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143-455: In the novel Wells gives only a rough description of the ship. After the narrator talks about his brother, he introduces us to the Thunder Child in chapter 17, describing her thus: "About a couple of miles out lay an ironclad , very low in the water, almost, to my brother's perception, like a water-logged ship. This was the ram Thunder Child ". A few paragraphs later, it is stated that "It was

286-453: A Canopus -class battleship fighting a Martian tripod. The War of the Worlds was written as an account of fictional events early in the 20th century (possibly the summer of 1901) and the lead ship of the class, HMS Canopus , entered service in 1899 and thus fits the timeline. The 1999 video game adaptation of Jeff Wayne's musical features a level revolving around Thunder Child . The player

429-576: A Consolidated B-24 Liberator , part of the United States Navy 's contribution ("Project Anvil"), en route for Heligoland piloted by Lieutenant Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (future U.S. president John F. Kennedy 's elder brother) exploded over the Blyth estuary . Blast damage was caused over a radius of 5 miles (8.0 km). Naval flights stopped but a few more missions were flown by the USAAF. The Aphrodite project

572-499: A Northrop YB-49 Flying Wing jet bomber; the atomic bomb proves useless, because the Martian fighting-machines are protected by individual force fields. The first adaptation to feature HMS Thunder Child was Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of ''The War of the Worlds'' , which was released in 1978 and retains the novel's Victorian setting, characters, and situations. The album features the song, "Thunder Child". The album's cover art depicts

715-476: A torpedo , with less vulnerability to quick-firing guns. The armament of ironclads tended to become concentrated in a small number of powerful guns capable of penetrating the armor of enemy ships at range; calibre and weight of guns increased markedly to achieve greater penetration. Throughout the ironclad era navies also grappled with the complexities of rifled versus smoothbore guns and breech-loading versus muzzle-loading . HMS  Warrior carried

858-572: A 20% increase in aircraft weight. The B-17's turbocharged Wright R-1820 Cyclone 9 engines were upgraded to increasingly more powerful versions of the same powerplants throughout its production, and similarly, the number of machine gun emplacement locations was increased. The B-17F variant was the primary version used by the Eighth Air Force to face the Germans in 1943, and standardized the manned Sperry ball turret for ventral defense, also replacing

1001-469: A breech, adopted by the French in 1873. Just as compellingly, the growing size of naval guns and consequently, their ammunition, made muzzle-loading much more complicated. With guns of such size there was no prospect of hauling in the gun for reloading, or even reloading by hand, and complicated hydraulic systems were required for reloading the gun outside the turret without exposing the crew to enemy fire. In 1882,

1144-492: A claim to the title of the first ironclad warships but they were capable of only 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph) under their own power: they operated under their own power at the Battle of Kinburn, but had to be towed for long-range transit. They were also arguably marginal to the work of the navy. The brief success of the floating ironclad batteries convinced France to begin work on armored warships for their battlefleet. By

1287-564: A few rounds. Smoke and the general chaos of battle only added to the problem. As a result, many naval engagements in the 'Age of the Ironclad' were still fought at ranges within easy eyesight of their targets, and well below the maximum reach of their ships' guns. Another method of increasing firepower was to vary the projectile fired or the nature of the propellant. Early ironclads used black powder , which expanded rapidly after combustion; this meant cannons had relatively short barrels, to prevent

1430-461: A further five squadrons of Spitfire Vs to cover the withdrawal) on the first USAAF heavy bomber raid over Europe, against the large railroad marshalling yards at Rouen -Sotteville in France, while a further six aircraft flew a diversionary raid along the French coast. The operation, carried out in good visibility, was a success, with only minor damage to one aircraft, unrelated to enemy action, and half

1573-626: A historic confrontation, against each other at the Battle of Hampton Roads in Virginia . Their performance demonstrated that the ironclad had replaced the unarmored ship of the line as the most powerful warship afloat. Ironclad gunboats became very successful in the American Civil War. Ironclads were designed for several uses, including as high-seas battleships , long-range cruisers , and coastal defense ships. Rapid development of warship design in

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1716-608: A legal loophole, the Air Corps ordered 13 YB-17s (designated Y1B-17 after November 1936 to denote its special F-1 funding) for service testing. The YB-17 incorporated a number of significant changes from the Model 299, including more powerful Wright R-1820 -39 Cyclone engines. Although the prototype was company-owned and never received a military serial (the B-17 designation itself did not appear officially until January 1936, nearly three months after

1859-539: A mixture of 110-pounder 7-inch (178 mm) breech-loading rifles and more traditional 68-pounder smoothbore guns. Warrior highlighted the challenges of picking the right armament; the breech-loaders she carried, designed by Sir William Armstrong , were intended to be the next generation of heavy armament for the Royal Navy, but were shortly withdrawn from service. Breech-loading guns seemed to offer important advantages. A breech-loader could be reloaded without moving

2002-424: A movement away from the ships mounting many guns broadside, in the manner of a ship-of-the-line, towards a handful of guns in turrets for all-round fire. From the 1860s to the 1880s many naval designers believed that the ram was again a vital weapon in naval warfare. With steam power freeing ships from the wind, iron construction increasing their structural strength, and armor making them invulnerable to shellfire,

2145-478: A number of B-17Gs were also converted for search-and-rescue duties, later to be redesignated B-17H. Late in World War ;II, at least 25 B-17s were fitted with radio controls and television cameras, loaded with 20,000 lb (9,100 kg) of high explosives and designated BQ-7 "Aphrodite missiles" for Operation Aphrodite against bombing-resistant German bunkers. The operation, which involved remotely flying

2288-611: A period of ten years, but the United Kingdom soon managed to take the lead in production. Altogether, France built ten new wooden steam battleships and converted 28 from older ships of the line, while the United Kingdom built 18 and converted 41. The era of the wooden steam ship-of-the-line was brief, because of new, more powerful naval guns. In the 1820s and 1830s, warships began to mount increasingly heavy guns, replacing 18- and 24-pounder guns with 32-pounders on sailing ships-of-the-line and introducing 68-pounders on steamers. Then,

2431-483: A ramming attack stands in contrast to the near-complete lack of success by real-world vessels designed for ramming. Garry Young considers Thunder Child ' s demise in combat against the Martians in the context of ethics of killer robots , describing Thunder Child ' s destruction as exemplifying "behaviour as (outwardly) dignified in the face of indignity". According to Young, "the ironclad (and its anonymous crew)

2574-647: A result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells . The first ironclad battleship, Gloire , was launched by the French Navy in November 1859, narrowly preempting the British Royal Navy . However, Britain built the first completely iron-hulled warships. They were first used in warfare in 1862 during the American Civil War , when ironclads operated against wooden ships and, in

2717-421: A standard pattern and designated as battleships or armored cruisers . The ironclad became technically feasible and tactically necessary because of developments in shipbuilding in the first half of the 19th century. According to naval historian J. Richard Hill : "The (ironclad) had three chief characteristics: a metal-skinned hull, steam propulsion and a main armament of guns capable of firing explosive shells. It

2860-412: A state of flux. Many ironclads were built to make use of the naval ram , the torpedo , or sometimes both (as in the case with smaller ships and later torpedo boats), which several naval designers considered the important weapons of naval combat. There is no clear end to the ironclad period, but toward the end of the 1890s, the term ironclad dropped out of use. New ships were increasingly constructed to

3003-650: A sufficient supply of modern heavy bombers, with the largest available long-range medium bombers in any numbers being the Vickers Wellington , which could carry 4,500 pounds (2,000 kg) of bombs. While the Short Stirling and Handley Page Halifax became its primary bombers by 1941, in early 1940, the RAF agreed with the U.S. Army Air Corps to acquire 20 B-17Cs, which were given the service name Fortress Mk.I. Their first operation, against Wilhelmshaven on 8 July 1941

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3146-518: A test flight determining the rate of climb and service ceiling was planned. The command pilot was Major Ployer Peter Hill , Wright Field Material Division Chief of the Flying Branch, his first flight in the Model 299. Copilot was Lieutenant Donald Putt, while Boeing chief test pilot Leslie R. Tower was behind the pilots in an advisory role. Also on board were Wright Field test observer John Cutting and mechanic Mark Koegler. The plane stalled and spun into

3289-584: A top speed of at least 200 mph (320 km/h). They also desired, but did not require, a bomber with a range of 2,000 mi (3,200 km) and a speed of 250 mph (220 kn; 400 km/h). The competition for the air corps contract was to be decided by a "fly-off" between Boeing's design, the Douglas DB-1 , and the Martin Model 146 at Wilbur Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio . The prototype B-17, with

3432-464: A well-framed, 10 panel plexiglass nose, the B-17Bs were delivered in five small batches between July 1939 and March 1940. In July 1940, an order for 512 B-17s was issued, but at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor , fewer than 200 were in service with the army. A total of 155 B-17s of all variants were delivered between 11 January 1937 and 30 November 1941, but production quickly accelerated, with

3575-504: A wooden hull. Encouraged by the positive reports of the iron hulls of those ships in combat, the Admiralty ordered a series of experiments to evaluate what happened when thin iron hulls were struck by projectiles, both solid shot and hollow shells, beginning in 1845 and lasting through 1851. Critics like Lieutenant-general Sir Howard Douglas believed that the splinters from the hull were even more dangerous than those from wooden hulls and

3718-459: Is depicted as dying a valiant death against a faceless and non-human enemy, to the sound of cheers from the fearful audience looking on." Young argues that Thunder Child ' s crew's death should be considered dignified irrespective of whether the Martians are able to recognize or value the humanity of Thunder Child ' s crew. HMS Thunder Child is commonly omitted from some adaptations or replaced outright with technology more appropriate to

3861-481: Is only when all three characteristics are present that a fighting ship can properly be called an ironclad." Each of these developments was introduced separately in the decade before the first ironclads. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, fleets had relied on two types of major warship, the ship of the line and the frigate . The first major change to these types was the introduction of steam power for propulsion . While paddle steamer warships had been used from

4004-428: Is placed in control of the ironclad and must sail it down a river while using its cannons to destroy Martian machines and settlements; the level ends in a climactic confrontation with Tempest, a powerful Martian war machine. In Steven Spielberg 's 2005 film adaptation, War of the Worlds , contemporary American military forces use tanks and attack helicopters against the alien Tripods, again without success. Earlier in

4147-510: Is the third-most produced bomber of all time, behind the American four-engined Consolidated B-24 Liberator and the German multirole, twin-engined Junkers Ju 88 . The B-17 was also employed in transport, anti-submarine warfare, and search and rescue roles. In a USAAC competition, Boeing's prototype Model 299/XB-17 outperformed two other entries but crashed, losing the initial 200-bomber contract to

4290-428: The Battle of Sinop , spelled the end of the wooden-hulled warship. The more practical threat to wooden ships was from conventional cannon firing red-hot shot, which could lodge in the hull and cause a fire or ammunition explosion. Some navies even experimented with hollow shot filled with molten metal for extra incendiary power. The use of wrought iron instead of wood as the primary material of ships' hulls began in

4433-591: The Douglas B-18 Bolo . Still, the Air Corps ordered 13 more B-17s for further evaluation, which were introduced into service in 1938. The B-17 evolved through numerous design advances but from its inception, the USAAC (from 1941 the United States Army Air Forces , USAAF) promoted the aircraft as a strategic weapon. It was a relatively fast, high-flying, long-range bomber with heavy defensive armament at

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4576-580: The Gloire and her sisters had full iron-armor protection along the waterline and the battery itself. The British Warrior and Black Prince (but also the smaller Defence and Resistance ) were obliged to concentrate their armor in a central "citadel" or "armoured box", leaving many main deck guns and the fore and aft sections of the vessel unprotected. The use of iron in the construction of Warrior also came with some drawbacks; iron hulls required more regular and intensive repairs than wooden hulls, and iron

4719-453: The Japanese battleship Haruna , which was later acknowledged as a near bomb miss on the heavy cruiser Ashigara . Nonetheless, this deed made him a celebrated war hero . Kelly's B-17C AAF S/N 40-2045 (19th BG / 30th BS) crashed about 6 mi (10 km) from Clark Field after he held the burning Fortress steady long enough for the surviving crew to bail out. Kelly was posthumously awarded

4862-541: The armor-piercing shell was developed. Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engined heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). A fast and high-flying bomber, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater of Operations and dropped more bombs than any other aircraft during World War II . It

5005-465: The torpedo ram , Thunder Child , steaming headlong, coming to the rescue of the threatened shipping". The battle takes place off the mouth of the River Blackwater, Essex , where people from London are escaping the Martian offensive by sea. Three Martian fighting-machines having approached the vessels from the seaward side. HMS Thunder Child signals to the main fleet and steams at full speed towards

5148-546: The 1830s onward, steam propulsion only became suitable for major warships after the adoption of the screw propeller in the 1840s. Steam-powered screw frigates were built in the mid-1840s, and at the end of the decade the French Navy introduced steam power to its line of battle . Napoleon III 's ambition to gain greater influence in Europe required a sustained challenge to the British at sea. The first purpose-built steam battleship

5291-658: The 1830s; the first "warship" with an iron hull was the gunboat Nemesis , built by Jonathan Laird of Birkenhead for the East India Company in 1839. There followed, also from Laird, the first full-sized warship with a metal hull, the 1842 steam frigate Guadalupe for the Mexican Navy . The latter ship performed well during the Naval Battle of Campeche , with her captain reporting that he thought that there were fewer iron splinters from Guadalupe ' s hull than from

5434-423: The 1880s has been criticized by historians. However, at least until the late 1870s, the British muzzle-loaders had superior performance in terms of both range and rate of fire than the French and Prussian breech-loaders, which suffered from the same problems as the first Armstrong guns. From 1875 onwards, the balance between breech- and muzzle-loading changed. Captain de Bange invented a method of reliably sealing

5577-528: The 81-ton, 16-inch guns of HMS  Inflexible fired only once every 11 minutes while bombarding Alexandria during the Urabi Revolt . The 102-long-ton (104 t), 450 mm (17.72 inch) guns of the Duilio class could each fire a round every 15 minutes. In the Royal Navy, the switch to breech-loaders was finally made in 1879; as well as the significant advantages in terms of performance, opinion

5720-404: The 8th, had ordered the second Schweinfurt mission to be cancelled as the weather deteriorated, but the lead units had already entered hostile air space and continued with the mission. Most of the escorts turned back or missed the rendezvous, and as a result, 60 B-17s were destroyed. A third raid on Schweinfurt on 24 February 1944 highlighted what came to be known as " Big Week ", during which

5863-771: The American and British bomber commands were organized at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. The resulting " Combined Bomber Offensive " weakened the Wehrmacht , destroyed German morale, and established air superiority through Operation Pointblank 's destruction of German fighter strength in preparation for a ground offensive. The USAAF bombers attacked by day, with British operations – chiefly against industrial cities – by night. Operation Pointblank opened with attacks on targets in Western Europe. General Ira C. Eaker and

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6006-644: The Aphrodite drones onto their targets by accompanying CQ-17 "mothership" control aircraft, was approved on 26 June 1944, and assigned to the 388th Bombardment Group stationed at RAF Fersfield , a satellite of RAF Knettishall . The first four drones were sent to Mimoyecques (V-3 site), the Siracourt V-1 bunker , and the V-2 Blockhaus d'Éperlecques at Watten, and La Coupole at Wizernes on 4 August, causing little damage and two pilots were killed. On August 12,

6149-667: The B-17 once holding the record for the highest production rate for any large aircraft. The aircraft went on to serve in every World War II combat zone, and by the time production ended in May 1945, 12,731 B-17s had been built by Boeing, Douglas , and Vega (a subsidiary of Lockheed ). Though the crash of the prototype 299 in 1935 had almost wiped out Boeing, now it was seen as a boon. Instead of building models based on experimental engineering, Boeing had been hard at work developing their bomber and now had versions ready for production far better than would have been possible otherwise. One of

6292-466: The B-17 were designed defensively, the large-tailed B-17E was the first model primarily focused on offensive warfare. The B-17E was an extensive revision of the Model 299 design: The fuselage was extended by 10 ft (3.0 m); a much larger rear fuselage, vertical tailfin, rudder, and horizontal stabilizer were added; a gunner's position was added in the new tail ; the nose (especially the bombardier's framed, 10-panel nose glazing) remained relatively

6435-539: The B-17B was altered to include larger rudders and flaps . The B-17C changed from three bulged, oval-shaped gun blisters to two flush, oval-shaped gun window openings, and on the lower fuselage, a single "bathtub" gun gondola housing, which resembled the similarly configured and located Bodenlafette /"Bola" ventral defensive emplacement on the German Heinkel He 111 P-series medium bomber. While models A through D of

6578-547: The Big Week raids. By September 1944, 27 of the 42 bomb groups of the 8th Air Force and six of the 21 groups of the 15th Air Force used B-17s. Losses to flak continued to take a high toll of heavy bombers through 1944, but the war in Europe was being won by the Allies. And by 27 April 1945, 2 days after the last heavy bombing mission in Europe, the rate of aircraft loss was so low that replacement aircraft were no longer arriving and

6721-465: The Boeing factory designation of Model 299, was designed by a team of engineers led by E. Gifford Emery and Edward Curtis Wells , and was built at Boeing's own expense. It combined features of the company's experimental XB-15 bomber and 247 transport. The B-17's armament consisted of five .30 caliber (7.62 mm) machine guns , with a payload up to 4,800 lb (2,200 kg) of bombs on two racks in

6864-537: The British Admiralty agreed to build five armored floating batteries on the French plans. The French floating batteries were deployed in 1855 as a supplement to the wooden steam battle fleet in the Crimean War . The role of the battery was to assist unarmored mortar and gunboats bombarding shore fortifications. The French used three of their ironclad batteries ( Lave , Tonnante and Dévastation ) in 1855 against

7007-724: The British to equip ships with muzzle-loading weapons of increasing power until the 1880s. After a brief introduction of the 100-pounder or 9.2-inch (230 mm) smoothbore Somerset Gun , which weighed 6.5 long tons (6.6 t), the Admiralty introduced 7-inch (178 mm) rifled guns, weighing 7 long tons (7 t). These were followed by a series of increasingly mammoth weapons—guns weighing 12 long tons (12 t), 18 long tons (18 t), 25 long tons (25 t), 38 long tons (39 t) and finally 81 long tons (82 t), with caliber increasing from 8 inches (203 mm) to 16 inches (406 mm). The decision to retain muzzle-loaders until

7150-607: The Confederacy ;– especially in Russia, the only country to openly support the Union through the war. Only CSS Stonewall was completed, and she arrived in Cuban waters just in time for the end of the war. Through the remainder of the war, ironclads saw action in the Union's attacks on Confederate ports. Seven Union monitors, including USS  Montauk , as well as two other ironclads,

7293-594: The Crimean War, Emperor Napoleon III ordered the development of light-draft floating batteries, equipped with heavy guns and protected by heavy armor. Experiments made during the first half of 1854 proved highly satisfactory, and on 17 July 1854, the French communicated to the British Government that a solution had been found to make gun-proof vessels and that plans would be communicated. After tests in September 1854,

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7436-621: The Eighth Air Force placed highest priority on attacks on the German aircraft industry, especially fighter assembly plants, engine factories, and ball-bearing manufacturers. Attacks began in April 1943 on heavily fortified key industrial plants in Bremen and Recklinghausen . Since the airfield bombings were not appreciably reducing German fighter strength, additional B-17 groups were formed, and Eaker ordered major missions deeper into Germany against important industrial targets. The 8th Air Force then targeted

7579-577: The FEAF received word of the attack on Pearl Harbor, General Lewis H. Brereton sent his bombers and fighters on various patrol missions to prevent them from being caught on the ground. Brereton planned B-17 raids on Japanese airfields in Formosa , in accordance with Rainbow 5 war plan directives, but this was overruled by General Douglas MacArthur. A series of disputed discussions and decisions , followed by several confusing and false reports of air attacks, delayed

7722-485: The Martians as "one of the great depictions of modern warfare in world literature". According to her, the scene is "rendered through an almost cinematic montage of many partial and distorted viewpoints", resulting in a chapter that "feels strikingly modern". A similar view is expressed by Leslie Sheldon, who calls the scene "almost cinematic". According to Gomel, the scene involving Thunder Child , with its "scriptural descriptions" of events, also demonstrates how The War of

7865-416: The Martians without firing. The Martians, whom the narrator suggests are unfamiliar with large warships (having come from an arid planet) at first use only a gas attack . When this fails to have any effect, they employ their Heat-Ray, inflicting fatal damage on the Thunder Child . The ship continues to attack, bringing down one of the fighting machines with its gun, even as it succumbs. The flaming wreckage of

8008-654: The Model 299. In one of their first missions, three B-17s, directed by lead navigator Lieutenant Curtis LeMay , were sent by General Andrews to "intercept" and photograph the Italian ocean liner Rex 610 miles (980 km) off the Atlantic coast. The mission was successful and widely publicized. The 13th Y1B-17 was delivered to the Material Division at Wright Field, Ohio, to be used for flight testing. A 14th Y1B-17 ( 37-369 ), originally constructed for ground testing of

8151-499: The RAF had lost eight B-17Cs in combat and had experienced numerous mechanical problems, and Bomber Command abandoned daylight bombing raids using the Fortress I because of the aircraft's poor performance. The experience showed both the RAF and USAAF that the B-17C was not ready for combat, and that improved defenses, larger bomb loads, and more accurate bombing methods were required. However,

8294-405: The U.S. Navy was giving the flight a 21-gun salute to celebrate the arrival of the bombers, after which he realized that Pearl Harbor was under attack. The Fortress came under fire from Japanese fighter aircraft, though the crew was unharmed with the exception of one member who suffered an abrasion on his hand. Japanese activity forced them to divert from Hickam Field to Bellows Field . On landing,

8437-585: The USAAF continued using the B-17 as a day bomber, despite misgivings by the RAF that attempts at daylight bombing would be ineffective. As use by Bomber Command had been curtailed, the RAF transferred its remaining Fortress Mk.I aircraft to Coastal Command for use as a long-range maritime patrol aircraft. These were augmented starting in July 1942 by 45 Fortress Mk.IIA (B-17E) followed by 19 Fortress Mk II (B-17F) and three Fortress Mk III (B-17G). A Fortress IIA from No. 206 Squadron RAF sank U-627 on 27 October 1942,

8580-473: The Union, but they were adequate for their intended use. More Western Flotilla Union ironclads were sunk by torpedoes (mines) than by enemy fire, and the most damaging fire for the Union ironclads was from shore installations, not Confederate vessels. The first fleet battle, and the first ocean battle, involving ironclad warships was the Battle of Lissa in 1866. Waged between the Austrian and Italian navies,

8723-600: The United States, when one was destroyed in a fatal mid-air collision with another warbird at an airshow. On 8 August 1934, the USAAC tendered a proposal for a multiengine bomber to replace the Martin B-10 . The Air Corps was looking for a bomber capable of reinforcing the air forces in Hawaii, Panama, and Alaska. Requirements were for it to carry a "useful bombload" at an altitude of 10,000 ft (3,000 m) for 10 hours with

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8866-493: The Worlds as a whole is "permeated" by a metaphorical apocalypse that "echoes of the Bible". Despite the apocalyptic nature of the story, Gomel observes that, as a whole, the novel's happy ending (a unique feature among Wells’ novels) describes the technological advances stemming from the invasion as being beneficial for the whole world. Along similar lines, Nathaniel Otjen uses Thunder Child as an example of how Wells' writing "imagines

9009-575: The Wright engines normally used on the B-17 become unavailable. The only prototype XB-38 to fly crashed on its ninth flight, and the concept was abandoned. The Allison V-1710 was reallocated to fighter aircraft. The YB-40 was a heavily armed modification of the standard B-17 used before the North American P-51 Mustang , an effective long-range fighter, became available to act as escort. Additional armament included an additional dorsal turret in

9152-587: The Y1B-17. Also, the Y1B-17A's new service ceiling was more than 2 miles (3,200 m) higher at 38,000 feet (12,000 m), compared to the Y1B-17's 27,800 feet (8,500 m). These turbo-superchargers were incorporated into the B-17B. Opposition to the Air Corps' ambitions for the acquisition of more B-17s faded, and in late 1937, 10 more aircraft designated B-17B were ordered to equip two bombardment groups, one on each U.S. coast. Improved with larger flaps and rudder and

9295-595: The aircraft overran the runway and ran into a ditch, where it was then strafed. Although initially deemed repairable, 40-2049 (11th BG / 38th RS) received more than 200 bullet holes and never flew again. Ten of the 12 Fortresses survived the attack. By 1941, the Far East Air Force (FEAF) based at Clark Field in the Philippines had 35 B-17s, with the War Department eventually planning to raise that to 165. When

9438-467: The airframe's strength, was upgraded by Boeing with exhaust-driven General Electric turbo-superchargers , and designated Y1B-17A. Designed by Sanford Moss , engine exhaust gases turned the turbine's steel-alloy blades, forcing high-pressure air into the Wright Cyclone GR-1820-39 engine supercharger. Scheduled to fly in 1937, it encountered problems with the turbochargers, and its first flight

9581-565: The armored frigate New Ironsides and a light-draft USS  Keokuk , participated in the failed attack on Charleston ; one was sunk. Two small ironclads, CSS  Palmetto State and CSS  Chicora participated in the defense of the harbor. For the later attack at Mobile Bay , the Union assembled four monitors as well as 11 wooden ships, facing the CSS ; Tennessee , the Confederacy's most powerful ironclad, and three gunboats . On

9724-417: The attack was successful at disrupting the entire works, severely curtailing work there for the remainder of the war, it was at an extreme cost. Of the 291 attacking Fortresses, 60 were shot down over Germany, five crashed on approach to Britain, and 12 more were scrapped due to damage – a loss of 77 B-17s. Additionally, 122 bombers were damaged and needed repairs before their next flights. Of 2,900 men in

9867-435: The authorization of the sortie. By the time the B-17s and escorting Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighters were about to get airborne, they were destroyed by Japanese bombers of the 11th Air Fleet . The FEAF lost half its aircraft during the first strike, and was all but destroyed over the next few days. Another early World War II Pacific engagement, on 10 December 1941, involved Colin Kelly , who reportedly crashed his B-17 into

10010-532: The ball-bearing factories in Schweinfurt , hoping to cripple the war effort there. The first raid on 17 August 1943 did not result in critical damage to the factories, with the 230 attacking B-17s being intercepted by an estimated 300 Luftwaffe fighters. The Germans shot down 36 aircraft with the loss of 200 men, and coupled with a raid earlier in the day against Regensburg , a total of 60 B-17s were lost that day. A second attempt on Schweinfurt on 14 October 1943 later came to be known as " Black Thursday ". While

10153-403: The barrel itself slowing the shell. The sharpness of the black powder explosion also meant that guns were subjected to extreme stress. One important step was to press the powder into pellets, allowing a slower, more controlled explosion and a longer barrel. A further step forward was the introduction of chemically different brown powder which combusted more slowly again. It also put less stress on

10296-513: The battle pitted combined fleets of wooden frigates and corvettes and ironclad warships on both sides in the largest naval battle between the battles of Navarino and Tsushima . The Italian fleet consisted of 12 ironclads and a similar number of wooden warships, escorting transports which carried troops intending to land on the Adriatic island of Lissa. Among the Italian ironclads were seven broadside ironclad frigates, four smaller ironclads, and

10439-436: The bomb bay behind the cockpit. The aircraft was powered by four Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet radial engines , each producing 750 hp (600 kW) at 7,000 ft (2,100 m). The first flight of the Model 299 was on 28 July 1935 with Boeing chief test pilot Leslie Tower at the controls. The day before, Richard Williams, a reporter for The Seattle Times , coined the name "Flying Fortress" when – observing

10582-456: The bombing missions were directed against German aircraft production. German fighters needed to respond, and the North American P-51 Mustang and Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighters (equipped with improved drop tanks to extend their range) accompanying the American heavies all the way to and from the targets engaged them. The escort fighters reduced the loss rate to below 7%, with a total of 247 B-17s lost in 3,500 sorties while taking part in

10725-558: The bombs landing in the target area. Two additional groups arrived in Britain at the same time, bringing with them the first B-17Fs, which served as the primary AAF heavy bomber fighting the Germans until September 1943. As the raids of the American bombing campaign grew in numbers and frequency, German interception efforts grew in strength (such as during the attempted bombing of Kiel on 13 June 1943 ), such that unescorted bombing missions came to be discouraged. The two different strategies of

10868-419: The broadside-firing, masted designs of Gloire and Warrior . The clash of the Italian and Austrian fleets at the Battle of Lissa (1866), also had an important influence on the development of ironclad design. The first use of ironclads in combat came in the U.S. Civil War . The U.S. Navy at the time the war broke out had no ironclads, its most powerful ships being six unarmored steam-powered frigates. Since

11011-531: The bulk of the Navy remained loyal to the Union, the Confederacy sought to gain advantage in the naval conflict by acquiring modern armored ships. In May 1861, the Confederate Congress appropriated $ 2 million dollars for the purchase of ironclads from overseas, and in July and August 1861 the Confederacy started work on construction and converting wooden ships. On 12 October 1861, CSS  Manassas became

11154-443: The collapse of fossil fuel modernity and explores alternate forms of energy". According to Otjen, Wells depicts how the fossil fuel technology represented by Thunder Child is only able to combat the Martians' non-fossil fuel technology by mimicking it. Larrie D. Ferreiro describes how Thunder Child ' s use of a ram, while a "standard fixture" in ships between 1870 and World War I and extensively discussed by naval officers of

11297-413: The crews, about 650 did not return, although some survived as prisoners of war . Only 33 bombers landed without damage. These losses were a result of concentrated attacks by over 300 German fighters. Such high losses of aircrews could not be sustained, and the USAAF, recognizing the vulnerability of heavy bombers to interceptors when operating alone, suspended daylight bomber raids deep into Germany until

11440-523: The critics and ordered that the four iron-hulled propeller frigates ordered by the Tories be converted into troopships . No iron warships would be ordered until the beginning of the Crimean War in 1854. Following the demonstration of the power of explosive shells against wooden ships at the Battle of Sinop , and fearing that his own ships would be vulnerable to the Paixhans guns of Russian fortifications in

11583-563: The day was that wrought iron begins to become brittle at temperatures below 20 °C (68 °F). Many of the tests were conducted at temperatures below this while the battles were fought in tropical climates. The early experimental results seemed to support the critics and party politics came into play as the Whig First Russell ministry replaced the Tory Second Peel Ministry in 1846. The new administration sided with

11726-654: The defenses at the Battle of Kinburn on the Black Sea , where they were effective against Russian shore defences. They would later be used again during the Italian war in the Adriatic in 1859. The British floating batteries Glatton and Meteor arrived too late to participate to the action at Kinburn. The British planned to use theirs in the Baltic Sea against the well-fortified Russian naval base at Kronstadt. The batteries have

11869-574: The development of an escort fighter that could protect the bombers all the way from the United Kingdom to Germany and back. At the same time, the German nightfighting ability noticeably improved to counter the nighttime strikes, challenging the conventional faith in the cover of darkness. The 8th Air Force alone lost 176 bombers in October 1943, and was to suffer similar casualties on 11 January 1944 on missions to Oschersleben , Halberstadt , and Brunswick . Lieutenant General James Doolittle , commander of

12012-498: The earlier, 10-panel framed bombardier's nose glazing from the B subtype with an enlarged, nearly frameless Plexiglas bombardier's nose enclosure for improved forward vision. Two experimental versions of the B-17 were flown under different designations, the XB-38 'Flying Fortress' and the YB-40 'Flying Fortress .' The XB-38 was an engine testbed for Allison V-1710 liquid-cooled engines, should

12155-431: The end of the 1850s it was clear that France was unable to match British building of steam warships, and to regain the strategic initiative a dramatic change was required. The result was the first ocean-going ironclad, Gloire , begun in 1857 and launched in 1859. Gloire ' s wooden hull was modelled on that of a steam ship of the line, reduced to one deck, and sheathed in iron plates 4.5 inches (114 mm) thick. She

12298-453: The era, is in reality an "illusory" "armchair tactic". Ferreiro bases his stance on an observation that such ramming attacks were "almost never" used effectively in real life, with the notable exception of the sinking of the Chilean corvette Esmeralda during the Battle of Iquique . John Fidler reaches a similar conclusion, describing how Thunder Child ' s success in damaging its enemy with

12441-493: The evaluation, thus disqualifying it from the competition. While the Air Corps was still enthusiastic about the aircraft's potential, Army officials were daunted by its cost; Douglas quoted a unit price of $ 58,200 (equivalent to $ 1,018,000 in 2023 ) based on a production order of 220 aircraft, compared with $ 99,620 (equivalent to $ 1,743,000 in 2023 ) from Boeing. MacArthur's successor, Army Chief of Staff Malin Craig , canceled

12584-619: The expense of bomb load. It also developed a reputation for toughness based upon stories and photos of badly damaged B-17s safely returning to base. The B-17 saw early action in the Pacific War , where it conducted air raids against Japanese shipping and airfields. But it was primarily employed by the USAAF in the daylight component of the Allied strategic bombing campaign over Europe, complementing RAF Bomber Command 's night bombers in attacking German industrial, military and civilian targets. Of

12727-422: The explosive conversion of a solid propellant into gas. This explosion propels the shot or shell out of the front of the gun, but also imposes great stresses on the gun-barrel. If the breech—which experiences some of the greatest forces in the gun—is not entirely secure, then there is a risk that either gas will discharge through the breech or that the breech will break. This in turn reduces the muzzle velocity of

12870-726: The film, civilian ferries trying to escape from the Tripods are trapped and easily sunk, with no intervention by a warship. The low-budget direct-to-DVD Pendragon feature adaptation of the novel , released in 2005, uses poor CGI to portray HMS Thunder Child as a Royal Navy Havock -class destroyer . In the BBC's 2019 TV miniseries , the main characters join up again on the Essex coast, where many small boats are gathering civilians to ferry them out to anchored ships. A Martian Tripod appears and several warships open fire on it with their main batteries. Most of

13013-529: The final moments before release. The USAAF began building up its air forces in Europe using B-17Es soon after entering the war. The first Eighth Air Force units arrived in High Wycombe, England , on 12 May 1942, to form the 97th Bomb Group. On 17 August 1942, 12 B-17Es of the 97th, with the lead aircraft piloted by Major Paul Tibbets and carrying Brigadier General Ira Eaker as an observer, were close escorted by four squadrons of RAF Spitfire IXs (and

13156-578: The first shell guns firing explosive shells were introduced following their development by the French Général Henri-Joseph Paixhans . By the 1840s they were part of the standard armament for naval powers including the French Navy , Royal Navy , Imperial Russian Navy and United States Navy . It is often held that the power of explosive shells to smash wooden hulls, as demonstrated by the Russian destruction of an Ottoman squadron at

13299-624: The first ironclad to enter combat, when she fought Union warships on the Mississippi during the Battle of the Head of Passes . She had been converted from a commercial vessel in New Orleans for river and coastal fighting. In February 1862, the larger CSS  Virginia joined the Confederate Navy, having been rebuilt at Norfolk . Constructed on the hull of USS  Merrimack , Virginia originally

13442-674: The first of 11 U-boat kills credited to RAF Fortress bombers during the war. As sufficient Consolidated Liberators finally became available, Coastal Command withdrew the Fortress from the Azores, transferring the type to the meteorological reconnaissance role. Three squadrons undertook Met profiles from airfields in Iceland, Scotland, and England, gathering data for vital weather forecasting purposes. The RAF's No. 223 Squadron , as part of 100 Group , operated several Fortresses equipped with an electronic warfare system known as " Airborne Cigar " (ABC). This

13585-468: The ground soon after takeoff, bursting into flames. Though initially surviving the impact, Hill died within a few hours, and Tower on 19 November. Post-accident interviews with Tower and Putt determined the control surface gust lock had not been released. Doyle notes, "The loss of Hill and Tower, and the Model 299, was directly responsible for the creation of the modern written checklist used by pilots to this day." The crashed Model 299 could not finish

13728-508: The gun stations were finalized, and other adjustments were completed. The B-17G was the final version of the Flying Fortress, incorporating all changes made to its predecessor, the B-17F, and in total, 8,680 were built, the last (by Lockheed) on 28 July 1945. Many B-17Gs were converted for other missions such as cargo hauling, engine testing, and reconnaissance . Initially designated SB-17G,

13871-434: The gun, a lengthy process particularly if the gun then needed to be re-aimed. Warrior ' s Armstrong guns also had the virtue of being lighter than an equivalent smoothbore and, because of their rifling, more accurate. Nonetheless, the design was rejected because of problems which plagued breech-loaders for decades. The weakness of the breech-loader was the obvious problem of sealing the breech. All guns are powered by

14014-410: The head of GHQ Air Force. MacArthur and Andrews both believed that the capabilities of large four-engined aircraft exceeded those of shorter-ranged, twin-engine aircraft, and that the B-17 was better suited to new, emerging USAAC doctrine. Their opinions were shared by the air corps procurement officers, and even before the competition had finished, they suggested buying 65 B-17s. On 30 October 1935,

14157-586: The heaviest calibers of gun ever used at sea. HMS  Benbow carried two 16.25-inch (413 mm) breech-loading guns , each weighing 110 long tons (112 t). A few years afterwards, the Italians used 450 mm (17.72 inch) muzzle-loading guns on the Duilio class ships. One consideration which became more acute was that even from the original Armstrong models, following the Crimean War, range and hitting power far exceeded simple accuracy, especially at sea where

14300-413: The insides of the barrel, allowing guns to last longer and to be manufactured to tighter tolerances. The development of smokeless powder , based on nitroglycerine or nitrocellulose, by the French inventor Paul Vielle in 1884 was a further step allowing smaller charges of propellant with longer barrels. The guns of the pre-Dreadnought battleships of the 1890s tended to be smaller in caliber compared to

14443-470: The ironclad finally rams into a second fighting-machine, destroying it. When the black smoke and super-heated steam banks dissipate, both the Thunder Child and the third fighting-machine are gone. The attack by Thunder Child occupies the Martians long enough for three Royal Navy warships of the main Channel Fleet to arrive. Elana Gomel describes the scene involving Thunder Child ' s attack against

14586-418: The large number of machine guns sticking out from the new aircraft – he described it as a "15-ton flying fortress" in a picture caption. The most distinctive mount was in the nose, which allowed the single machine gun to be fired toward nearly all frontal angles. Boeing was quick to see the value of the name and had it trademarked for use. Boeing also claimed in some of the early press releases that Model 299

14729-526: The late 19th century transformed the ironclad from a wooden-hulled vessel that carried sails to supplement its steam engines into the steel-built, turreted battleships, and cruisers familiar in the 20th century. This change was pushed forward by the development of heavier naval guns, more sophisticated steam engines, and advances in ferrous metallurgy that made steel shipbuilding possible. The quick pace of change meant that many ships were obsolete almost as soon as they were finished and that naval tactics were in

14872-453: The lighter bombers once they had dropped their bombs, so the project was abandoned and finally phased out in July 1943. The final production blocks of the B-17F from Douglas' plants did, however, adopt the YB-40's "chin turret", giving them a much-improved forward defense capability. By the time the definitive B-17G appeared, the number of guns had been increased from seven to 13, the designs of

15015-445: The line, but was determined that the first British ironclad would outmatch the French ships in every respect, particularly speed. A fast ship would have the advantage of being able to choose a range of engagement that could make her invulnerable to enemy fire. The British specification was more a large, powerful frigate than a ship-of-the-line. The requirement for speed meant a very long vessel, which had to be built from iron. The result

15158-399: The main naval armament by the ram. Those who noted the tiny number of ships that had actually been sunk by ramming struggled to be heard. The revival of ramming had a significant effect on naval tactics. Since the 17th century the predominant tactic of naval warfare had been the line of battle , where a fleet formed a long line to give it the best fire from its broadside guns. This tactic

15301-556: The melée which followed both sides were frustrated by the lack of damage inflicted by guns, and by the difficulty of ramming—nonetheless, the effective ramming attack being made by the Austrian flagship against the Italian attracted great attention in following years. The superior Italian fleet lost its two ironclads, Re d'Italia and Palestro , while the Austrian unarmored screw two-decker SMS  Kaiser remarkably survived close actions with four Italian ironclads. The battle ensured

15444-442: The most significant weapons of World War II would be ready, but only by a hair. The aircraft went through several alterations in each of its design stages and variants. Of the 13 YB-17s ordered for service testing, 12 were used by the 2nd Bomb Group at Langley Field, Virginia, to develop heavy bombing techniques, and the 13th was used for flight testing at the Material Division at Wright Field, Ohio. Experiments on this aircraft led to

15587-408: The newly built Affondatore  – a double-turreted ram. Opposing them, the Austrian navy had seven ironclad frigates. The Austrians believed their ships to have less effective guns than their enemy, so decided to engage the Italians at close range and ram them. The Austrian fleet formed into an arrowhead formation with the ironclads in the first line, charging at the Italian ironclad squadron. In

15730-526: The number of bombers per bomb group was reduced. The Combined Bomber Offensive was effectively complete. On 7 December 1941, a group of 12 B-17s of the 38th (four B-17C) and 88th (eight B-17E) Reconnaissance Squadrons, en route to reinforce the Philippines, was flown into Pearl Harbor from Hamilton Field, California , arriving while the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor was going on. Leonard "Smitty" Smith Humiston, co-pilot on First Lieutenant Robert H. Richards' B-17C, AAF S/N 40-2049 , reported that he thought

15873-459: The order for 65 YB-17s and ordered 133 of the twin-engined Douglas B-18 Bolo, instead. Secretary of War Harry Hines Woodring in October 1938 decided that no four-engine bombers, including B-17s, would be purchased by the War Department in 1939. The loss was not total... But Boeing's hopes for a substantial bomber contract were dashed. Despite the crash, the USAAC had been impressed by the prototype's performance, and on 17 January 1936, through

16016-466: The popularity of the ram as a weapon in European ironclads for many years, and the victory won by Austria established it as the predominant naval power in the Adriatic . The battles of the American Civil War and at Lissa were very influential on the designs and tactics of the ironclad fleets that followed. In particular, it taught a generation of naval officers the (ultimately erroneous) lesson that ramming

16159-547: The prototype crashed), the term "XB-17" was retroactively applied to the NX13372's airframe and has entered the lexicon to describe the first Flying Fortress. Between 1 March and 4 August 1937, 12 of the 13 Y1B-17s were delivered to the 2nd Bombardment Group at Langley Field in Virginia for operational development and flight tests. One suggestion adopted was the use of a preflight checklist to avoid accidents such as that which befell

16302-419: The radio room, a remotely operated and fired Bendix-built "chin turret" directly below the bombardier's accommodation, and twin 50 caliber (12.7 mm) guns in each of the waist positions. The ammunition load was over 11,000 rounds. All of these modifications made the YB-40 well over 10,000 lb (4,500 kg) heavier than a fully loaded B-17F. The YB-40s with their greater weight, had trouble keeping up with

16445-498: The ram seemed to offer the opportunity to strike a decisive blow. The scant damage inflicted by the guns of Monitor and Virginia at Hampton Roads and the spectacular but lucky success of the Austrian flagship SMS Erzherzog Ferdinand Max sinking the Italian Re d'Italia at Lissa gave strength to the ramming craze. From the early 1870s to early 1880s most British naval officers thought that guns were about to be replaced as

16588-471: The refugees manage to escape, while none of the warships are shown being destroyed by the Tripods. The 2013 science fiction novel The Last Days of Thunder Child , written by C. A. Powell, is set in Victorian Britain of 1898. Ironclad An ironclad was a steam-propelled warship protected by steel or iron armor constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as

16731-422: The rivers, the first two of which differed from the ocean-going monitors in that they contained a paddle wheel ( USS  Neosho and USS  Osage ). The Union ironclads played an important role in the Mississippi and tributaries by providing tremendous fire upon Confederate forts, installations and vessels with relative impunity to enemy fire. They were not as heavily armored as the ocean-going monitors of

16874-696: The roughly 1.5 million tons of bombs dropped on Nazi Germany and its occupied territories by Allied aircraft, over 640,000 tons (42.6%) were dropped from B-17s. At the start of 2024, six aircraft remain in flying condition. About 50 survive in storage or are on static display, the oldest of which is The Swoose , a B-17D which was flown in combat in the Pacific on the first day of the United States' involvement in World War II. There are also several reasonably complete wrecks, such as underwater, that have been found. B-17 survivors gained national attention in 2022 in

17017-410: The same as the earlier B through D versions had; a Sperry electrically powered manned dorsal gun turret just behind the cockpit was added; a similarly powered (also built by Sperry) manned ventral ball turret just aft of the bomb bay – replaced the relatively hard-to-use, Sperry model 645705-D remotely operated ventral turret on the earliest examples of the E variant. These modifications resulted in

17160-421: The ships of the 1880s, most often 12 in (305 mm), but progressively grew in length of barrel, making use of improved propellants to gain greater muzzle velocity. The nature of the projectiles also changed during the ironclad period. Initially, the best armor-piercing projectile was a solid cast-iron shot. Later, shot of chilled iron , a harder iron alloy, gave better armor-piercing qualities. Eventually

17303-518: The slightest roll or pitch of the vessel as 'floating weapons-platform' could negate the advantage of rifling. American ordnance experts accordingly preferred smoothbore monsters whose round shot could at least 'skip' along the surface of the water. Actual effective combat ranges, they had learned during the Civil War, were comparable to those in the Age of Sail—though a vessel could now be smashed to pieces in only

17446-449: The smaller USS  Galena . The first battle between ironclads happened on 9 March 1862, as the armored Monitor was deployed to protect the Union's wooden fleet from the ironclad ram Virginia and other Confederate warships. In this engagement, the second day of the Battle of Hampton Roads , the two ironclads tried to ram one another while shells bounced off their armor. The battle attracted attention worldwide, making it clear that

17589-418: The tests partially confirmed this belief. What was ignored was that 14 inches (356 mm) of wood backing the iron would stop most of the splinters from penetrating and that relatively thin plates of iron backed by the same thickness of wood would generally cause shells to split open and fail to detonate. One factor in the performance of wrought iron during these tests that was not understood by metallurgists of

17732-402: The then-secret Norden bombsight , known as the "Blue Ox", which was an optical electromechanical gyrostabilized analog computer . The device was able to determine, from variables put in by the bombardier, the point at which the bombs should be released to hit the target. The bombardier essentially took over flight control of the aircraft during the bomb run, maintaining a level altitude during

17875-462: The updated settings. In Orson Welles 's famous 1938 radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds , a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber replaces Thunder Child ; it collides with a fighting-machine after being critically damaged by its Heat-Ray. In the George Pal 1953 film adaptation , the last-ditch defense against the Martians is an atomic bomb dropped by a Thunder Child replacement,

18018-458: The use of a quartet of General Electric turbo-superchargers, which later became standard on the B-17 line. A 14th aircraft, the YB-17A, originally destined for ground testing only and upgraded with the turbochargers, was redesignated B-17A after testing had finished. As the production line developed, Boeing engineers continued to improve upon the basic design. To enhance performance at slower speeds,

18161-443: The warships are at quite a distance offshore, but one, which could be Thunder Child , is much closer. The Tripod is hit on one its the legs and in its command cupola , and immediately collapses. A second Martian machine appears on the beach, chasing the protagonists. Before it can activate its Heat-Ray, it is struck by naval artillery shells. It falls forward, narrowly missing crushing the protagonists. As in H.G. Wells’ original novel,

18304-428: The weapon and can also endanger the gun crew. Warrior ' s Armstrong guns suffered from both problems; the shells were unable to penetrate the 4.5-inch (114 mm) armor of Gloire , while sometimes the screw which closed the breech flew backwards out of the gun on firing. Similar problems were experienced with the breech-loading guns which became standard in the French and German navies. These problems influenced

18447-554: The western front, the Union built a formidable force of river ironclads, beginning with several converted riverboats and then contracting engineer James Eads of St. Louis , Missouri to build the City-class ironclads. These excellent ships were built with twin engines and a central paddle wheel, all protected by an armored casemate. They had a shallow draft, allowing them to journey up smaller tributaries, and were very well suited for river operations. Eads also produced monitors for use on

18590-556: The wooden warship was now out of date, with the ironclads destroying them easily. The Civil War saw more ironclads built by both sides, and they played an increasing role in the naval war alongside the unarmored warships, commerce raiders and blockade runners. The Union built a large fleet of fifty monitors modeled on their namesake. The Confederacy built ships designed as smaller versions of Virginia , many of which saw action, but their attempts to buy ironclads overseas were frustrated as European nations confiscated ships being built for

18733-594: Was a conventional warship made of wood, but she was converted into an iron-covered casemate ironclad gunship, when she entered the Confederate Navy . By this time, the Union had completed seven ironclad gunboats of the City class , and was about to complete USS  Monitor , an innovative design proposed by the Swedish inventor John Ericsson . The Union was also building a large armored frigate, USS  New Ironsides , and

18876-518: Was delayed until 29 April 1938. The aircraft was delivered to the Army on 31 January 1939. Once service testing was complete, the Y1B-17s and Y1B-17A were redesignated B-17 and B-17A, respectively, to signify the change to operational status. The Y1B-17A had a maximum speed of 311 mph (270 kn; 501 km/h), at its best operational altitude, compared to 239 mph (208 kn; 385 km/h) for

19019-792: Was effectively scrapped in early 1945. The B-17 began operations in World War II with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1941, and in the Southwest Pacific with the U.S. Army. During World War II, the B-17 equipped 32 overseas combat groups, inventory peaking in August 1944 at 4,574 USAAF aircraft worldwide. The British heavy bombers, the Avro Lancaster and Handley Page Halifax , dropped 608,612 long tons (681,645 short tons; 618,378 t) and 224,207 long tons (251,112 short tons; 227,805 t) respectively. The RAF entered World War II without

19162-463: Was more susceptible to fouling by marine life. By 1862, navies across Europe had adopted ironclads. Britain and France each had sixteen either completed or under construction, though the British vessels were larger. Austria, Italy, Russia, and Spain were also building ironclads. However, the first battles using the new ironclad ships took place during the American Civil War, between Union and Confederate ships in 1862. These were markedly different from

19305-401: Was operated by German-speaking radio operators to identify and jam German ground controllers' broadcasts to their nightfighters . They could also pose as ground controllers themselves to steer nightfighters away from the bomber streams . The air corps – renamed United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) on 20 June 1941 – used the B-17 and other bombers to bomb from high altitudes with the aid of

19448-450: Was propelled by a steam engine, driving a single screw propeller for a speed of 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph). She was armed with thirty-six 6.4-inch (160 mm) rifled guns. France proceeded to construct 16 ironclad warships, including two sister ships to Gloire , and the only two-decked broadside ironclads ever built, Magenta and Solférino . The Royal Navy had not been keen to sacrifice its advantage in steam ships of

19591-409: Was swayed by an explosion on board HMS  Thunderer caused by a gun being double-loaded, a problem which could only happen with a muzzle-loading gun. The caliber and weight of guns could only increase so far. The larger the gun, the slower it would be to load, the greater the stresses on the ship's hull, and the less the stability of the ship. The size of the gun peaked in the 1880s, with some of

19734-440: Was the 90-gun Napoléon in 1850. Napoléon was armed as a conventional ship-of-the-line, but her steam engines could give her a speed of 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph), regardless of the wind conditions: a potentially decisive advantage in a naval engagement. The introduction of the steam ship-of-the-line led to a building competition between France and Britain. Eight sister ships to Napoléon were built in France over

19877-418: Was the best way to sink enemy ironclads. The adoption of iron armor meant that the traditional naval armament of dozens of light cannon became useless, since their shot would bounce off an armored hull. To penetrate armor, increasingly heavy guns were mounted on ships; nevertheless, the view that ramming was the only way to sink an ironclad became widespread. The increasing size and weight of guns also meant

20020-427: Was the construction of two Warrior -class ironclads; HMS  Warrior and HMS  Black Prince . The ships had a successful design, though there were necessarily compromises between 'sea-keeping', strategic range and armor protection. Their weapons were more effective than those of Gloire , and with the largest set of steam engines yet fitted to a ship, they could steam at 14.3 knots (26.5 km/h). Yet

20163-598: Was the first combat aircraft that could continue its mission if one of its four engines failed. On 20 August 1935 , the prototype flew from Seattle to Wright Field in nine hours and three minutes with an average ground speed of 252 mph (219 kn; 406 km/h), much faster than the competition. At the fly-off, the four-engined Boeing's performance was superior to those of the twin-engine DB-1 and Model 146. In March 1935 Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur created GHQ Air Force and promoted lieutenant colonel Frank Maxwell Andrews to brigadier general to become

20306-423: Was totally unsuited to ramming, and the ram threw fleet tactics into disarray. The question of how an ironclad fleet should deploy in battle to make best use of the ram was never tested in battle, and if it had been, combat might have shown that rams could only be used against ships which were already stopped dead in the water. The ram finally fell out of favor in the 1880s, as the same effect could be achieved with

20449-529: Was unsuccessful. On 24 July three B-17s of 90 Squadron took part in a raid on the German capital ship Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen anchored in Brest from 30,000 ft (9,100 m), to draw German fighters away from 18 Handley Page Hampdens attacking at lower altitudes, and in time for 79 Vickers Wellingtons to attack later with the German fighters refueling. The operation did not work as expected, with 90 Squadron's Fortresses being unopposed. By September,

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