Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Units of the Mediterranean Theater of Operations 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 were a total of six combat groups (twenty-four squadrons) equipped with the bomber assigned to the Theater. Initially equipped with the B-17F Fortress, two bombardment groups (97th and 301st) were flown from airfields in England to Algiers and Oran in Algeria in November 1942 after the Operation Torch landings. They were assigned to the 5th Bombardment Wing, XII Bomber Command, Twelfth Air Force. The initial two combat groups were
The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb "The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb" is a narrative poem written by Mervyn Peake in 1947, and published with his felt-pen illustrations in 1962. A sailor wandering in London during a World War II air-raid finds a newborn baby in the debris. He takes refuge with the child in an empty church, where it amazes him by levitating and speaking. A dialogue follows between the child, fresh from eternity, and the man mired in the temporal world. At dawn a flying bomb falls on the church, killing them both. The poem was set to