B-17 Flying Fortress units of the United States Army Air Forces 2d Bombardment Group, Langley Field, Virginia on 11 January 1936; the first production B-17B was delivered on 29 March 1939 also to the 2nd Bombardment Group. A total of 12,677 production Fortresses was built before production came to an end. In August 1944, the Boeing B-17 equipped no less than 33 overseas combat groups. The last Boeing-built B-17G was delivered to the USAAF on 13 April 1945. Following the end of World War II, the Flying Fortress was rapidly withdrawn from USAAF service, being replaced by the B-29 Superfortress. Literally thousands of Fortresses used in combat in Europe by Eighth
RAF Bomber Command aircrew of World War II St. Stanislaus commanding No. 207 Squadron RAF was aged 46 when he was killed in action on 23 March 1944 flying an Avro Lancaster, he was a veteran pilot who had served in World War I and had half of a hand shot off. Possibly the youngest member of aircrew to be killed serving with an operational bomber squadron is Flight Sergeant Edward James Wright Royal Canadian Air Force who was killed aboard an Avro Lancaster of No. 428 Squadron RCAF on 30 April 1945 apparently aged 16. A number of seventeen year olds were lost flying operationally with RAF