Sad indeed and condolences to all their families
I was just watching a doco last night about how important the B-17 was to the outcome of the war in Europe. They built over 12,000 of them! But there are less than a dozen still airworthy.
Sadly though, in 1943 life expectancy for the crews was just 1:3 of not returning from missions - it was statistically impossible for bomber crews to complete a 25-mission tour in Europe so some 30,000 aircrew were lost.
So glad we live in this era, and so thankful to those that served.
