“The interior of a B-17 was like a lightweight aluminum cigar tube,” observed waist gunner Jack Novey. The plane’s closely spaced aluminum ribs, held in place by thousands of rivets, gave it aerodynamic strength and durability, but the aluminum skin the ribs supported was so thin that you could poke a hole through it with a screwdriver. The Fort’s hundred-foot wingspan made the plane look large, but the ten-man crew was crowded together in a claustrophobic space that was tighter than the inside of a submarine. The backs of the waist gunners nearly touched when they stood and fired through
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