New Pic of the B-17

[gully_raker]

'The Memphis Belle, a 91stBG(H) B-17, sometimes reputed to claim the first 25-mission feat, completed its 25th mission on 19 May 1943, six days after the Hell's Angels. The Memphis Belle was, however, the first 8th AF B-17 to complete 25 missions and be returned to the United States.' http://www.303rdbg.com/missionreports/ha-vs-mb.pdf

So 'Memphis Belle' was in the public eye and memory, while 'Hell's Angels' was not.

Not much Justice in that was there. Bet the Hell's Angels boys were p**d off!

[Diamondback]

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the kind of typically US engineering genius that won WWII. I reserve such language for special occasions, but this was bloody brilliant.

"Improvisation was the watchword." [Caption of a Bob Stevens cartoon showing two US personnel standing over the nose-gear of a bomber; one of the normal tires has been replaced by a Jeep wheel, and visible in the background is the line commander's Jeep which "donated" it....]

And which German was it said something to the effect of "Americans are immune to the chaos of war, as they practice it all the time"?

A little late to the party, but not the first time--part of John Browning's design criteria for the family of pistols that led to the Colt 1911 was that the pistol require nothing more for complete disassembly than its own parts (the slide stop is also a punch for removing the various pins, and I suppose the "lip" at bottom front of the magazine is too) and a single cartridge--hence those weird hybrid flat/Phillips-head screws on the grips of a mil-spec Government Model.