Article

2011-06-13 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

Liberty Belle B-17 Crash - All hands safe

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Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2011-06-13 16:04|| || Front Page|| [4 views ] Top

#1 Well crap,

I'm glad to see everyone is safe but I am also saddened by the destruction of another artifact of our glorious achievements in WWII.

I watched a documentary about the 8th Air Force in WWI the other night and it struck me how brave those kids were. Geez, they KNEW their chances of survival were almost slim and none going into mid 1944 but they kept going up there and doing their duty.

It is an amazing example of courage and determination throughout an organization.

Posted by Bill Clinton 2011-06-13 16:10|| 2011-06-13 16:10|| Front Page Top

#2 Flying war birds is just too dangerous.

Congress should investigate this and pass a law so we all can be safe.

Posted by kelly 2011-06-13 16:17|| 2011-06-13 16:17|| Front Page Top

#3 A Flight in the Liberty Belle B-17

Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2011-06-13 16:28|| 2011-06-13 16:28|| Front Page Top

#4 Have always wanted a flight in one of these.

Glad everyone is safe.

Posted by swksvolFF 2011-06-13 16:39|| 2011-06-13 16:39|| Front Page Top

#5 Oh, dear - my SO will be heartbroken. There are only a couple of dozen flying B-17s still around, and now they're down one. He is working at the Chino Planes of Fame Air museum to get their B-17G, Piccadilly Lilly into the air again.

Posted by Sgt. Mom 2011-06-13 17:03|| http://www.celiahayes.com 2011-06-13 17:03|| Front Page Top

#6 kelly - I hope you forgot your /sarc tag.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut 2011-06-13 17:21|| 2011-06-13 17:21|| Front Page Top

#7 Sqt Mom

My friend restores WWII fighters. Got to know Steve H. and some of the other Chino folks through him. Great group.

Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2011-06-13 17:32|| 2011-06-13 17:32|| Front Page Top

#8 Looks like an engine fire on No. 2. The prop's feathered.
Damn shame. They're beautiful airplanes.

Posted by tu3031 2011-06-13 17:45|| 2011-06-13 17:45|| Front Page Top

#9 Very sad. As a young man I looked up to the sky and saw her roaring overhead. Such a loss to our children that she will not be there for them.

High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF

Posted by rammer 2011-06-13 20:30|| 2011-06-13 20:30|| Front Page Top

#10 love that, rammer

Posted by Frank G 2011-06-13 20:47|| 2011-06-13 20:47|| Front Page Top

#11 That was a sad event, all right. It is great to see them flying, but there will always be an attrition rate, and one will have to make a value judgement as to flying these old proud birds.

IIRC, the loss rate of a B-17 raid was figured about 4%, so making it to 25 missions put you in a position of beating the odds of not getting home. Long boring hours of flying and then hours of terror from enemy fighters, flak, and those nasty unforeseen consequences of war when your action against an enemy brings down one of your own birds. Brave Brave Men.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2011-06-13 21:12|| 2011-06-13 21:12|| Front Page Top

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23:50 Alaska Paul
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