War WW2 Bombers: KO'ed (1 Viewer)

[steroidtulip]

They where mad/brave bastards back then on both sides .

 

[k0tp]

you need to have balls to board these planes and do these missions, these men have my respect

 

[Max Dalton]

Set 4.

31. A number of spots to bail out, but when a bomber is of fire, spiraling out of control, upside down, decompression, equipment flying around, or broken in half it's not as easy as it looks.
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31. Tail gunner, side gunners and possibly the top and belly turret gunners lost in this frightening breakup.
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32.
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32.
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33. It's possible that this Flying Fortress made it back to base, although without its tail gunner.
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34. US side gunners inside a B-24.
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35.
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36.
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37. A USAF bomber crewman.
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38. The British-built Handley-Page Halifax (painting).
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This is the Lancaster, very similar to the Halifax

 

[DeathHand]

This is the Lancaster, very similar to the Halifax

Thanks for noting that - I mislabeled it, lol. My bad considering that I live in the city that has 1 of only 2 Lancs still capable of flying. Caption changed

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Set 6.

50. A USAAF B-24 Liberator over Japan struck down by a Japanese phosphorus bomb.

51. B-17 Flying Fortresses in formation.

52. A B-17 Flying Fortress.

52.

53.

54.

55.

56.

57.

58. A crash in the Pacific theatre.

59. The ball turret belly gunner of this B-17 was killed when the landing gear failed to deploy and he was crushed to death as the bomber landed.

 

[Max Dalton]

Thanks for noting that - I mislabeled it, lol. My bad considering that I live in the city that has 1 of only 2 Lancs still capable of flying. Caption changed

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Set 6.

50.
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51. B-17 Flying Fortresses in formation.
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52. A B-17 Flying Fortress (also nicked the Stratofortress or Superfortress).
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52.
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53.
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54.
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55.
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56.
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57.
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58. A crash in the Pacific theatre.
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59. The ball turret belly gunner of this B-17 was killed when the landing gear failed to deploy and he was crushed to death as the bomber landed.
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I had the pleasure of seeing the both of them flying together in Scotland a few years back, Yeah I'm an anorak lol

 

[DeathHand]

I had the pleasure of seeing the both of them flying together in Scotland a few years back, Yeah I'm an anorak lol

Aye, Scottish decent here - 2nd gen Canadian - kin are from the Black Isle and Dingwall. Yes was a few years back ours flew to England so that the two birds could fly together - I'm envious, I only get to see the beauty once in a while in the sky or at the airport museum.

 

[DeathHand]

Set 7.

60.

61.

62.

63.

64.

65.

66. The fellow sitting in this belly turret most certainly did not survive.

67.

68.

69.

70.

71. German Junkers JU 88.

 

[McM]

Stratofortress or Superfortress

B-17 Flying Fortress
B-29 Superfortress
B-52 Stratofortress

 

[DeathHand]

B-17 Flying Fortress
B-29 Superfortress
B-52 Stratofortress

See, you're here for a reason

 

[DeathHand]

Set 8.

71. A downed Dornier Do 17P. Shot down during a raid on London.

72. Navigator/Gunner in a Handley-Page Hampden, RCAF (one of my guys ).

73. Damaged Avro Lancaster of No. 101 Squadron RAF.

74. Side gunner of a German He-111.

75. A B-29 Superfortress that was ditched after being damaged by flak in the Pacific theatre.

76. A B-25 bomber, probably hit by flak, becomes engulfed in flames.

77. A downed German Heinkel He 111.

78. The grave of a pilot of the RAF's No. 602 Squadron, beside his downed Spitfire, in Normandy.

79. Looks like a German JU 88 (I've recently read that it might be a fake photo).

80.

81. B-25 Mitchell.

 

[DeathHand]

Set 9.

82.

83. Dead German bomber crew.

84.

85. If anyone was there...they'll have been blown out the other side: flak.

86. Dead US crewman still in back of cockpit.

87. Atleast, on occassion, Germans buried Allied airmen. This looks like occurred in North Africa.

88. Reported as being the body of a German bomber crew, this has been pointed out from another image that he's not wearing the correct uniform.

89.

90. PE-8 Soviet Long Range Heavy Bomber.

This ends the KO'd bombers thread. Lots of pics of downed bombers but ones with dead crewmen are hard to find and I've run out. KO'd Fighter Planes coming up next

 

[markymark6373]

Another great set of pictures

 

[raptorzzz]

Visited a B-25 Mitchell and a P-51D with a Nazi kill count

 

[DeathHand]

Visited a B-25 Mitchell and a P-51D with a Nazi kill count

Nice 👍

 

[pussyhound]

Damn they where almost there

 

[FrogOne]

Thank you for those great action pics.
There's a color video of an entire Kamikaze Bomber Units that was destroyed in the air, Betty bombers with cherry blossom rockets .

 

[Bender41]

I took brave men to that.

I agree but....
Theres a thin line between being brave and being stupid.

 

[sebboeff]

Must have been terryfing serving in a bomber as a gunner. Since you didnt wear a parachute the whole time you would have just had to wait for death when the bomber was downed.

 

[11aa11]

As a kid, I loved anything military. One of my first drawings, when I was abt 6, was of a WW1 British Sopwith Camel. After that it was always Tiger tanks and Shermans (I built many, many models of them too) I never had any dreams though of being a war pilot or even a tanker - I wanted to be infantry: boots on the ground locked ' loaded.

Photos of a downed bomber's dead crew are very difficult to locate, regardless of the nationality. Throughout these photos we can visualize whether the crew survived or not. It might be a case that all were lost or perhaps that some were able to bail out in time. I think that in a number of cases, bodies had already been removed before the photographers showed up. Many folks will have seen any number of these photos before.

Stats & Info: RAF Bomber Command (various sources)

Most aircrew were aged between 19 and 25, although some were as young as 16, and at least one was in his sixties, with the average age being 21.

During WW2 a total of 364,514 operational sorties were flown and 8,325 aircraft lost in action. Bomber Command aircrews suffered a high casualty rate: out of a total of 125,000 aircrew, 57,205 were killed (a 46% death rate), a further 8,403 were wounded in action and 9,838 became prisoners of war. Therefore, a total of 75,446 airmen (60 percent of operational airmen) were killed, wounded or taken prisoner.

Aircrew had to become accustomed very quickly to the casualty rate suffered by RAF Bomber Command squadrons because fellow crews were lost or in aircrew language, "bought the farm", "got the chop" or "failed to return" (FTR), frequently.

Squadrons would normally be given the task of dispatching 12–25 aircraft on a night operation, and at least one of their crews would be expected to be lost every two night operations. Squadrons losing multiple crews on a single night was quite normal, and on several nights during World War II some squadrons lost five or six of their crews in a single night.

Aircrew adopted a fatalistic attitude, and it was "not the done thing" to discuss losses of friends or roommates, although they would half-jokingly ask each other "can I have your bicycle if you get the chop" or "can I have your eggs and bacon at breakfast if you don't get back tomorrow?" or "if you don't get back can I have those black shoes" and similar comments.

Set 1.

1. Most of the bombers seen in this thread are contained in this illustration.
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2.
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3. This American B-17 was intentionally rammed by a German Messerschmitt, a tactic that the Germans began with the use of poorly trained, often young, German pilots who had barley enough ammo to fire continuously for 15 minutes.
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4. The B-17 managed to return to base without loss of its crew.
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5. Illustration of the ramming.
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6. Some bomber formations were so tight that when one bomber unloaded it's payload, one or two of the bombs would hit another bomber below them.
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7.
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8.
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9. Dead USAF airman.
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10.
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That was brutal force and took some guts

 

[11aa11]

Must have been terryfing serving in a bomber as a gunner. Since you didnt wear a parachute the whole time you would have just had to wait for death when the bomber was downed.

I think some could get parachutes if they could crawl by the "tube" to the main cabin and put it on there.