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The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress flew in every combat zone during World War II, but its most significant service was over Europe. Along with the B-24 Liberator, the B-17 formed the backbone of the USAAF strategic bombing force, and it helped win the war by crippling Germany’s war industry.
Advanced turbosupercharged engines allowed it to fly up to about 30,000 feet with a combat load, while powered turrets and flexible guns covered all areas around the aircraft.
Although the B-17 prototype flew in 1935, only a relatively small number of B-17s were in service when the US entered the war in 1941. Production quickly increased, and three companies—Boeing, Lockheed-Vega, and Douglas—mass-produced Flying Fortresses by the thousands.
The B-17’s design emphasized high altitude flight, speed, and heavy defensive armament in order to survive enemy defenses.
How much .50 ammo did a B-17 carry?
According to an interesting post appeared on Quora, the book, “Dirty Little Secrets of World War II”, has some interesting statistics regarding .50 caliber rounds used in U.S. bombers.
First off, on a typical mission a B-17 took off with 4 tons of bombs, 11 tons of fuel and 1.3 tons of .50-caliber ammunition for its 13 machine guns. (In other words, most of what the B-17 carried was fuel, not bombs.) A .50 caliber round weighs around, well, 110 – 120 gram so 1.3 tons works out to over 10,000 rounds.
Something else you may like:
‘In the course of operations against targets in Europe the Eighth Air Force (bombers and fighter escorts), which flew out of Great Britain, expended 76.9 million rounds of .50-caliber machine-gun ammunition plus nearly 0.7 million rounds of .30-caliber ammo, to account for 6,098 enemy aircraft, a ratio of about 12,700 rounds per kill. The Fifteenth Air Force, flying from Italy, expended about 30 million rounds of .50-caliber ammunition, downing 2,110 enemy aircraft, or about one for every 14,200 rounds fired.
‘This may seem like a tremendous waste of ammunition, but the German anti-aircraft gunners opposing the bombers were getting only about one kill for every 12,000 rounds fired, and that quite often with the vaunted 88mm anti-aircraft gun.’
Depending on the version of the B-17, the # of MG’s increased. Most gunners would prefer to have more ammo than “necessary.” The B-17G had 13 .50 cal M-2’s and it’s derivatives.
One reason so much ammo was used was quite simply attempting to down a target that is coming at you from above and about 400 mph is extremely difficult to lead so that your rounds will cut across the path of the target. The advent of the P-51D changed everything. By having fighter protection all the way to a target was invaluable. The Me-262 was a terror in the skies, but even with its four-auto load 30mm cannon and late entry into the war, its speed was often its own worst enemy. You have to close in, and a 235-mph bomber is very hard to hit when you are flying at 475–530 mph.
17 Medals of Honor were awarded, most posthumously, to members of B-17 crews.
Photo credit: Frank Schulenburg Own work via Wikipedia, U.S. Air Force and 463rd.org
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