Originally Posted by
megan
Tactics were part of the problem, the first raid was by three aircraft and those that followed were mostly by individual aircraft, problems were had with guns freezing at altitude, issues with the Sperry bomb sight, no rear defensive armament. Between the aircrafts initiation 8 July and removal from the bombing role 26 September they flew 26 raids, 51 sorties, of which 25 had been aborted with no bombs dropped. Of the 50 tons of bombs dropped only one ton is estimated to have hit the target, eight aircraft lost - one undercarriage collapse on landing (aircraft cannibilised for spares), one aircraft disintergrating on touch down due combat damage, one accidentally burnt on the ground, three destroyed by fighters on Norway raid, one lost on high altitude test, one appeared in a vertical dive from cloud into the ground. Aborts due aircraft unservicabilities seem to back up the USA advice that the aircraft was not yet ready for service.
Straight from the horses mouth, my stepfathers so called rest tour involved a posting straight off Hampdens from Scampton to I believe 90 Squadron evaluating the B17C. As you can imagine it was like leaving a clapped out Ford for a brand new Bentley..(or so he thought) Until the rot set in. Thankfully he survived the rest tour and then cross trained from WOP/AG to pilot, then he got his mucky mitts on a Lancaster. Hiis verdict on the B17C was unprintable in polite company