Air Force

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  B-17 Flying Fortress “Queen of Hearts / Li’l Satan” of the 379th Bomb Group sustained serious damage over German targets on June 28, 1944. Despite extensive structural damage, pilot Lt. Karl Becker (shown here examining the wreckage) managed to bring her back to base in England.

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  Closeup view of Martin B-26C in flight, 1944. Colorized.

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  As part of Operation Chowhound in 1945, a B-17 Flying Fortress drops food parcels for the starving Dutch population of the completely destroyed town of Schiphol.

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  Decoy of a Mikoyan MiG-29 ‘Fulcrum’ fighter jet, from the Air Force of Yugoslavia – in a concrete shelter at the Batajnica Air Base, (25 km) northwest from Belgrade, destroyed by a NATO airstrike, c. March – June 1999.

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  USAAF Boeing B-17 Crewmen wearing RAF goggles with sun visors pose with their high altitude gear at Polebrook, 1942

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  B-17 Flying Fortress releasing bombs over Berlin 384th BG 22 March 1944 from the view of the ball turret.

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  B-17 “Tiger Girl” of the 8th Air Force, 388th Bomb Group, 560th BS, England, 1944

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  Part of the 320th squadron of the “Jolly Rogers” 90th Bombardment Group, the crew of this B-24 arrived in Papua New Guinea only four months prior before being shot down in March of 1944.

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  Replacement Boeing B-17G Flying Fortresses lined up on an airfield in England to replace squadron losses for the US Eighth Air Force – 1943/44 (Original Color Photograph Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum)

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  B-17 Flying Fortress crewmembers Gus Palmer, side gunner, and Horace Poolaw, both of the Kiowa Nation stand near their aircraft at MacDill Field, Fla., in about 1944.

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  Hundreds of B-17 Flying Fortresses awaiting the scrap heap, 1946.

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  The chin turret of a Boeing B-17G bomber with the cowling removed, revealing its six .50 caliber machine guns, June 17, 1944

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  B-17 ball turret gunner Alan Magee, who fell 22,000 feet without a parachute, landing on the glass roof of St. Nazaire train station, breaking it through. He suffered multiple injuries, including a broken leg and a badly cut arm, but he lived. January 3, 1943.

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  Charles Winters (right) was an American businessman who assisted Israel during the 1948 war. He helped Al Schwimmer, who is sometimes called the father of the Israeli Air Force, smuggle three B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers to Israel. Winters flew one of the bombers himself .

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  Tail Wreckage of B-17G 42-31367 Nicknamed “Chow hound” found by a American engineer who discovered.

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  B-17s of the 8th Air Force navigate through a flak filled sky over Germany, 1944/45.

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  B-17 Flying Fortress “Fifty Packin Mama”

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  B-24J Liberator “Solid Comfort”

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  Nose art of B-24D ‘Come And Get It’ (S/N 42-40941) – 90th Bomb Group, 400th Bomb Squadron, 5th Air Force – Pacific Theater circa 1943

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  B-24 Liberator “Rebel Gal”

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