Nose Art

[Blue Sky]

Bellissima foto ma già postato!

 

 

CALIFORNIA OR BUST P-47C 41-6358 334th Squadron

Assigned to Capt Archie Chatterly Don Allen cleverly incorporated Capt Chatterly's home town of San Diego into his design. The lower signpost reads "San Diego via Berlin". Unfortunately for Chatterly, it proved to also be via a POW camp in Germany after he was shot down on 27th March 1944 in another aircraft. When 4th Fighter Squadron re-equipped with Mustangs, "California or Bust" was transferred out of the 8th Air Force and into the 9th. On 23rd June 1944, whilst assigned to 405th Fighter Squadron it was lost on a tactical support mission in France.

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[Blue Sky]

Già Postato!

 

 

 

 

LITTLE BUTCH P-47C 41-6410 334th Squadron

Assigned to Capt William B Smith Capt Smith flew two combat tours with 4th Fighter Group. This Thunderbolt was his first aircraft which was later assigned to Lt Gilbert Ross and 1Lt Richard Douglas. After taking leave in the USA Smith returned to fly his second tour in a P51D (44-14281) until killed on 13th September 1944. After being hit by flak while strafing an airfield near Ulm, Germany, Smith pulled up to around 400ft, rolled over and exploded on impact with the ground.

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[Blue Sky]

Già postaten krukkonen!

 

 

 

IT AIN'T SO FUNNY B-24J-185-CO 44-4085343rd Bomb Group

 

In a departure from the normal girlie nose art, Bartigian created this amazing collection of cartoon characters to enliven the side of this B24 Liberator. Whether or not this mass of colourful characters was repeated on the other side of the aircraft is not known but yet again Sgt Bartigian managed to create a unique piece of art. While popular characters were often lifted from their page and used as nose art, so many placed together on a single aircraft is almost unique. Donald Duck, Popeye, Minnie, Cat Woman, Lil Henry are all there with several other favourites of the time. A wonderful tribute to, perhaps, the second most popular subject choice for aircraft nose art.

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[Blue Sky]

Già postato a colori!!!

 

HARD t' GET B-24H-15-CF 41-29486

Assigned to England on 26th March 1944, the aircraft flew only six missions whilst on the group's manifest. Two of these, on 30th June to Conches airfield and 14th July to Peronne, were flown as part of the 493BG formation. The aircraft's final (7th) sortie with 486BG on 19th July was aborted due to a mechanical failure. After with 486BG converted to flying B17 Fortresses in late July 1944, "Hard t'Get" was transferred to 406th Bomb Squadron for night leaflet dropping. Specially modified for night flying the aircraft continued in this role until the end of the year. It was salvaged on 31st December 1944.

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[Blue Sky]

Già Postato!!! :wip41:

 

 

 

ALICE BLUE GOWN B-17G-85-BO 43-38400

490th Bomb Group Bomb 851st Bomb Squadron This Boeing built B17G was assigned to 490BG in mid August 1944 and completed more than 60 combat missions before returning to the USA on 16th July 1945, landing at Bradley Field. Five months later, like so many others, the Fort was broken up and salvaged at Kingman Arizona's Reclamation Plant.

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Addio!

[Blue Sky]

Dai non fare così!!!

 

Dedicato a te!

 

 

BECOMING BACK ---- B-24J---- 44-10575

[Blue Sky]

Nose art painted by Cpl Dick Ebbeson 380th Bomb Group Fenton, Australia & New Guinea

NET RESULTS B-24M-5-CO 44-41875 528th Bomb Squadron

 

There were two similarly named B24s assigned to 380th Bomb Group but the earlier aircraft, although incorporating a similar dishevelled girl, is painted in a style unlike any of Ebbeson's other works and is believed to be by another, unknown, artist. Based on a magazine pinup, Ebbeson painted a superbly modelled figure with intricate detail and once again he used a circle of solid colour to pick out the figure from the silver metal background.

 

This B24 was equipped with the latest electronic countermeasures equipment, code named "Raven". A late arrival to the Pacific war, this "Raven" Liberator flew several missions with different crews during the period April to August 1945 and survived hostilities. It returned to the USA to be scrapped at the end of October 1945.

 

 

:drool:

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Vediamo se almeno questo è intonso.

 

 

Snooks 2^nd

P-39Q 42-19995

71^st TRS, 82^nd TRG

Flown by 1st. Lt.William A. Shomo

 

Shomo 's 2nd P-39, did not score in this but was better known as the "Flying Undertaker", flying in a P-51 was latter awarded the Medal of Honor for destroying 7 Japanese planes during a single mission.

 

The photo left is of his first P-39 and did not carry all the markings of his 2nd plane.

[Blue Sky]

Nose art painted by Sgt Sam P. Rodman

303rd Bomb Group Molesworth, England

 

 

IDALIZA B-17G-20-VE 42-97546

303rd Bomb Group 360th Bomb Squadron

 

Another fine example of painting done by Sam Rodman and signed by him just above the girl's right foot. This was a long serving Vega-built B17 which arrived at Molesworth in March 1944 and survived combat missions right through to the end of hostilities in Europe. 106 successful sorties have been recorded for this veteran bomber which flew to attack almost every major target in northwest Europe. It was well cared for by crew chief M/Sgt Norman Cote and his team. More than fifty flight crews manned this ship during its combat career and it is not known which of them named the plane. An official photograph taken on 15th September 1944 shows the artwork in place at that time. There is considerable likeness in the face to the actress Ida Lupino -- not surprising since Rodman used a press release photo as a reference for his painting. Lupino had shot to fame as a teenager and starred in "Come on Marines" in 1934 at the age of 16. Co-starred with Gary Cooper a year later in "Peter Ibbetson" and then Bing Crosby in "Anything Goes" (1936). Her finest role was probably in "The Gay Desperado" and "Artists and Models" in 1937. Post war, in the 50s, Lupino made her name as the director of some of TV's best known series : "The Untouchables" and "The Fugitive". I wonder if she ever knew that she had also starred on 303BG's "Idaliza".

On 13th April 1944, Idaliza flew to Schweinfurt and was attacked by fighters in a fierce running battle. During this time the bombardier 2Lt Thomas Dello Buono was wounded but continued to man his guns and was ultimately awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross -- the USA's second highest award for heroism. At war's end, on 7th June 1945, the plane took off from England on its journey back to Bradley Field AAB in the USA and thereafter onwards to its ultimate scrapping at Kingman, Arizona at the beginning of December.

[Blue Sky]

 

JERSEY JACKASS B-24D 41-11776

343rd Bomb Squadron

This was another original B24 painted by Sgt Lippard and assigned to Lt Muehlberg who flew it on at least 24 combat sorties -- the first being against the Corinth Canal in Greece on 25th August 1942. Later missions were flown to strike shipping targets in Benghasi harbour. It was almost lost on 2nd December when another crew (Lt Groff) took the B24 to strike Naples. One hour into the flight, all four engines cut out simultaneously but were restarted as the airplane plummeted towards the sea.

Prior to the invasion of Sicily, "Jersey Jackass" pounded the ferry terminal at Messina to prevent German forces evacuating the island. Strikes against Palermo, Naples and other Italian targets continued well into 1943 and on 17th July it had another lucky escape when flak ripped 40 holes in the side, shot away hydraulic lines and shattered the bomb doors. However, the veteran B24 was repaired and was one of those famed ships which flew the daring low level strike against the Ploesti oil refineries on 1st August 1943. On that day it was assigned to a crew from 389BG (Lt McGraw) but was shot down over Romania with the loss of six of its crew and three listed as POWs.

Lippard cleverly incorporated Hitler's distinctive features into his simplistic artwork of an ass's rear end -- it was undoubtedly a popular image amongst air and ground crew men.

If you have any further knowledge or photographs of this aircraft or its crews please make contact.

[Blue Sky]

 

DRAGON LADY B-17F 42-30836 551st Squadron

Ann Haywood used her vivid imagination to create this powerful nose art painting which was based around an idea from one of the crew. Assigned to 385th Bomb Group in mid September 1943, this B17F was lost on 13th February 1944 while attacking a NoBall V-weapon site near Calais. A direct flak hit wounded several crew members and put two engines out of action. Struggling back, the Fortress was forced to ditch into the Channel. Pilot Lt Edwin Herron pulled six of his crew from the sinking aircraft and was later awarded a DSC for his actions. Air Sea Rescue picked up seven survivors after two and half hours.

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Vediamo se almeno questo è intonso.

 

 

Gadget

F6F-3 BuNo 40467

VF-6 USN

Flown by Lt. Alex Vraciu

At war's end in 1945, Vraciu was the Navy's 4th highest ace with 19 confirmed kills.

[Blue Sky]

 

CALLHOUSE MADAM

PB4Y-1 BuNo 90482 VPB-116 and VPB-104

Originally built as B-24L-10-CO and serialled 44-41599 it was modified to US Navy specifications for a PB4Y-1. Any information on this aircraft's service and its crews would be greatly appreciated.

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Jutta

Fw 190A-8

JG 26

Flown by Josef "Pips" Priller

 

A true 'character' of the Jagdwaffe here in his third 190. He accumulated 101 victories, 40 of them in the Western Front. His personal emblem adorned all of his aircraft and depicts his wife's name Jutta on the ace-of-hearts.

[Blue Sky]

Flown by Josef "Pips" Priller

 

:adorazione:

 

A WING AN' 10 PRAYERS B-24M-30-CO 44-42378 528th Bomb Squadron

 

This is, perhaps, the most elaborate of all Ebbeson's nose paintings incorporating tremendous detail into the nine individual caracatures of crew members. It is believed to show Ray Hill's crew who were regularly assigned to the ship and who also applied a long list of targets attacked onto the left nose of the B24 beside the squadron emblem. These targets included Ipo Dam, Aparri, Baguio, Takao, Hosan, Taichu, Toshien, Saigon, Canton, Balikipapan as well as Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo. A list that was as impressive as Ebbeson's artwork but which saw the plane sustaining damage at some point -- as is witnessed by the shiny new panel of aluminium which is seen in the photo, obscuring a large part of the painting. The B24 survived the war and returned to the USA. Like so many others, it was scrapped in late 1945.

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Christl

Fw 190D-9

JG 6

Flown by Gerhard Barkhorn

Second highest scoring ace of WWII with 301 victories. became Kommodore of JG 6 in early 1945. Named after his wife, his 190 had the usual RLM 81/82 upper surfaces camo with RLM 76 on the sides and underneath. The small #5 aft of the chevron was used to note his fifth aircraft and dates back to his Bf 109F when in JG 52.

 

 

 

Faccio una nota personale: i loti tedeschi non erano granché originali come nose.

[Blue Sky]

 

HAYBAG ANNIE B-17 42-97280 550th Squadron

According to crew chief Ed Hallisey, this aircraft was given the title of "Haybag" while still in the States prior to deployment to England. At Great Ashfield, Ann Haywood was asked to give the Fort a new nose art. She painted a cartoon of herself complete with sketchbook, brushes, a mug of steaming coffee (or tea) and the words "Good Ole Gal!"; then added "Annie" to the title.

"Haybag Annie" survived the war only to overshoot the runway at Valley in Wales on the return trip to the USA. It was damaged beyond repair and the ten crew and ten passengers were forced to start their homeward journey all over again in another aircraft.

[Blue Sky]

Nose art painted by Cpl Nick Fingelly

447th Bomb Group

Rattlesden, England

 

 

SARAH GRAY B-17G-55-BO 42-102567 709th Bomb Squadron

Rolling out of the factory in mid-March 1944, this Fort was at Rattlesden in time to fly its first mission on 29th May, to Liepzig. It would complete 74 sorties before tragedy struck. In dense fog, on New Year's Day 1945, "Sarah Gray" headed down the runway for the last time. In the dank and humid conditions, the heavily laden Fort stalled out as it lifted off and crashed into the ground a mere 400 yards from the main runway. There were no survivors from Lt Sill's crew -- it was his first sortie in the plane, the regular crew being that of Lt Hewitt. They had completed 15 of their missions in the Fortress.

Once again, it is not yet known who named the plane "Sarah Gray" or when it was painted, or who Sarah Gray was. If anyone has this information I would be delighted to learn of it. The only known photograph of the noseart shows Old English style script and no image. Given Nick Fingelly's considerable talent it seems likely that it may also have included a portrait or figure study but there is no evidence of this. The B17 was assigned to Lt Gormly's crew for 22 of its missions which included raids on Berlin, Bremen, Munich and Merseburg. On one occasion, 11th July 44, "Sarah Gray" led the high group of 4th "B" combat wing with Lt G Miller in command. No other lead roles have been recorded and details of its battle damage are, as yet, unknown.

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Lt. Joel B. Paris

P-40N-25

7FS, 49FG

 

With 9 confirmed kills, Paris later also flew P-38's. He did not retain his personal insignia to his P-38 but rather had the name "Georgia Belle" painted on the nose.

Modificato 3 Dicembre 2008 da intruder

[Blue Sky]

DOPEY (version 2) B-24D-45-CO Serial No. 42-40268

Painted by Amos Nicholson.

 

This is the second version of Disney's "Dopey" that was completed by Amos. The first was painted on the left side of "Arkansas Traveler". As with all of his Snow White figures, Nicholson painted his character facing forward towards the nose of the B24. This plane survived in service until being condemned in November 1945 after the end of the war. However, its combat career is as yet unknown. There was at least one further version of "Dopey" which was painted with a forward facing character but its jumbled colourful lettering was stacked diagonally upwards unlike the title displayed on this B24D. On 17th April 1944, the plane suffered a collapse of its right main undercarriage and severe skin wrinkling which suggests possible twisting of the airframe. Whether or not this is 42-40268 or another aircraft altogether is not clear. If the airframe was twisted then it is unlikely that the plane could have remained unsalvaged until 18 months later.

Decades after painting the original version 2 of "Dopey", Amos Nicholson was asked to paint a wall mural depicting the B24 with its distinctive nose art. This he did and duly signed his masterpiece -- something he failed to do on the original aircraft during the war years.