We'll Meet Again 1803

      I’ve been watching an old series titled “We’ll meet again” about the American army air corps flying bombing missions out of airfields in England. The series has some wonderful actual footage of B-17 bombers taking off from England and flying over Germany. Some of those missions lost more than 60 bombers and crews in a single day.

      Each episode starts with a camera mounted at the far edge of the runway filming a B-17 taking off from a head on position. I cannot imagine what it must have sounded like hearing 60 B-17s taking off over those small English villages, breaking up the quiet mornings in those rural areas. Overall there were as many as 300 leaving for Germany in one strike. The losses were horrific for the army air corps.

      Seeing those big 4 engine bombers take off reminded me of our 4 engine super constellations taking off from Guam or the Philippines for our overnight radar coverage in the gulf of Tonkin. I also remembered seeing the B-52s coming back to Guam after dropping bombs on north Vietnam. There would be a line of them flying over the naval air station to land at Andersen air force base on the end of the island. Every few seconds another would fly over at relatively low altitudes on their approach to Andersen.

      There was nothing like being in a huge super constellation hearing those big engines firing up, feeling the vibrations of those engines roaring just before the pilot let off the brakes and the plane began rumbling down the runway. During flights tracking typhoons the rough air turbulence would rock those huge 124.42 foot long wings up and down making them appear like a bird in flight. It was awesome! I think the super constellations had similar engines to the B-17 bombers.