B-17 Interior After a Mission
This photo, taken of THE OLD MAN after a mission on March 8, 1943, reflects what the interior of a B-17F would often look like after a reconnaissance mission. The waist guns (left and right) ejected casings when they were fired against enemy interceptors. The casings have fallen to the bottom of the middle hatch. Additional .50-caliber bullets were close at hand for the gunners, though, stacked up in boxes in the bottom left and right corners. The object just behind the right waist gun is a camera, for the combat photographer to use if flying a photoreconnaissance mission. The ball turret is partially hidden behind more boxes of .50‑caliber bullets in the center of the photograph, near the doorway to the radio room. Attached to this is an oxygen canister.