How B-17 Crews Ate, Slept & Survived 10 Hours Airborne at 25,000 Feet Over Germany

20 February 1944, nineteen thousand feet over Germany. A navigator on his first mission notices he is far more tired than he should be, and looks at his fingernails. From 1942 to 1945, ten men at a time flew the B-17 to Germany and back: six hours, eight hours, on the longest days ten, unpressurized, at around 25,000 feet. This film follows one day of it through the diary of Lt. Carroll 'Ted' Binder of the 303rd Bomb Group, the group's own mission reports, the B-17 manuals and the Air Force's medical history: the knock on the door at 0330, the electric suit, forty below at the waist windows, oxygen checks every five minutes, one jelly sandwich, the frozen relief tube, the flak suit, and why nobody slept until ten that night. Chapters: 0:00 The navigator's fingernails 1:07 Ten Hours 3:13 Ten Men 5:00 0330 6:54 The Blue Suit 8:59 Forty Below 11:47 Ten Thousand Feet 14:05 The Jelly Sandwich 15:37 The Relief Tube 17:27 The Flak Suit 19:35 The Long Way Home 21:31 Interrogation 23:21 The Tour 25:20 The Fingernails Sources: Mae Mills Link and Hubert A. Coleman, Medical Support of the Army Air Forces in World War II (Office of the Surgeon General, USAF, 1955) Pilot Training Manual for the B-17 Flying Fortress, AAF Manual 50-13 (Headquarters, Army Air Forces) T.O. 01-20EF-1, Pilot's Flight Operating Instructions, B-17F (Army Air Forces) Physiological Problems of Bomber Crews in the Eighth Air Force During WWII (Air Command and Staff College, Air University, 1997) 303rd Bomb Group (H) combat mission reports: No. 76 Anklam, No. 109 Leipzig, No. 132 Marienburg, No. 159 Berlin, No. 164 Posen, No. 311 Berlin, No. 338 Bohlen, No. 340 Plauen, No. 358 Freiham (303rd Bomb Group Association) Lt. Carroll 'Ted' Binder, diary, 'That First Mission' (Hell's Angels Newsletter, 303rd Bomb Group Association, December 1990) Richard R. Johnson, Twenty Five Milk Runs (and a few others) Stanley M. Claster, mission journal, 303rd Bomb Group Robert A. Hand, Last Raid Col. Ivan Wayne Eveland, USAF, memoir excerpt (The Retired Officers Association magazine, January 2002; 401st Bomb Group Association) Film (public domain, U.S. government works): William Wyler's Memphis Belle colour outtakes, 91st Bomb Group, 1943 (National Archives 342-USAF-19510); Target for Today (Army Air Forces First Motion Picture Unit, 1944); Heroes of the 8th Air Force (18-CS-755); Return from Wilhelmshaven, 305th Bomb Group (18-CS-29). The colour film shows the 91st Bomb Group in 1943; the story follows the 303rd in 1944-45. Photographs: U.S. Army Air Forces and Royal Air Force official photographs via Wikimedia Commons. Drawings: pages of AAF Manual 50-13 and T.O. 01-20EF-1. Maps: Natural Earth. Thumbnail: illustration made for this film. Narration: AI voice. Your turn. If someone in your family flew in a B-17, or kept one flying: his crew position, his bomb group and the year. One line is enough. The best answers may become a future video. Independent and educational. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Department of Defense or any armed force.