This is not an Aleutian blizzard, but a Flying Fortress. It has just been saved from burning by foamite, a chemical sprayed by a USAFF fire-fighting crash crew at U.S. Army Eighth Air Force bomber station in England. While taking part in a bomber attack on a Nazi fighter airdrome at Achmer, this B-17 was hit by a flare, which set an engine and part of the wing on fire. The ship filled with gas fumes. That made it so dark that the Pilot, Lieutenant Bernard T. Kuhmleier, of Fort Madison, Iowa, said “I couldn’t see the instruments on the panel right in front of me.” Never the less, he brought the plane back to its base, where the fire crew pitched in to save it, April 1944.

Ferrotyped prints are processed in such a way that they are shiny. The print has a sensitive surface, usually thinner, because it was put through a press while still wet.

Ferrotyped prints have a sensitive surface, usually shiny and thinner, because they are put through a press while still wet. Ferrotyping makes the surface of the photograph smoother. Light does not scatter as much on a smoother surface, so this increases contrast. That makes ferrotyped images better for press photography.

This object has the following keywords:

• Achmer
• Aerial bombardments
• Airdromes
• B-17s
• Bomber bases
• England
• European Theater
• Fighters
• Firefighters
• Firefighting Equipment
• Fires
• Great Britain
• Iowa
• Lt. Bernard T. Kuhmleier
• U.S. Eighth Air Force
• World War II

This object is a member of the following portfolios: