S/Sgt Lewis fulfilled many technical roles on the flight. In combat, he occupied the dorsal gun position on the aircraft by manning the upper-gun turret (TT). So, he was standing immediately behind the two pilots. This new feature, an improved gun turret, the Bendix turret, had a 360-degree rotation and the guns could be elevated to a high angle. Because of the openings for the twin machineguns, the turret was pointing to the rear, in its normal position.



Shot down by fighters and crashed at Rothenklempenow on 6/21/44 in B-17 #446117 Prisoner of War (POW). The B-17G was given the squadron number LG-Q 117. Staff Sergeant Irvin H. Lewis was the senior NCO in the crew. His primary job was the flight engineer, assisting the two pilots, while his secondary role was to man the top turret of the plane when in action.

Eight of the nine crew survived when LG-Q 117 was attacked by an ME 410, over Rothenklempenow, as it made its attack run on Berlin. After the crew bailed out the plane crashed into a Prussian lake, which later became part of western Poland. Parts of the plane were recovered many year later and taken to Soviet Russia. Other parts are displayed in a Polish war museum.

POW in ‘Stalag Luft IV’, the enlisted men were imprisoned in a notorious POW camp and badly maltreated. Near the end of the war they were forced to undertake a forced march of 86 days westward until liberated by elements of the British 2nd Army near Hamburg.