On 7 May 1942 Captain Hewitt T. Wheless addressed a crowd of 18,000 workers at Boeing's Plant Two in Seattle.
What makes this photo unusual is the placement of the cocardes on the B-17E in the foreground . . . it’s 41-9196, which was originally intended for the RAF but was taken back, necessitating the over-painting of the British roundels on both upper wings.
Ultimately 41-9196 flew with both the 28th and 30th Squadrons of the 19th Bomb Group and was shot down on a daylight Rabaul mission on 5 October 1942
If I recall correctly a very similar Kodachrome of this scene appeared in a wartime National Geographic but it seems I no longer have it here.
