Originally it was 25 missions, so this must have been later in the war when the German Air Force had been decimated. I believe as the war went on, the flying became less dangerous because of the lack of German fighters,;so they started to increase the number of missions required. My father’s B-17 was shot down over Munster Germany. He spent 18 months in a German prison camp, which was later liberated by Patton’s forces. No group of combatants suffered more losses than B-17 personnel ; ground or air. Something like only one out of four finished the required missions to go home; they were either wounded, killed, captured, or experienced mental breakdowns.
Originally it was 25 missions, so this must have been later in the war when the German Air Force had been decimated. I believe as the war went on, the flying became less dangerous because of the lack of German fighters,;so they started to increase the number of missions required. My father’s B-17 was shot down over Munster Germany. He spent 18 months in a German prison camp, which was later liberated by Patton’s forces. No group of combatants suffered more losses than B-17 personnel ; ground or air. Something like only one out of four finished the required missions to go home; they were either wounded, killed, captured, or experienced mental breakdowns.