Small B17 bomb bay and bomb load

[Juha]

Hello George

the transportation facilities were being smothered before D-Day and during the summer 44 by both the USAAF and RAF and besides most of the German military supplies got to the front or at least near of it. There were delays, sometimes crucial, but by drasticly curtailing French civilian rail traffic and non-essential German rail traffic most of the essential supplies, troops and equippment got to or near the front. IIRC only after late Feb. - early March 1945 German transport system was in such a chaos that it had decisive impact.

But we are now rather far from the original question. IIRC B-17 was design on a spec which was meant to produce a new bomber. The number of engines was not specificed but the assumption was that the end product would be a twin-engined medium bomber as was the other contender which also got into production, Douglas B-18. I'm not want to downgrade B-17 which was a truly excellent design, only to show how far-sighted the Boeing design team and also USAAC top brass were on this occasion.

Juha