The B-17
From page 47 of Into Life's School:
Of all the bombers in World War II, we hoped to be assigned to the B-17—which we eventually did indeed fly during our time in England. The markings on the plane include the bomb group symbol, in our case the triangle U (the marking of the 457th Bomb Group) located on the tail section. Below that is the serial number—in this case 338594. Most planes were named; in this case, the name of the plane is Lady B Good, and the name usually was placed in the front of the aircraft. The position of the crew members is indicated on the drawing.
A belly landing
In February of 1945, the almost new B-17 pictured below took us for a ride we will never forget. Only the third mission for this plane, it took flak in the gas tanks causing loss of fuel. So we belly landed in a French field, part of friendly occupied territory. (The whole story of our belly landing is recounted in pages 125 to 129.)
Caption: A belly landing near Laon, France. Back row, left to right: Anthony O’Brien, navigator; Pierre Ribaut, French farmer; myself, radio operator; and Dan Nose, flight engineer. Front row: Murray Jett, copilot; Tommy Thompson, pilot; Bennie Johnson, ball turret gunner; Ralph Kenyon, bombardier.
See the Links page for more information about the B-17.
A great guy wrote a great book and it made me feel good and proud to know you and have served with you.—Julie (Korny) Kornblatt, crew member
The book is fabulous! It is done in an easy-to-read manner, which I truly appreciated. The book was hard to put down.— Violet Nelson, feature writer, Hendricks, MN, Pioneer