My aviation book collection consists primarily of solid reference books that have some serious meat in them. This book, Boeing B-17 Fortress in RAF Coastal Command Service (Second Revised Edition) by Robert M. Stitt takes this to a pleasant extreme. This is a niche book on a lesser known aspect of the history and service of the B-17, but it covers it thoroughly in both text and photos. The book also has thirteen detailed appendices that contain information you won’t find anywhere else.

Briefly, for those who are not familiar of the B-17 in RAF service, it can be broken down into three broad categories: those slated for Bomber Command, those slated for Coastal Command, and those assigned to miscellaneous use. The British purchased 20 B-17Cs in 1940 for Bomber Command, and there were an additional 158 B-17s that made it to the RAF out of hundreds more allocated but diverted. For RAF Coastal Command, using numbers from this book, there were nine B-17Cs (initially part of 20 purchased), forty-five B-17Es, nineteen B-17Fs, and three B-17Gs assigned during the war. Part of the Coastal Command mission was long-range patrol against German submarines in the North Atlantic. B-24s were perhaps better suited for the patrol work due to its longer range, but B-24s were not available. B-17s were not available either in the desperate early days of the war before U.S. production ramped up, but the B-17s were less not-available, so the RAF was able to obtain a number of them for the vital mission. As is covered in detail in the book, the essential lifeline of transport ships coming from the U.S. and Canada was threatened by marauding packs of German U-Boats, and radar and depth charge-equipped Fortress Is (B-17C), Fortress IIs (B-17F), Fortress IIAs (B-17E), and Fortress IIIs (B-17G) filled a specific need in providing convoy defense in the first years of the war.

The detailed accounts of the squadrons, operations, personnel, and tactics, along with numerous previously unpublished photos, color plates (expertly done by Juanita Franzi), and detailed tables fill up the 224 pages of this soft-cover book. Perhaps for the average B-17 guy or gal on the western side of the Atlantic, the greater interest will be in the book providing much detail about paint schemes, B-17s allocated to the RAF but diverted instead, delivery schedules, and modification centers in the U.S. that modified the B-17s to RAF specifications, among many other details this reviewer has never seen before in any B-17 book.

There are numerous detailed graphics and tables sprinkled through the book but for this reviewer, the thirteen appendices included are alone worth the purchase price of the book. Also, as a bonus, there is provided much additional information available through the use of QR codes that link to online material that did not fit into the 224 pages.

Almost all of the research for this book obviously came from primary sources,, which are themselves well documented in the Sources and Acknowledgment section. Author Robert Stitt delved deep into British and U.S. archives and conducted numerous interviews with those who were there. The depth of research into the subject is well demonstrated by the final result.

The text on the back of the book states it well:

“Rejected as a bomber by the RAF, the B-17 was used extensively as a long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft by the Coastal Command. This books tells the fascinating story of these operations, a vital but often overlooked part of the fight against the U-Boats. All the aircraft involved are listed, and the tedious but essential work of their crews described, including some epic encounters with enemy submarines. Fully illustrated with many wartime photographs and scale plans of the airframe modifications.”

This book comes highly recommended for anyone wanting to dive deeply into an obscure facet of the history of the Boeing B-17. Available on Amazon here, or other places that are not Amazon but sell well-researched, finely-written aviation books.