after all these years a NEW question RE: B17s

[NickM]

Guys:

I've been reading about the missions of 8th and 15th airforces for decades but I've never thought to ask: how long does it take for a group to form up into it's combat box formation and to join the other groups into the 'stream'?


TIA

[Smithy]

This is an excellent link which I had bookmarked. It includes form up times and procedures for typical 8th AF raids.

https://www.b24.net/MissionAnatomy.htm

[Nick Beale]

I think, although this is only from distant memory, that the process was described in Martin Middlebrook's "The Schweinfurt/Regensburg Raids" or possibly Jeffrey Ethell and Alfred Price's "Target Berlin, Mission 250, 6 March 1944". Both books are worth reading, regardless.