An amazing account of how an American photoreconnaissance team, in a battered B-17 called Old 666, carried out a mission to gather intelligence on a Japanese base on the island of Rabaul.

During the first fighter pass the plane was hit by hundreds of machine gun bullets and cannon shells. Five crewman of the B-17 were wounded and the plane badly damaged. All of the wounded men stayed at their stations and were still firing when the fighters came in for a second pass, which caused just as much damange as the first. Hydraulic cables were cut, holes the size of footballs appeared in the wings, and the front plexiglas canopy of the plane was shattered.

— The Most Honored Photograph by LensRentals

via Kotte.org