Fortress Overhead

The B-17 Flying Fortress was the Eighth Air Force's heavy bomber in Europe. Four engines, a crew of ten, up to thirteen .50-caliber machine guns and a service ceiling above 35,000 feet. From bases in the English countryside the Eighth sent formations of several hundred aircraft into Germany by daylight, unescorted for much of 1943.

A tour was 25 missions. In 1943 the odds of finishing one were worse than even, and the requirement was later raised to 30 and then 35. Ground crews counted the returning aircraft from the control tower and did the arithmetic.

The Eighth Air Force lost more than 26,000 men killed — more than the entire U.S. Marine Corps in the war. This Fortress is coming home.

The bomber comes straight over the viewer, so close that the ball turret, the bomb bay and the rivet lines of the fuselage are all in reach. Behind it the rest of the group descends through a fan of contrails lit from above. The scene is painted from the ground beside a wooden control tower and a Nissen hut, where a handful of figures stand with their heads tipped back. The eye rides the sunlight down from the top of the picture to the mud of the field.