Los pilotos alemanes no podían creer los B-17 con 16 ametralladoras

May 29, 1943. Captain James Hartwell, a YB-40 pilot with the 92nd Bombardment Group, climbed into a modified B-17 Flying Fortress at RAF Alconbury. The aircraft carried 16 .50 caliber machine guns and 11,275 rounds of ammunition. His mission: to escort standard B-17s all the way to Germany and back. Every aviation expert said this would revolutionize bomber defense. The Army Air Forces spent $5.6 million converting twelve aircraft into these "flying destroyers." Engineers called it the perfect solution to end the German fighter carnage. They were all wrong. What the 92nd Bombardment Group discovered that May afternoon had nothing to do with firepower. It was about weight, in a way that contradicted everything Army Air Forces planners believed. The YB-40 weighed 1,814 kilograms more than standard B-17s. When the formation released its bombs and climbed faster, the heavily armed gunboats were left behind—seven kilometers behind—becoming the very targets they were meant to protect. By the end of July 1943, after only ten combat missions, the program was canceled. But the Bendix chin turret from those twelve failed aircraft became standard equipment on all subsequent B-17G Flying Fortresses. This chin turret innovation spread through the production lines of Boeing, Douglas, and Vega, appearing on 8,680 B-17G bombers and reducing losses from frontal attacks by 71 percent before it appeared in any official doctrine. The principles discovered at RAF Alconbury between May and July 1943 equipped 32 heavy bomber groups and saved some 2,300 bomber crews before VE Day.