Jake O. Jones

Jake Oliver Jones, U.S. Army Air Force, World War II, is at left, on flight line with his buddies in England.

“This is a B17, Flying Fortress. I think it is a ‘G’ version. They made them in a series, A,B.C, etc. So ‘G’ is the 7th version. The reason I think a G is because it has a ‘chin turret.’ The Germans figured out the weak spot of the B17 was directly in front from above — 12 o'clock high, referring to a position as on a clock. So, the Americans added the chin turret or chin gun under the nose so as to shoot at German ME109's and FW190's, the two main German fighter planes.

“The reason for the bicycles is that the landing fields were large. The ground crew would ride the bikes to the planes as they landed if the planes were damaged. So, this made them cover many yards distance faster to save the lives of a crew in a damaged plane. There were Deuce and a Half trucks and jeeps, too, but these were also needed at the front and elsewhere. ‘Meat Wagons’ were used too, medical trucks as ambulances.”

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