Us Official Photographs

This is not an Aleutian blizzard but a Flying ofrtress which has just

This is not an Aleutian blizzard but a Flying Fortress which has just been saved from burning by Foamite, a chemical sprayed by a USAAF fire-fighting crash crew at a U.S. Army 8th Air Force bomber station in England. While taking part in a bomber attack on a Nazi fighter airdrome at Achmer, this B-17 was hit by flak which set an engine and part of a wing on fire. The ship filled with gas fumes which made it so dark that the pilot, Lt. Bernard T. Kuhlmeier, 2703 One A., Ft. Madison, Iowa, said, "I couldn't even see the instruments on the panel in front of me." Nevertheless he brought the ship back to its base where the fire crew pitched in to save it.