Did B-17 crews run into difficulty releasing their bombs and does data exist on this?
score:9
B-17 had, in fact, two primary release mechanisms - electrical release device and a manual lever. The standard procedure would be to first use electrical release, in case of failure - the manual lever. If both failed, either bombardier or waistgunner would have to get on the catwalk in the bomb bay and physically dislodge the jammed bomb with whatever they had on hand - this process is detailed in many memoirs, for example, here. I am not aware of any historical documents containing any particular statistics on this matter, though.
Also, as o.m. noted, it's not like B-17 had a significantly different bomb bay rigging as any other contemporary bomber, and even to this day release mechanism failure remains a common occurence on combat aircraft.
Upvote:2
There were two ways to open the bomb bay doors: Electro-hydrolic and a manual crank.
Bombs had a pin that was tethered to the Bombay by cables. When the bombs fell, it pulled the pin. They also had a spring wound fuse and vanes that would unwind the spring as the bomb dropped. These were set to detonate the bomb at a specific altitude.
Bombs were normally released by electronically activated solonoids that automatically relased the bombs at a 1-20 millisecond interval.
If the electronics failed to release the bombs. The pilot had a mechanical release next to his left foot, the infamous "green apple". It was called the green apple because the screw on ball was green.
If either the hydrolics or crank could not open the bomb bay doors. The pilot would resort to the green apple. B-17s carried 6000 lbs. of bombs. Dropping this weight on the damaged bombay doors usually did the trick. It was clearly a last resort as it was not without significant risk!!
The answer to your question is YES, FLAK damaged the bomb bay doors quite often.
Upvote:4
I think you are misunderstanding the development of bomb bays and underwing shackles.
The period of hand grenades thrown from open c**kpit lasted only a few years. In the interwar period one would see something like this video.
Bombs outside the aircraft add drag, so the next step was to put the bombs inside, but they would still be held in shackles. This is a B-17, a B-24, and this is a British Lancaster, and you can see how each bomb was individually held.
Upvote:4
My dad was the top turret machine gunner on a B-17g in England. One time the bombs did not release so he used a screw driver on the catwalk to release them one at a time. Possibly since he was the First Engineer he had trained on this? I believe they just dropped them one at a time in the countryside. Not sure which mission it was and if over France or Germany.
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