Quote:
Originally Posted by pavulon
Was in a B-17 at Oshkosh a few years ago. I'm not small but it was incredibly tight inside there...could barely get my head inside the top turret and had to squeeze down the bomb bay catwalk. No wonder so many smoked like fiends.
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I was fortunate enough a few years ago to get a 45 minute tour of Galveston Island in a B-17. Besides being very cramped, the engines are very loud, there is a constant thrum/vibration throughout the plane when cruising and it is very drafty in the cabin. One can only imagine how uncomfortable it would be on the long flight to Germany at altitude with the constant roar of the engnes and the temp is below zero and you know you will soon be in the true killing zone of FLAK, ME-109s, FW-190s and later ME-262s.
In my first duty assignment in the USAF in 1968 the O-6 who headed the task force I was assigned to was a 17 year-old B-17 tail gunner in WWII. When talking about it he just said it was mainly many hours of anxious boredom then into hell....