• The KillerFrogs

B-17 Fort Worth Nose Art

AroundWorldFrog

Full Member
First time I've ran across nose art with a Fort Worth theme. B-17 crews, among the toughest ever.

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Frog Wild

Ticket Exchange Pass
Unfortunately both planes met untimely ends: Fort Worth Gal was shot down on 9/10/44, nine of ten onboard survived and were POWs.
The Fort Worth Jailhouse crash landed in England on 5/5/45, six of seven onboard were killed.
 

YA

Active Member
Fort Worth Gal was shot down by AA fire. All were captured and spent time in POW camp. One person died when he hit a tree on the bail out.
Fort Worth Gal

The Fort Worth Jail House crashed 3 days prior to the end of the war in bad English weather--all were killed except one
Fort Worth Jail House
 
Big brass ones for sure. God rest their souls. Slow hand salute.

Seeing "kathleen" reminds me of the pima air museum in tucson -- they have a really well done b-29.. story goes that when the restoration was done -- in the original paint scheme to include a bunch of girls names in big letters by the each crew station). They had the surviving crew and families out for the unveling. As the names were revealed, all the wives were like who is trudy, rosie etc... none of them had married their wartime sweetheart appearantly... the museum swapped out for the current wives names until they all passed and then put it back to original. At least thats what the docent told us...
 

BrewingFrog

Was I supposed to type something here?
Defended a man in a lawsuit who became a good friend years back, he was a pilot and later a flight instructor on those beasts. Said it was the hardest plane to fly of its time. Such a good dude, I felt so honored just to know him I couldn't take a fee. We went fishing together instead.
The B-17 was a workhorse, first flown in 1939. This was just 37 years after the Wright's flew at Kitty Hawk. I am still amazed at the fact that in such a short time that so many things could be developed, engines, turbo and superchargers for those engines, mass production, metal bodies and skins, etc.

If memory serves, 8th Air Force took more casualties per capita than any other unit in the American Army. Those men were a special kind of brave.
 

HornyWartyToad

Active Member
The B-17 was a workhorse, first flown in 1939. This was just 37 years after the Wright's flew at Kitty Hawk. I am still amazed at the fact that in such a short time that so many things could be developed, engines, turbo and superchargers for those engines, mass production, metal bodies and skins, etc.

If memory serves, 8th Air Force took more casualties per capita than any other unit in the American Army. Those men were a special kind of brave.
Yeah, I have a hard time wrapping my head around just the general acceptance, from high command on down, that, "We're going to lose 75% of our guys on this mission, but it needs to be done." Balls. Big, Brass, Balls.
 
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