In this brief, I have put together some of the B-17 photos which I have purchased over the past three months to participate in and contribute to a B-17 ceremony in France in June 2013.

1. B-17 World War II Photos
Getting a Sense of What it Was Like

2. Viewing the B-17
• As part of my preparation for participating in
the June 2013 event honoring the B-17 in
Noirmoutier, France, I sought some original
photos or good copies from original negatives
to shape a portfolio of images to understand
what the plane and the experience was like
• What follows are some of those originals or
copies made from the original negatives

3. Flying Close to the Deck

4. Flak Attack

5. Flak and Bomb Drop Over Germany

6. 96th Bomb Group Bombing Bremen

7. Bombing of Avions Potez Aircraft Factory at Meaulte,
France

9. Bombing Through the Formation

10. Original AP Photo of Bombing Striking
Bridge Ahead of Train in France

11. B-17 “Ice Cold Katy” during RAID on
Rocket Center in Peenemünde.

12. Abbeville/Drucat Airfield Bombing

13. Original AP Photo of Abbeville
Bombing August 19, 1942

14. B-17 on the Ground

15. 10 B-17s Lined Up for Take-Off
91st Bomb Group

16. Bombardier Station on “Nine O’Nine”

17. Nine O Nine At UK Base

18. Making a Point

19. Looking Out From the
Cockpit

20. Front Gunner Position

21. Returning from Mission

22. A B-17 Factory

23. Variants and Factories
• With Boeing, Vega, and Douglas all building B-17s in different locations
(Boeing was in Seattle, WA while Douglas and Vega were both in Southern
California) it was impossible not to have differences in aircraft built on
different production lines at different times and in different locations.
• It was thus decided to come up with a system to determine what model of
B-17 the aircraft was along with when it was built and where it was built.
Block numbers would begin with the model of the aircraft such as B-17F.
Next would be the Block number itself and would be started with the
number one. For example: B-17F-1 would be the first block of B-17Fs.
• These numbers would be increased by five per block so that the second
block of B-17Fs would be numbered B-17F-5. The reason for this is so that
if changes were made at the field modification centers that the planes
were shipped too following production that these modifications could be
tracked as well using the block number.

24. Variants and Factories (2)
• Lastly, the plant ID was incorporated into the block number
as well. BO was Boeing in Seattle, DL was the Douglas plant
in Long Beach, CA, and VE was the Vega plant in
Burbank, CA. With the B-17F, there were 27 line blocks
from Boeing, 17 from Douglas, and 11 from Vega.
• So, B-17F-80-BO was the 12th block from Boeing, B-17F-25-
DL was the 6th block from Douglas and B-17F-30-DL was
the 7th block from Vega.
• Other improvements to the B-17F were made to the
landing gear, brakes, oxygen system, bomb racks, ball
turret, bombsight/autopilot link, astro-compos, and a nose
bubble in the upper nose section.

25. B-17 Transfer to UK 1944

26. B-17 in flight with Missing Part of Wing on
Bombing Raid

27. Damaged But Landed

28. Damaged But Landed (2)

29. Damaged But Landed (3)

30. Damaged But Landed (4)

31. B-17s in Formation

32. In Formation (2)

33. In Formation (3)

34. In Formation (4)

35. In Formation (5)

36. Taking Off

37. In Route

38. In Route (2)

39. In Route (3)