7 weeks...for those following the series, here's an excerpt from my Dad's Diary during his tour of duty as a B-17 pilot in the 8th AF...his original entries are in italics, and regular text is from comments he added over 50 years later in a book my wife put together with him...btw, names and dates are changed to keep Ara from wasting his time...
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July 9
Up at 0100 again today. Back to Munich again today. Another long haul. The route was very good. No flak en route. Fighter cover was good, but the Luftwaffe really was daring today. They jumped us just at Bombs away. Seven from above and three from below on the tail and one from our side. That plane was all over the sky. They knocked out our aileron cables and shot up the ship pretty bad. Lucky enough no one was hurt and we got home on AFCE. The flak over the target was heavy and damn accurate. I have one of the pieces that came in. The angels or somebody must have been looking after us today.
When flying through weather we used radio beacon approaches. They were not the same as our present radar, but the navigator would have to figure out where we were using calculations based on the beacons. We would try to avoid weather over the continent. The trip would often be scrubbed because of bad weather. Once in bad weather, a man was having trouble with his plane and was late getting off. He hurried to rejoin the group. But our formation leader was very stupid and changed direction because he wanted to save time. He "shuffled the deck" and the plane found himself flying right through our formation. He didn't make it. I still fume about that stupid leader when I think about it. He should have gotten court-marshalled.
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That First Episode scene of flying through the clouds while forming up over England brought back memories of the Diary passage...