OT: Were B-17's ever over Japan?

I think they might have flown DUMBO missions in the Pacific?

B-17s were replaced in the Paciifc theatre mainly by B-24s, because of the greater range of the B-24. This also allowed B-17s to be concentrated in Europe for use against Germany. Again, because of range considerations, B-29s and OA-10s (Army PBYs) were the most typical ASR aircraft during the later Pacific war.

Mark Schynert

I had a feeling that it was the B-29 that did the most ASR work in the Pacific, but didn't the SB-17 also get used there too?

Must have been - I read a story about a flight of 2 P-51s forced down at a small Japanese airstrip just after the armistice, but prior to US occupation. The problem arose when the junior pilot of the pair didn't realize he was tapping off his main fuselage tanks and not his drop tanks. When the lead pilot later dropped his empty belly tanks, his wingman dropped full tanks - along with probably a little something in his diaper.

After some time on the ground a B-17 landed and IIRC, together with help from some of the few remaining Japenese personnel, they pumped fuel from the Fort to the Tang.

I wish I could recall where I read that story - been a while. The whole angle to it was the lead pilot laid claim to he and his errant wingman being (unofficially) the first US boots on Japanese soil after WWII.

WmB

Google is our friend - they were P-38s not Mustangs and the B-17 was ASR. This site has a lot more information on the incident than the one I read a few years ago.

WmB

Outstanding article, very interesting Allen

Possibly, but not likely by us. I've seen a picture of a captured B-17 in hinomarus but I don't know if it ever was used over the home islands.

Bill Banaszak, MFE

As noted elsewhere in the thread. There were also probably Coast Guard PBs (Navy designation for B-17) working the west coast of the U.S.--these were similar to the SB-17 and went into service during 1945.

Mark Schynert

Wasn't that a very early version, maybe a B-17C that was captured in the Phillipines?

There were three B-17s captured by the Japanese: one was a B-17D put together from several wrecks on Clark Field in the Philippines, and the other two were B-17Es captured in Java. Nakajima tried to use some B-17 features in the G8N Rita four-engined bomber project, but due to Japan's dire straits in '44, the project was shelved. Mitsubshi used the B-17E's tail gun features in the last version of the Betty bomber-the G4M3. All three planes were found at Tachikawa AB in 1945 by U.S. occupation forces, along with at least two P-40s, an A-20 from Java, at least two Hurricanes (from Singapore), and a P-51 that force-landed in China in 1944. The JNAF had a Hellcat and a Corsair at their Air Technical Center at Atsugi NAS.

It probably was. It has been awhile since I've seen it.

Bill Banaszak, MFE

I read in the latest issue of Air Enthousiast something about two B17Cs or Ds converted to do "reconnaissance"-work from Alaska. That was before the Doolittle-raid.

Hans