B-17 'Mizpah' after 88mm flak rounds ripped its nose off over Budapest, July 14 1944. Pilot kept it flying 10 mins so the crew could bail out.
17h 5m ago by lemmy.world/u/setsneedtofeed in historyphotos@piefed.social
Ok, this is one where we need a red circle for where the pilot would be.
Holy cow that's nuts.
Up high and just forward of the top ball turret.
I guess the bombardier and navigator were out of luck.
Honestly, I'm still having a hard time seeing it. There doesn't appear to be anything forward of the ball turret...
you can see the glass of the pilots cockpit right behind a shred of steel.
The pilot is likely flying very blind, and only based on the plane taking the photo.
They likely had some structural steel that prevented them from dying instantly from the blast. or maybe it got shredded, and they kept it up through pure will, then died afterwards.
Wait. So the front fell off?
Yeah, that’s not very typical, I’d like to make that point.
I just don't want people thinking bombers aren't safe.
Colorized by AI? Because the damaged area in the color version looks nothing like the mono version.