Following the near-catastrophic losses in late 1943, Boeing began production of the final B-17 Flying Fortress variant, the B-17G. This incorporated the lessons learned over Europe in 1943, namely the vulnerability of the B-17 to attacks from the front. Boeing drew also on the experience of the failed attempt to build a B-17 “escort bomber,” the YB-40, which had incorporated a powered chin turret, and late models of the B-17F, which had bulged “cheek” guns that increased the B-17’s forward firepower. These were added to the B-17G.
Other improvements included staggering the waist gun positions; in the B-17F the waist gunners stood back to back and tended to get in each other’s way, and by staggering the positions, it gave the gunners more room to move around. A final improvement was an actual turret installed in the tail, instead of the flexible mount of the B-17E/F series—as these turrets were not installed at any of the B-17 production plants, but by United Airlines at Cheyenne Airport, they were referred to as “Cheyenne” turrets. In this form, the B-17G entered service in early 1944 as the penultimate B-17 variant, the most famous, and the most produced: 8,860 B-17Gs would enter service before production finally ended in May 1945.
B-17Gs would equip 32 bomber groups by spring 1944, in time to participate in the “Big Week” attacks against German oil facilities that would cripple the German war industry. In contrast to the 1943 raids, the B-17s were now heavily escorted by P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51 Mustang long-range escort fighters, which brought down bomber losses considerably—though nearly 250 B-17s were shot down during Big Week, this was out of 3500 aircraft participating. Besides irretrievably damaging German industry, the bombers also served as bait to draw the Luftwaffe into direct combat with USAAF fighters, which would end in the practical destruction of the German air force by summer 1944. As it was, attacking B-17 combat boxes was already difficult. Part of this was due to the German fighter pilots constantly having to dodge American fighters and fight their way through the barrage of defensive fire from the bombers (a combat box of 12 B-17Gs could bring 156 heavy machine guns to bear), and part of it was due to the Flying Fortress’ legendary toughness. It was not uncommon for B-17s to return to base missing parts of the tail, the nose, engines, and pieces of wing. Though the Germans introduced heavier 30mm cannon armament and aerial rockets, the B-17 still proved until war’s end to be a difficult aircraft to bring down. B-17s formed the backbone of the 8th Air Force, dropping 640,036 tons of bombs—more than any other Allied bomber. Appropriately, seventeen B-17 aircrew were awarded the Medal of Honor, more than any other aircraft in US history.
The end of World War II did not quite end the saga of the B-17. While most of the surviving Flying Fortresses were scrapped, others were converted to VC-17G executive transports, DB-17G drones, or SB-17G search and rescue aircraft, the latter seeing combat in Korea. Others were passed to the US Navy as PBW-1s, the first airborne early warning aircraft in history, or to the Coast Guard as PB-1G maritime patrol, search and rescue aircraft, and fishery protection aircraft. The last B-17 in American armed forces service was retired in 1959, though a few went on to serve with Air America CIA units during Vietnam. Some survivors were converted to firefighting aircraft. Today, 53 B-17s still exist, 13 in flyable condition, most of them B-17Gs, out of a total production of 12,731.
"Target for Tonight" had the dubious distinction of being assigned to one of the toughest units in the entire USAAF--the infamous 100th Bomb Group (Heavy) at RAF Thorpe Abbots, better known as the "Bloody Hundredth." The 100th took some of the heaviest casualties of any bomb group during the war; casualties were so horrendous during "Black Thursday," the unescorted attack on Schweinfurt and Regensburg, that a rumor began that the Luftwaffe had a personal grudge against the unit. (The rumor was that a B-17 had lowered its landing gear in a gesture of surrender, but when Luftwaffe fighters came in to escort it to a landing, the fighters were shot down by the B-17's gunners.) Although the 100th's fortunes improved after long-range escorts arrived in January 1944, it still lost heavily in the first daylight attack on Berlin in March.
"Target for Tonight" was a B-17G, so it arrived too late--thankfully--to be involved in "Black Thursday." It still did not have an easy time of it, but survived...only to be scrapped when it came home. The nose art was preserved as part of the Pratt Collection, which today is on loan to the EAA AirVenture Museum.
The nose art depicts what was held to be a man's ruin--wine, women and song. It also shows what the crew undoubtedly hoped they would live to enjoy someday.
