Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Units of the Mediterranean Theater of Operations following Airfields: Most combat airfields were temporary wartime facilities quickly constructed with pierced-steel planking runways and parking areas, with tents used for personnel quarters and a few wooden buildings used for operations. In Tunisia and Italy, some captured German Luftwaffe or Italian Air Force (Regia Aeronautica) airfields were repaired and placed into service. Today, most show little evidence of their existence other than some faint outlines in agricultural fields. Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Units of the Mediterranean Theater of Operations The Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO) was the second-largest user of the B-17 Flying Fortress during World War II. There
RAF Bomber Command aircrew of World War II air gunner to man the mid-upper gun turret although sometimes the gunners would agree to exchange turrets. At the outbreak of war in September 1939 operational Royal Air Force bomber squadrons in Europe were equipped with two main categories of bombers, single-engined Fairey Battle and twin-engined Bristol Blenheim light bombers and Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, Vickers Wellington and Handley Page Hampden medium bombers. Bomber Command aircrew "trades" flying operationally in the early stages of the war were: Pilot – A qualified pilot flew the aircraft and in the Royal Air Force was usually the captain (function not rank) of the crew,