The interior view of a normal B-17 fuselage door/escape hatch.
Note: The thin hinges going into the side of the fuselage to the release mechanism located inside the fuselage.
The use of the large cut-a-way holes provided a lighter door and while maintaining structural strength.
Note: Window in standard door!
B-17 Inside Fuselage Door/Emergency Release!
Note: The Emergency Release pulls out to remove the hinge pins, which allows the fuselage hatch door to drop away from the bomber, allowing the crew to quickly exit the bomber. The two clips are normally connected to allow both hinges to release as one, to instantly drop the door.
Those disputing the misidentification of the true Mohr dead at Voves, continue to use the door in the above German photograph, and the information submitted by the German guard, to maintain the photographed door proves the Voves crash site is the Melville crash site and that the Mohr crash site is still hidden somewhere in western France are wrong! Anyone who has traveled in France, knows the western area of France, where the Mohr B-17 is supposed to be hidden away, consists of a large wide open fields and wooden groves, that are leased for hunting. There is no location in Western France, all the way to the coast where a B-17 that crashed in 1943 with dead aboard, could or would be hidden for 70 years.
However, even in the forests of the Vosges Mountains in eastern France, where an aircraft might possibly be lost and unaccounted for, the locating of the true Melville crash site on 9 November, 2013, proves that it is hard to hide such a crash, site in the Vosges Mountains. However, it can be explained away, by misidentifying the crash site, as the crash site of a captured B-17 flown by a German crew. Leading to the Melville crew dead finally being buried in a German WWII military cemetery as Unknown German dead.
Sgt. Tuvman was a man who collected souvenirs all his life and his narrow escape from the Melville B-17, when the hinge pins of the damaged and repaired door would not release and only his and T/Sgt Aldenhoevel’s combined weight forced the door open far enough for them to fall out, was such a moment in his life. Tuvman wanted a souvenir of that door, which he had such a hard time getting out of. To have that souvenir, he paid for this drawing by a camp artist, by trading his POW camp meals for the drawning! Would Tuvman have any reason to have a door drawn that was different than the one that almost cost him his life? DPMO and JPAC, even claim this drawing cannot be true, but some of his statements are? One has to wonder, what sort of rules DPMO and JPAC have, that allow them to dismiss the parts of a man’s testimony they do not like and demand outside researchers not believe other parts of the same testimony. Even, those that can be proven wrong with properly conducted research, which neither organization appears to have in place.
Compiled: 18 March, 2014, By: Willis S. Cole, Jr. “Sam” Battery Corporal Willis S. Cole Military Museum - Kirkland, WA USA (10)
Modified For Internet By: Willis S. Cole, Jr. "Sam" - Battery Corporal Willis S. Cole Military Museum - 23Mar14 (20prt-B&W-(10))
