A B-17 Flying Fortress (serial number 42-5718) nicknamed “The Widow Maker” of the 94th Bomb Group in flight

A B-17 Flying Fortress (serial number 42-5718) nicknamed “The Widow Maker” of the 94th Bomb Group in flight (Wikimedia Commons)

written by Todd DePastino

“What a marvelous plane that was and beautiful to fly.”

That’s what WWII 15th Air Force pilot Tom Wiley said about his B-17 several years ago at a Veterans Breakfast Club program.

WWII 15th Air Force B-17 pilot Tom Wiley

Tom Wiley (Tom Wiley)

Tom, who passed away earlier this year at age 100, was Squadron and Group leader with the 772nd Bomb Squadron, 463rd Bomb Group flying out of Foggia, Italy.

“What was so great about it?” I asked.

“The wings,” he responded without hesitation.

“The B-17 had broad deep wings. Also, the controls were electrical, unlike the B-24, which were hydraulic. Once you lost hydraulics, that was it. But with electrical controls, you always had a chance to twist two pieces of wire together and get them working again.”

Knowing nothing about aeronautics, I was forced to ask him why broad wings were preferable to narrow ones.

“Why, they allow you to keep flying after you’ve been hit. B-17s could take a lot of flak and stay in the air . . . more surface for air flow, more lift.”

“During the war and after, I always thanked B-24 pilots for taking the heat off of those of us in the B-17s,” Tom added.

“The Jerries always went after the B-24s first because they went down so easily. German fighters would pass us up to get to the B-24s, because of the narrow wings.”

These narrow B-24 wings gave the plane speed and endurance but also vulnerability to damage.

B-17s couldn’t carry as heavy a payload as B-24s, nor fly as far or fast.

But the B-17 could take a lot of punishment, and its grateful crews returned safely to the ground after absorbing flak barrages that would have sent a B-24 into a nosedive.

“A former German fighter pilot I met once told me that he could never fly into our B-17 formations because our tails were too big,” Tom continued.

B-17 next to a B-24

Left: B-17’s broad wings and tail (USAAF). Right: B-24’s narrow wings and tail (USAAF).

“He could dart into B-24 formations because they had narrow tails, and he would shoot them out of the sky. But he couldn’t do that with our B-17s. We flew in very tight formations.”

“The only time I ever saw a plane fly into our tight formations was when some Tuskegee Airmen did it,” Tom said.

“I always wondered why they would do such a dangerous thing. They knew that we could have mistaken them for the enemy and starting at them. Any time you saw a plane with its nose pointed at you in combat, you tried to shoot it down. Why would these airmen put their planes in harm’s way like that?”

“I got my answer about ten years ago when I met some Tuskegee Airmen.”

“I shook hands with one and said, ‘Colonel, I’ve been waiting 50 years for an answer to a question about you guys. Why did I see some of your guys fly into our formations while over Italy?’”

“The colonel smiled broadly and said, ‘Just showboating, I guess.’”

“‘Colonel,’ I responded, ‘that’s the only answer I could accept.’”

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