A waist gunner of the 306th Bomb Group in position inside his B-17 Flying Fortress. Handwritten caption on reverse: '27053.' Printed caption attached: 'The Defensive Power Of The Flying Fortresses. The extremely heavy defence of the Flying Fortresses has enabled them to fight their way through to targets like Huls and Kiel in the face of the most intensive fighter opposition aerial warfare has ever seen. The result of these and other encounters has been the destruction of more than 1100 enemy planes. Formations of Flying Fortresses have an average of 12-1/2 .50 calibre machine-guns per plane (which can be manned simultaneously by the usual crew of ten). 27053. The waist gunner in action. S&G.' On reverse: Sport & General Press Agency, US Army Press Censor ETO and US Army General Section Press & Censorship Bureau [Stamps]. Printed caption: 'GUNS OF THE FORTRESS July 1943. Right Waist Gunner Staff-Sgt Louise A Skinner (Independence, Kan.) sighting his .50 machine gun in readiness for a flight from his station in England.'