SUBJECTS >> OPERATIONS >> World War II
AIRCRAFT >> BOMBERS >> B-17
Catalog Number:
1950.235
Location:
9700 G Avenue SE; Kirtland AFB, NM 87117
Description:
At dawn, on a cold March morning, a B-17 took off on a long mission to Germany. It crashed on the yellow field of an English farm just a mile and a half away. Ten men were blown to bits - all ten were on their first mission. For hours the doctors and medical corpsmen carried out the miserable and sickening job of human salvage. Artist Smith adds the following on his canvas: "Though the explosion of the three one-thousand-pound bombs jolted us heavily back at the base, the hay stacks, windmill, and trees were left undamaged adding a macabre touch to the scene. The fire was started by one of the engines hurled through the woods."