The Invasion of Italy began on September 3, and the Italian Surrender is announced on Sept 9. Gable joined the Army after his wife, Carole Lombard, was killed when returning from a War Bond drive, Hollywood's first casualty of the War. Clark Gable appears in a special broadcast from London discussing aerial gunnery. The Invasion of Sicily Begins on July 10, and on July 25, Benito Mussolini, Il Duce, is ousted from power. On July 3, Bob Hope is a special guest on War Telescope from London. CBS's Suspense broadcasts "Sorry, Wrong Number" for the first time on May 25. Prime Minister Winston Churchill addresses a joint session of the US Congress on May 19. The BBC would report on the Axis surrender in North Africa on May 7, and we will hear reports of the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto on May 15.
On the 18th, Gabriel Heatter reports, among other things, that Rommel left the Afrika Korps to establish a defense in Sicily. On the April 11 edition of War Telescope, we hear of a Week of Allied victories after reviewing how far the War had progressed in the last year. Thus, sessions are sometimes the best and most artistically creative recordings of the artists' career. Since the sessions were voluntary, the artists were not restricted by their record label's marketing policy. Popular musicians cut the recordings to be placed in the "Buddy Kits" of units deploying overseas. Not heard on radio sets at home, our collection includes a selection of V-Discs. This would be only a temporary setback, as Axis forces in North Africa would surrender in May. US Forces in North Africa faced defeat during their early days in North Africa. On the home front, we hear Harold Peary drop out of character at the end of the Feb 7 episode of The Great Gildersleeve to announce that shoes are going to be subject to rationing. The Battle of Leningrad ends on Feb 2, and the six month Guadalcanal campaign on Feb 9. The three campaigns gaining the most attention at the beginning of the year are the North African Campaign, The Siege of Stalingrad and Guadalcanal. The enemies of the United Nations are far from beaten. However, vision was limited and most groups did without the extra weight of this gun.By the beginning of 1943, War news begins to feel normal. In some models, the radio room contained a machine gun, which fired out of the roof to the rear. On either side, racks hold bombs on the way to the target.īehind the bomb bay sits the radio compartment, home of the radio operator (position #5), a technical sergeant in charge of the multiple radio communication and navigation devices on board the plane. Heading back from the cockpit, we walk through the bomb bay along a narrow aluminum catwalk. The bombardier operated the right cheek gun in the B-17F, the nose gun in the later B-17F models, and the chin turret guns in the B-17G. The togglier released the bomb on the signal of the lead aircraft in the formation but did not operate the Norden. Later in the war, fewer bombardiers were trained, and a “togglier” served in most planes.
He operated the Norden bombsight, a complicated piece of machinery that took into account the plane’s speed, wind speed and direction, and drift to more precisely hit the target. A lieutenant, the bombardier was responsible for loading the bombs on the ground, arming the bombs in flight, and most importantly, for accurately aiming and dropping the bombs.
The bombardier also served in the nose compartment (position #2).
In combat, the navigator was responsible for the left cheek gun (in the B-17F) and for both cheek guns in later models of the B-17F and in the B-17G. Although B-17s flew in large formations, each plane had to be able to find its way to the target and home if separated from the group. The navigator, a lieutenant, sat at a desk at position #3, where he carefully charted the plane’s position and course using dead reckoning, pilotage, radio aids, and even celestial navigation. The nose compartment was separated from the cockpit by a narrow crawlway. Close-up view of nose of Collings Foundation B-17G Nine-O-Nine, Buchanan Field, Concord, CA, June 2013 (Photo: Sarah Sundin)