The Flying Destroyer That Couldn’t Keep Up — How the YB-40 Failed into Saving Thousands

Описание: Why the US Army Air Forces turned a B-17 into a “Flying Destroyer” with 16 machine guns during WW2 — and discovered it couldn’t even stay with the bombers it was built to protect. This World War 2 story reveals how a spectacular escort failure produced one innovation that helped thousands of crews survive.

May 29, 1943. RAF Alconbury, England. Seven experimental YB-40 gunships join the 92nd Bombardment Group on a mission to Saint-Nazaire. Captain James Hartwell straps into a modified Flying Fortress carrying 16 .50-caliber guns and over 11,000 rounds of ammunition. The plan sounds perfect: if fighters can’t escort bombers deep into the Reich, then a bomber will escort the bombers. Engineers believe they’ve built a wall of lead the Luftwaffe can’t penetrate. The program costs millions and promises to end the “gauntlet” of return-leg massacres.

They were all wrong.

What the YB-40 proved over France wasn’t about firepower. It was about weight. Once the standard B-17s dropped their bombs, they became lighter, faster, and climbed away—while the gunship stayed heavy with armor, turrets, and ammunition it couldn’t drop. The “escort” fell behind… then farther behind… until it became the exact kind of straggler German fighters hunted. The Flying Destroyer could shred anything that came close, but it couldn’t run—and the sky punished anything that couldn’t keep up.

By late summer 1943, the YB-40 escort concept was effectively dead. But one part of the experiment survived: the forward-firing chin turret that closed the deadly head-on attack gap. That single improvement spread through production lines and reshaped how B-17s fought for the rest of the war—proof that sometimes the most important victories are hidden inside the most expensive failures.

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⚠️ Disclaimer: This is entertainment storytelling inspired by real WW2 events and internet sources. Some details may be dramatized or inaccurate. This is not an academic source—please consult professional historians, archives, and primary documents for verified history.