Dale Martin
City Manager
Fernandina Beach
March 9, 2018 12:01 a.m.
Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to experience a little bit of history. Accompanied by Mr. Nathan Coyle and Mr. Robert Kozakoff from the City Airport and a naval officer friend from Kings Bay, we journeyed to Cecil Field to see the Collings Foundation Wings of Freedom tour. The Wings of Freedom tour maintains several historic aircraft, taking some of those aircraft around the country annually. The tour had made a visit to Fernandina Beach in November, 2015.
The three World War II aircraft at Cecil Field that weekend were a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, a B-24 Liberator bomber (the last such operation aircraft of that type), and a P-51 Mustang. A B-25 Mitchell bomber that is usual part of this “tour package” was not available. The highlight of the day’s visit was for me to be a passenger on a B-17 flight.
We got to the airport in the early afternoon and had the opportunity to examine the B-17 both inside and out. This bomber was produced late enough in WWII that it did not see
any combat. We (everyone except Nate since he was too tall) climb up into the nose of the bomber and worked our way through the fuselage to the rear where we exited. A few areas were not accessible: the nose and cockpit (although you could view both), the underbelly ball turret, and the tail turret.
The front part of the aircraft was cramped. Military equipment, be it a WWII bomber or the Bradley vehicle that I operated, is not built for comfort. Every edge is hard and sharp- head “bumps” usually result in head “gashes.” At the front of the plane were stationed the pilot, co-pilot, bombardier, navigator, and flight engineer. The bombardier, navigator, and flight engineer manned forward and top machine guns. This B-17, a late-war ‘G’ model, bristled with a total of thirteen .50 caliber machine guns.
Immediately behind the cockpit and top turret in the center of the plane was the bomb bay. A narrow beam crossed between the bomb racks which held a few display models of 500 pound bombs. They sure looked small- the typical bomb load was ten bombs. Once you squeezed past the bomb racks, in the middle of the plane, you passed the radio operator and reached the waist gunner section of the plane. Two gunners, one right and one left, manned machine guns to protect the flanks of the bomber.
In the floor at the feet of the waist gunners was the ball turret. Into this tiny capsule squeezed another gunner who controlled a set of twin machine guns to protect the underside of the aircraft. The final crew position at the back end of the plane, was the tail gunner, who also manned a set of twin machine guns protecting the rear of the plane. In total, the B-17 had a ten-man crew (as the war neared its end, crewmen were eventually reduced to eight with the elimination of the waist gunners).
The best description that I can offer, especially once I was onboard and in flight, is that it felt as if I were in a cardboard tube (like a paper towel tube) with wings. It was an incredibly vulnerable feeling. It is hard to understand how it felt to climb into that aircraft on a dark English airfield in 1944, form up with dozens or hundreds of other similar bombers, climb to a flight altitude with no pressurization and no heat and sheathed in “sheet metal armor,” fly and fight for hours to the target to drop the puny bombs, turn around and now fly and fight for hours to get home, battered and bloodied, less in numbers, and then, even more incredulously, do it again in a few days, in an effort to reach the goal of twenty-five missions.
The sounds, the smoke, the smells, and the sights are simply unimaginable. As history recalls, it was a brutal struggle in the skies over Europe. The British bombed at night, somewhat cloaked in the security of darkness. The Americans, though, basically thumbed their nose and challenged the Germans to “bring it on” during deadly daylight raids centered on the B-17 Flying Fortresses. The American strategy nearly failed- early losses to the Luftwaffe were staggering: dozens of planes and hundreds of men were lost on raids.
The veterans of that war, no matter how they served, are passing. That generation had a unifying singular purpose for a brutal five years of warfare. The title of the “greatest generation” has been well-earned and even more deserved. That short thirty-minute plane round only enhanced my perception of the American warriors of that era.
I hope that the Collings Foundation continues their efforts. We spoke at great length about bringing their aircraft back to Fernandina Beach. If they do return, I encourage everyone to at least visit and honor the aircraft and the men that crewed them. For more information about the Collings Foundation, visit the Foundation web site at www.collingsfoundation.org.