I share with you a collection of photos, some of them extremely rare, showing Allied bombers captured by Germans, Italians and Japanese. One question, does anyone know if during the Second World War a B-29 bomber was captured and tested? To see the photos, visit the link below:


http://aviacaoemfloripa.blogspot.com.br/2011/01/bombardeiros-aliados-capturados.html


Best Regards.

Romania also captured a few of our B-24s after the disastrous "Operation Tidal Wave." They were too shot up to make it out of the country and they couldn't reach the altitude needed to parachute out, so they had no choice but to land and give themselves up to the Romanians. The Romanians painted their national insignia on the captured bombers and flew them; they were used to help train the fighter pilots whose job it was to intercept them, but as far as I know, they were never used in combat.
No enemy ever captured a B-29. But at least one landed in the USSR, where it flew after it was unable to get home; it was interned by the Soviets. They later copied it and put it into production.

In the book 'Black Thursday' the author tells of a captured B-17 flying over the bomber box dropping small bombs. I've never heard of any other use of captured bombers by Germany. ...though, it would make an interesting read.

Best wishes,

Gary

Marcelo, as far as I know Germany used airworthy captured allied aircraft only for training fighter pilots with the "Zirkus Rosarius", a special unit within the Luftwaffe. I wouldn't know that the Germans used them to fly sharp missions. Oppsosite to the Japanese, who also used captured fighters (P-40, Buffalos ...) in action. And I've heared from one case that the Italians used a captured P-38 G to shoot down a B-17 in 1943.

Gary, this tactic was often used by Japanese fighters to fly over allied bomber boxes and release small "air bust bombs" which could bring more than one bomber down. But German fighters very seldom used this tactic.

It seems the Germans had more B-17s than one might guess. They were finished in two different schemes, both dark green on the upper surfaces. Those used to train German pilots in the vulnerabilities of the B-17 had yellow undersurfaces. B-17s used for covert missions had black undersurfaces.
I don't know much about the use of these planes for secret operations. I do know they were used on one occasion to drop "black propaganda" leaflets over occupied Denmark, where resistance to the occupation was growing. The leaflets, purportedly printed by the American forces, told Danes the hour of their deliverance was near and that they should prepare for liberation by Soviet Asian or African American soldiers. Danish women were instructed to fraternize freely with these men, setting aside all Hitler's nonsense about racial purity. It sounds like any idiot would be able to tell this was black propaganda, but I'm not sure how effective it was.
Also, captured B-17s were used to penetrate Allied-controlled airspace, to insert commandos for secret missions. The assassination of Dr. Franz Oppenhoff, the Amerian-appointed mayor of occupied Aachen damned by Berlin as a "collaborator", is probably the best-known example of such a mission.

The Germans had at one time planned to use several captured US bombers to deliver spies via airdrop over Britain, but whether it was ever put into action I don't know.

I've read that they also toyed with the idea to use captured US bombers as Mistels. (As the large 4 engine machines could be packed with more explosives than old Ju88s)