The B-17 was created in response to an Army Air Corps' 1934 request for bids on a "multiengined" long range bomber. The design of the plane itself was a logical continuation of the line of planes that Boeing was currently producing. The product was a bigger, sleeker, faster, long range bomber than anyone had ever seen. It was a true joy to fly, and it would certainly make a more than adequate coastal defense bomber which, under the current government ideology, was its intent. (42) As fate would have it, however, the Flying Fortress would play a relatively minimal role in coastal defense, rather, the B-17 would earn her living in the war torn skies over Germany. The legacy of the B-17 was one of constant change and modification in an effort to be able to achieve its new directive: drop as much tonnage as accurately and as safely on the Third Reich as possible.

It would not be exaggeration to say that the B-17C, the first Fortress to see action in the war, was grossly under-equipped The 20 Forts sent to the RAF in 1941 boasted only a half dozen .50 caliber machine guns and one virtually worthless .30 caliber. Perhaps misled by the name "Flying Fortress", but mostly out of necessity, the British pressed the Forts into offensive service. (43) By this time Boeing was already working on the more potent B-17E, and the U.S. Government advised the RAF to use their B-17Cs as trainer aircraft to prepare their crews for action in the 17Es. The British paid no heed to this advice and went ahead on July 8, 1941 with a trial mission. (44) Three bombers were sent to bomb the naval barracks at Wilhemshaven, one aborted, and the other two, flying at an excessive altitude of 30,000 feet, failed to hit anything. When the Luftwaffe attacked, the forts were unable return fire because their guns had frozen. (45) This inauspicious combat debut was a harbinger for the failures to come. The Forts' disastrous performance at the hands of the British earned the B-17 the nicknames of "flying targets" and "flying coffins" from the pilots of the Luftwaffe. (46) The RAF, now convinced that nighttime bombing was the way to go, returned to their Sterlings and Halifaxes. The B-17 had certainly made a very poor first impression on friend and foe alike.

The woeful front-line performance of the early Fortress', although discouraging, could not be considered an indictment of the airframe itself; the first five models of the B-17 (299-17D) were not truly designed to fight an offensive war. They were defensive aircraft slated for coastal patrol duties in service of the "isolationist" United States of the thirties. The major design overhaul of the aircraft, the "E" model (1941-42), marked the first "offensive minded" Fortress. (47) Boeing was able to rectify two separate problems with the most striking design change -the extended vertical stabilizer. The huge, sweeping tail increased stability as well as facilitated the addition of a much needed tail-gun position. A twin .50 caliber top turret was added just aft of the pilots compartment, as well as the famous Sperry ball turret in the belly.(48) It was the B-17Es of the 97th Bomb Group that carried out the first Army Air Force bombing mission in Europe against the Rouen-Sotteville railroad marshaling yards in France on 17 August 1942.

The B-17F model was the culmination of constant design improvements on the existing E model Forts. The only way the F could be distinguished from the E externally was a slightly elongated Plexiglas nose to facilitate a wider range of vision for the bombardier. Internal modifications, however, numbered in the hundreds. "Tokyo Tanks" extended the range, wider, paddle-type propellers improved high altitude performance, extra protective armor was added for the crew's sake, payload capacity was nearly doubled, and the landing gear was strengthened to support the added weight of the aircraft. (49)

An ill fated attempt to provide better fire support for Allied bomber formations was the XB-40 a "destroyer escort" B-17 that carried no bomb load, but bristled with extra machine gun armament. This experiment failed, however, as the B- 40's could not keep up with the B-17's once they had dropped their payload (thus becoming lighter and faster). (50) Although it saw no significant combat, the the B-40 provided designers with a solution to a nagging problem of the B-17: succeptabiliy to head-on fighter attack. The B-40's powered "chin turret" was made standard on all production model B-17Gs.

The addition of the chin turret to the 17G was the most obvious modification, and the last "offensive" type design change of the wartime models, but again, minor systems improvements were extensive. The G model Fortress had the greatest production run numbering 8680 aircraft, over two-thirds of the total production. "These were the Flying Fortresses of wartime newspaper headlines, possibly the most celebrated, best known and widely publicized aircraft of World War II. (51)

The B-17's glorified reputation, while somewhat exaggerated, was earned mostly over Europe, and can be attributed to the many design innovations incorporated into its original construction. In addition to its battle characteristics, Boeing had the foresight to design the plane "to permit manufacture in large quantities, provide for interchangeability of parts, and service and repair under adverse wartime conditions." (52) A plan that kept as many forts in the air as possible. Boeing engineers also wanted to keep the design "sufficiently conservative" to allow for rapid modifications in an ever-changing war. (53) In hindsight, it was the adaptability and "improve-ability" of the airframe that proved to be the most significant of all.

The major "claim to fame" of the B-17, and the element that made her so near and dear to the hearts of her crews, was her ability to withstand fantastic battle damage, and still make it home. Much of this "toughness" can be attributed to the Forts' cantilevered wing design with its "truss" type rather than "web" type main spars. These spars, while slightly more difficult to manufacture, were lighter and increased overall wing strength by about 30 percent. Another factor adding to the overall stability of the B-17 was the unusually large vertical fin. Incorporated into the design of the "E" model in 1940, the dorsal fin made the Forts' stability so complete that it could be (and often was) flown with many control surfaces gone. (54) Another innovation that allowed the fort to withstand great battle damage was the use of electric motors instead of conventional hydraulics to operate the landing gear, flaps, bomb bay doors and many other parts. It was reasoned "that combat damage would be less likely to put entire units out of commission if they were electrically controlled by means of dispersed and practically duplicate wiring systems." (55)

Statistics alone never tell the whole story, but in the case of the Flying Fortress, they give a good idea of the bomber's effectiveness:

over the duration of the war, the B- 24 dropped 452,508 tons of bombs on European targets, the B- 17 a staggering 640,036 tons, a number that is better appreciated when we see that a total of 463,544 tons were dropped by all other aircraft combined. As far as defensive capabilities are concerned, the B-17 averaged 23 enemy fighters shot down per 1000 plane raid, more than twice that of the escort fighters. Flying forts flew a total of 291,508 sorties in Europe, losing just over 4,500 aircraft, a mortality rate of a scant 1.4 percent. (56)

"Although the B-17 looked like a humpbacked hawk when its wheels were down and taking on the ground" stated Boston University Professor

and former navigator Harry M. Crosby, " In the air it was a sleek, beautiful silhouette. .." (57) This beautiful silhouette would prove deadly to the Third Reich in the long war years, years that might have stretched even longer without it.

The B-17 has become a legend for one simple reason; she was more than a bomber, she was a brawler, a plane that came closer to its "Flying Fortress" namesake than any other. Forts could limp home battered, bruised and bloodied, but not beaten, and return relentlessly, day after day, to dish out morepunishment to Hitler's"Fortress Europe." A characteristic that captured the hearts of all those associated with her.

In retrospect, of the B-17 and its contribution to the war effort, General Carl A. Spaatz offered this simple, yet powerful tribute:

"Without the B-17, we might have lost the war." (58)