This page is made up of pictures of B-17's of the 457th Bomb Group. Most were actual combat photos or photos taken during the war. Some are newer but most all have the triangle U, designating the 457th.

	Another mission with the 457th encountering heavy flak. This appears to be barrage type flack - the kind "you could walk on". Not a comforting sight at all.
	This is one of the lead planes flying into a sea of flak.
	A sampling of bombers flying through flak. See one of my experiences with flak in the mission descriptions. I don't ever remember a mission where we were not a target and where we did not encounter flak..     Willard Reese
	More 88 millimeter flak. There was also 80 millimeter flack but it really did not matter which if it was close.
	This is another instance of one plane caught in a burst of Flak. It's apparently on the bomb run because his bomb bay doors are open. There was little chance of fighter attack when we were under a flak attack because enemy fighters would be exposing themselves to their own flak fire.
	Some more flak.
	And some more very heavy flak. It's difficult to look at this picture and not remember the feelings we had at that moment on the bomb run.
	Bombs Away! These appear to be 200 pound bombs. We carried bombs weighing from 50 lb. to 500 lb. depending on the type of target we were bombing..     Willard Reese
	This is a view of Hamtrammack Mamma after just releasing her bombs.
	A more recent picture of a restored B-17G with the markings of the 457th Bomb Group.
	View of the 457th formation on the way to a target (from the waist gun position). Note that one of these planes has a camaflaged painted surfaces indicating that it is an older plane.(a survivor) They stopped painting planes around the middle of 1944.
	B-17's from the 457th forming up over dense cloud cover preparatory to a mission. Contrails are already starting to form.
	A P-47 trying to fly formation with a 457th bomber at the end of a mission. We did not like to see this because these fighter pilots did not have much experience flying in bomber formations.
	A formation of "Little Friends". P-51 fighters escorting our bomber formation. Always a welcome sight.
	A damaged B-24 under heavy flak attack over the target. He appears to be in real trouble with one engine smoking. We always liked having B-24's on the same target as us because they always flew at lower altitudes and drew most of the flak.
	An illustration of the contrails formed as the fighter escort "S'ed" over the bomber formations. This is a famous picture that appeared in Life magazine in 1944.
	A couple of '17's from the 457th flying in clouds. Picture taken from the waist gun position. Note the wing tip of the adjoining plane is barely visible. This was a pilots nightmare. Extremely tight formation was required. If you lost your wingman you could loose the squadron and be lost in the clouds with hundreds of other planes in the area.. The plane in the foreground is "The Wolf Pack" from the 749th Squadron.
	This is a lead ship of the 457th. (note the radar dome that replaced the ball turret). This plane was shot down on April, 10th 1945 on a mission to bomb an ordianace depot at Oranienburg, Ger. The squadron was attacked by four ME-262's. Captain Melvin Fox and 9 of his crew were POW's but their radioman was killed when the plane exploded.
	These are a lead and deputy lead plane in formation leading the 457th on a mission to Dresden, Ger. on Feb, 14, 1945. The lead plane, flown on his last mission by Capt. Don Seesenguth , was borrowed from another group because of a shortage of radar equipped planes at Glatton.
	The plane in the foreground is #44-8706 N. It was made by Lockheed Vega and was assigned to the 450th squadron on Feb. 14th 1944 and was later transferred to the 305th Bomb Group on May 23rd 1945. You can see a radar dome has replaced the ball turret indicating that this is a lead plane. I have found no other record of this plane.
	This is a bomber in close formation at the moment of bomb release. This plane #297075 was named "Flack Dodger". A book about the 457th bomb group titled "Flack Dodger", by Roland Byers, is about his adventures with this plane. The plane survived the war and returned to the U.S. in Jun '45.
	This is a B-24 Liberator bomber taking a direct hit in the number 4 engine which has resulted in the failure of the starboard wing. This was typical of what happened when flak was accurate. Few crewmen were fast enough with a camera to capture what this picture shows . Usually B-24's flew at lower altitudes than we did and were subjected to more intense flak as a result.
	This is another flight of B-17's from the 457th on their way to the target in Germany. The weather is clear and the flak will be heavy.
	Sometimes the sky was full of planes. It should be easy to see how groups would often "shuffle-the-deck"
	This is the interior of a B-17 showing the waist position. This appears fitted for battle with amunition in the guns. This view is toward the front of the plane with the ball turret at the far end. The waist gunners manned the 50 calibre guns in the side windows. This is an early B-17 ve rsion where there were no plexiglas windows and the guns are internally mounted on posts. Later version had the guns mounted in the window with plexiglas all around. (Much more comfort at -50 degrees)
	I cannot confirm that this is the same plane because this happened to other B-17's in much the same way, but it looks almost exactally as I remember the loss of the Roland Brazier crew on the mission to Gelsenkirchen, Germany on Feb. 19, 1945. This is described in my story entitled "Flak, the nemesis of every bomber crew".
	This is another 457th tight formation just dropping their bombs. Note the smoke marker trails. The lead ship in each group carried a smoke bomb that was released with the rest and was a marker to other crews where the bombs had been dropped. As you can see many other groups had already bombed this target.
	This is a good study of two waist gunners and should be familiar to all who served in that location. Obviously they are in flight at a low altitude since they are not wearing very heavy flight gear nor are they wearing oxygen masks. One can see how cramped the quarters were for two gunners to function at the same time.
	This is another formation of planes from the 457th on a clear day flying CAVU into Germany.
	Here is a group of 7 planes from the 457th forming up for a mission. They are flying very high as noted by the formation of contrails from each engine.

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