I heard that B17s, accidently, dropped bombs on other in-flight B17s in WWII? True? Where can I find a video?

Answer 1

In flights of fifty or more close calls were endemic. When a bomb run was being attacked by flak and German fighters Bombers were constantly evading. Sometimes they evaded right into a bomb stream. You're probably not going to get a tape because no one had time in combat to wait for something like this to happen and film had a tendency to freeze up and get brittle at high altitudes.

Answer 2

You'd be surprised how often that kind of thing happened. Blanket-bombing, as the practice often employed by B-17's in WW2 was called, relied heavily upon the bombers being in close formation which made them sitting ducks for any german patrols.
Once a bomber started dropping they were unable to stop, so if they had to break off mid bomb-run due to an attack, they were quite likely to hit their own wingmen.
As for videos, there are numerous videos surviving from WW2, but I must say I think a desire to see them a tad morbid. Perhaps any such footage should remain lost...

Answer 3

It's true, they did. I have no clue where to get a video;

Also, many other type of bombers did the same thing due to tite formations; often, bombers would run into each other while breaking formation while being attacked by German fighters like the ME-109 and FW-190.

B-17's, as well as other bombers, would also accidently shoot down their own escort aircraft like the P-47 Thunderbolt as this American aircraft looked too much like the German FW-190 as both had radial engines making them look the same from the front. They also, on occasion, shot each other up in formation due to excited gunners tracking a German fighter with live fire; they would simply shoot up a nearby bomber in their sights sorta like Dick Chaney blasting his hunting partner...; the primary weapon used by B-17 crews was the Browning .50 caliber Machine gun. Lethal stuff.
Most of this stuff happened due to new pilots and excited new gunners shooting at anything that moved; German Pilots hated going after the B-17 as they were so heavily armed; attacking a B-17 formation could mean death and they knew this; it was no joke for them.

A German Pilot, Erich Hartmann said to the effect it was like jumping into a bee hive; the .50 caliber rounds coming at his ME-109 were like bees in a large pissed off cone as the formations would fire en-mass at any German aircraft (and American by mistake) that came in range. The firepower was awsome as each Bomber had 7-10 .50 caliber machine guns and at any time an approaching German fighter could be tracked and shot at by a one hundred Bombers with half the crew shooting; that meant about 300-500 .50 caliber machine guns targeting one fighter...no bueno. This was the "cone effect " Major Hartmann mentioned as all the rounds came at him from different locations to focus on him, like the bullets forming a cone shape; German strategy was to come straight at the formation with the throttle craked to full military power; an ME-109 could reach speeds of near 400 miles per hour as could the FW 190; the closing speed with the bombers would reach near 600 miles per hour due to the bomber doing around 200 mph; in flash the German would whizz by firing with their 20mm (big) cannon making as many hits as they could, then dive away and down to pick up speed before a B-17 Gunner found them; this happend in a flash, less than 3 seconds and the German fighter was gone and out of range. Talk about pucker factor for both B-17 crew and German Pilots.
I had a psych teacher named Mulligan who flew B-17s during the war; the guy had some stories and this is part of it.

Answer 4

I remember seeing a documentary on the History Channel about this. You might try www.historychannel.com for more information. They will also be able to provide you with links. You will just need to do a little digging. Good luck! I also wanted to add that they did have camera footage of this.

Answer 5

There is a chance that they could probably hit one another if they were being intercepted by the Germans, but you won't find any video of it. Almost all the video you we have of WW2 aerial combat is propaganda or test flight related.