local newspaper about it she had some interesting things to say about the pushback the female pilots got. Here's an excerpt, “Jane Skiles O’Dea was sent overseas, and when she reported for duty they told her there was one bathroom and she couldn’t use it,” said Weintraub. “Joellen Drag-Oslund was the first woman to fly a helicopter, but they told her she couldn’t land it on board a carrier because women weren’t allowed on ships."
I was looking through my old airshow photos awhile back and found some crowd shots I took at Watsonville 50 years ago. 80 percent of the crowd was my build (slim-ish), very very few overweight people. The opposite of what you see now. The result of most people eating prepared food and fast food, full of corn syrup.
The 97th BG and 92nd BG trained here in Sarasota, when Sarasota-Bradenton Airport was leased to the USAAF. The 97th's contingent included Paul Tibbets, which was prominently noted in the small display about the WW II years inside the SRQ terminal. Both were transferred down from MacDill AFB in Tampa, still active today as the home of Central Command.
I'm doing catch up with your posts. I'm a few weeks behind.
Paul Tibbets IV is the current President of the 8th Air Force Historical Society.
https://www.8thafhs.org/
Their annual reunion is in Ontario,CA October 18-22, 2023
My dad was stationed in Polebrook with the 351st Bomb Group 43-45. Their claim to fame was Clark Gable spent some of his military time there. Dad never said anything, so he might not have met him.
BTW, the 351st still has as least one veteran still living.
http://351st.org/