Dad said his plane was the oldest, most-repaired bomber in the squadron and not all of the repairs were perfectly done. He said there were times while flying in formation and landing that it was all he and his burly co-pilot could do to handle it.

I agree that all those guys were heroes. After a run up the Ruhr River Valley they stopped counting flak holes in the plane at 200 and all four engines and both main wings had to be changed. He said he gave the crew the option to bail out at the edge of the English Channel because he wasn't sure it would hold together on landing but everyone stayed onboard. The name of the B-17 was Old Black Magic and the crew was convinced there was something to that.

They had to limp back that time with one or two engines shot out. They couldn't keep up with the formation and tried to hide in the contrails. A P-51 Mustang pilot spotted them and escorted them back across the channel. They all came through the 37 missions without a scratch.