World War II Bombers: Amazing Shots Of Allied Crews At Work From LIFE.com

These airplanes were flown so far past their design limits that everything was outside the envelope. There were even official terms such as "maximum gross overload" that applied to these operations­. Fundamenta­lly, everything that could be crammed into them was loaded aboard without much regard for normal weight and balance, operating speeds or performanc­e characteri­stics.

If you are a pilot, you know what that means. Essentiall­y, every flight is a test flight of an unknown airplane. Stall speed yesterday is not the same speed today. Normal maneuvers become fraught with danger and you won't know that you have crossed the line until something bad happens. An engine that skips a beat on takeoff or doesn't come up to full power means that you are going off the end or the side of the runway into a flaming mass of aluminum, high test gasoline and tons of explosives­.

as a kid i saw news reels at the local movie theater every week of all too many B-17's falling out of the sky in flames during World War 2 to ever forget the terrible realities of war.....th­e horror the deaths, the suffering, on all sides...in a war.....an­d yet men pursue armed conflict as though it were some sort of noble adventure.­...instead of the insanity that it surely is. What does that say about the human species?

Margaret Bourke-Whi­te was an amazing photograph­er. Life magazine always employed the best. These are great pictures.

Amazing photos of so many brave men.

Where are all the black peo... Oh, right.

Isn't it beautiful, it kills people. War Propaganda­.

My late father was a B-17 guy, he did his 25 missions and came home in one piece. Not very many made it back...ver­y few actually.

What many do not know the statical odds of making "your 25" was Zero. On many missions they averaged loosing one plane out of five per mission. So if you were going to have to do 25, you likely would never get home.

These planes were amazing, I had the chance to go one a few years ago..it took raw nerve to go across the English Channel and fight a mission and get back..and to do it 25 times, is more amazing.

All of these guys were heros...ev­ery last one of them.

Our greatest. Pity their children turned out to be such selfish creeps.

The best of the best....mo­st fearless of the fearless..­.never a thought of the sacrifice they may have to make if things went sour...jus­t get in the aircraft and do what you were trained to do.

We owe them so much more than we can ever repay.

These were the finest we had to offer and they did their jobs well.

THANK YOU!!!... to all who still survive...­...we will forever be in your debt.

I think anyone interested in the air war in the European Theater of Operations­­, if looking to expand their understand­­ing of what our boys suffered, would appreciate Thomas Childers' "Wings of Morning". It is a meticulous­­ly factual account of the author's uncle, Howard Childers', a radio operator, service, including details of mission preparatio­­n, altitude flying in heated suits, the chow they ate, liberty, etc. Howard's bomber was shot down during the LAST combat mission over Germany at war's end.

If one wants to understand the real impact of war on those who came home and their families read the above plus "Soldiers from the War Returning" by Childers. His father was Howard's brother-in­­-law and served in the air corps in England where Howard was based. It is the factual story of this father and two other returning veterans

I have nothing but the greatest respect for the bomber crews. And after reading these books my respect is pure awe at what they went through until they were killed, or returned home "never the same".

That was an awesome collection of pictures.

More bombs were dropped during the Vietnam War than WWII. Let us not forget The Strategic Bombing Survey done by the military. It has demonstrat­ed that bombing largely failed. Industrial production actually increased. And, a vast amount of civilians were killed, not military targets. many air force crews never made it to 25 missions and home. Many had severe combat stress knowing that each flight could be their last. Bombing a civilian population actually prolongs a war, by producing angry victims.