High Quality Raw Luftwaffe Gun Camera vs USAAF B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators

Many of these engagements will not be new, however this is the highest quality copy I've ever seen and represents the raw footage rather than segments clipped from newsreels.  

0:00 A well known engagement of a B-17 Flying Fortress partly published in Die Deutsche Wochenschau in March 1944, however what was not shown in the newsreel was that the aircraft was in formation when it first came under attack, and it is seen climbing away from its fellow bombers, a maneuver that is not tactically sound as it would bleed off vital airspeed as well as leaving the relative safety of the interlocking fire from the "combat box" formation.  One can therefore surmise that either the flight crew was incapacitated or the controls were damaged.  The attacking fighter, likely a Messerschmitt Bf 110, takes advantage of the situation and lands multiple cannon hits on the fuselage and center section, with parts of the disintegrating aircraft structure flying towards it.  A substantial fragment barely misses the camera, although it might still have struck the attacking plane.  It was not unheard of for the latter to be brought down by debris from its quarry when attacks were pressed home too closely.

0:15 B-24 Liberator under fire with the main bomber formation visible in the distance.  Luftwaffe fighters would concentrate a lot of effort on separating aircraft from their formation so they could more easily be finished off.  The difficulty of achieving this feat was reflected in the simple separation of a B-17 or B-24 counting as twice as valuable as actually shooting down a single-engined aircraft in the Luftwaffe's point system by which decorations were awarded.

0:26 B-17 with its port wing already on fire engaged at relatively long range.  Small black puffs of smoke are visible, these are cannon shells that missed their target and self-destructed.  The bomber pitches up as the clip cuts, likely the prelude to a stall and fatal dive.

1:43 B-24 straggler hit at long range, as the attacking aircraft turns away briefly it appears the crew might be bailing out.

2:32 B-24 in formation singled out at long range, the effects of heavy cannon fire is illustrated by the clouds of debris coming off the bomber's structure, which was the desired effect of high capacity "minengeschoss" shells.  During the engagement, the B-24 to the top right of the targeted aircraft dumps its bomb load, possibly an emergency jettison as the #1 engine appears to be damaged.

3:16 Gun cameras could be operated independently of the guns and this B-17 going down in flames is a good example

3:24 B-17 in formation with bomb bay doors open taking fire

3:32 Another well known engagement featuring a B-17 that was first featured in a US newsreel filmed from another B-17 as it was falling out of formation with a damaged tail.  The wing marking suggests it was a 351st Bomb Group aircraft.  

3:44 Frontal attack of a formation of B-17s as explosions burst around the aircraft, the shape of which suggests they are BR 21 rockets rather than flak, followed by another well known B-24 frontal interception by a Fw 190 with concentrated fire around the flight deck.

3:55 Another partly known B-17 clip where a man appears to fall or bail out of the ball turret, in this extended segment we can see what looks like a previous bailout, as well as smoke from the tail gun suggesting return fire.

4:31 B-17 with bomb bay doors open and apparent damage to the vertical tail hit at close range, the top turret initially points at 9 o'clock then swings around to track the fighter but there is no evidence of return fire.

4:42 Probably the best known B-17G interception by a Bf 110 G-2.  The latter fires an ineffective initial burst with insufficient deflection while smoke can be seen coming from the bomber's ventral and tail turrets as the gunners return fire, and the main formation is visible in the distance.

5:03 As the 110 settles on the B-17's six, the tail gunner continues to return fire, at which point the 110 pilot also pulls the trigger and starts landing concentrated hits on the B-17 with debris flying off.  There is a good number of strikes around the tail gun position but it still appears to fire briefly, then falls silent after a couple of further cannon shell impacts.

5:37 Cannon fire impacts around #3 engine then a shell appears to knock a panel off the ventral ball turret, that by now is seen pointing straight down.  This is the position it would need to be in for the gunner to enter the fuselage.  The 110 continues to pour in fire at point blank range and as it closes in the damage to the B-17 becomes more apparent, the structure is riddled with holes, fabric covered control surfaces in tatters and the tail gunner's bullet resistant window is smashed.  The waist guns hang upwards as they would if no one was holding them, one can only imagine the carnage inside.

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