On night harassment missions to Rabaul, B-17 aircrews would often be assigned a stack of 4-pound incendiary bombs for the rear fuselage in addition to the load in the bomb bay. The waist gunners tossed the bombs out the side of the aircraft as the pilot circled over the Japanese base. Pictured here is one such waist gunner preparing to throw an incendiary. Two other crewmembers, probably the radio operator and engineer, can also be seen. Our book Ken’s Men Against the Empire: Volume I describes one of these missions in detail on pages 124-126. (Kenneth A. Mead Collection)
