Warbird Information Exchange

Something I've always wondered but never learned: What's the purpose of the small tail bubble in the earlier models? It looks too tight to get a crewman back there, or for him to be able to accomplish much if he did shoehorn in.

Thanks again Mark, wonderful stuff as always!!

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Cheers,
Kurt Maurer
League City, Texas

PIC, Ford 6600 pulling Rhino batwing up and down the runway

I think that the small Plexiglas cover you are mentioning was to cover the rear position lights what colors were they? Red on left and White on right.

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Kind Regards,
Gary Lewis
J.A.F.O.

mark, it always pleases me to see your posts, simply amazing.

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Remember, the propeller is only there to keep the pilot cool.If you don't believe me, have it stop and watch the pilot start sweating!

Why thank ya Sir!!! my pleasure ... but you ain't seen nothing yet!!!!

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“Knowing what’s right, doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.”

**Deer in the headlights look ** I have my glasses on now Mr. Mark, fire......away

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Kind Regards,
Gary Lewis
J.A.F.O.

I believe he's referring to the tail cone bubble, the same one the Raiders installed the broomsticks and painted the false travel slots in. The nav lights are a different story.

Ken

PS: If you google images of the first production B-25, then B-25A, you will see that it had a tail gun position. The B/C/D/G series (excepting very late models) had the tail gunner deleted and the bubble instead. I would assume that the NAA engineers felt like the bubble was better than nothing. IIRC, the bubble was also where strike cameras were placed in the Raider airplanes, if not more, but that's a stretch of memory.

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

That last photo was amazing - you don't usually get close-up enough to see the enemy sailors so clearly, in this case cowering behind the turret or sprawled on the deck. Let's see some more!

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All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

I once knew stuff about the Doolittle Raid, but now have CRS. Did they stick broom handles in the "tail gun" position, or in the turrets and noses? I can't remember if they carried any defensive armament at all, now that I think about it. Guess I need to revisit that little episode, my memory just ain't gittin' it.

Guess the tail cone blister was more or less for grins, then? Nothing, really, back there? I was thinking position lights like we see on '17's and '24's, only never saw any hint of such on the early '25's ..... or anything else, thus the question.

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Cheers,
Kurt Maurer
League City, Texas

PIC, Ford 6600 pulling Rhino batwing up and down the runway

Page two of this thread has a decent photo of the B-25A tail gunner enclosure.

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/p ... =3&t=39149

In addition, this National Archive photo is a nice view of the wooden sticks drilled into the plexi bubble and the black paint used to resemble gun travel slots.



Defensively, the Raider airplanes has a .30 in the nose (which could be fired through a handful of gun ports in the nose glazing) and the twin .50s in the dorsal turret. The lower turret was removed and replaced with a fuel tank.

I'll let someone smarter chime in on position lights configurations from the 40's, but those bulbs are normally placed behind flat, convex, or bulged lenses that you could hold in the palm of your hand, not a big 'ole bubble as seen on the B-25B/C/D.

Ken

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

Leo, I wonder if I might have a picture of Mr. Smiley. I crew on CAF MN wing's B25J Miss Mitchell, which I believe was a squadron mate of She's Engaged (by the way Ken, your comment about having a plane with that paint scheme - ours is the same except the nose art of course). The original man who painted the nose art on Miss Mitchell, and others in that squadron, was located in the 1980s/early 90s when our plane was in restoration, he painted the nose art on our plane as well as several mock ups for others in the same squadron, which we have hung in the hanger, including one of She's Engaged.

When we were at the 2012 Doolittle Reunion in Dayton we met a man named Nick Faren, who was a top turret gunner / engineer in B25 Js and Hs in the same squadron Miss Mitchell was in. He remembered flying with Miss Mitchell and also mentioned crewing in She's Engaged.

When Nick came to the event, he brought a bunch of stuff from his unit including original documents, mission orders, and pictures. Below is one pic of She's Engaged with an unknown aviator in the pilot's seat, perhaps your uncle?:



Nick also had a few pics of himself in the upper turret, we ended up getting him in our turret and powered it up, he picked up pretty quick on the controls!







Nick telling me about his time in H models, when he doubled as the top turret gunner and canoneer. He mentioned how much velocity the ejected shell had when the cannon fired, and how this would often dent the aluminum on the bomb bay from shell impacts. After this we inspected Barbie III and found these shell markings.



Mark Allen, apologies for hijacking your thread but I thought above comment was too much of a coincidence to not post the pic. This is a great thread, thank you for taking the time to post it! Gratefully, Nate

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http://www.youtube.com/type99mg

This is the very reason I post old photos and spend waaaay too much time on this website. It's because of outstanding posts such as Nate's. Thx Mark

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“Knowing what’s right, doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.”

One of my favorite pictures of B-25s are the ones laying a ribbon of para-frags over a base.

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Remember, the propeller is only there to keep the pilot cool.If you don't believe me, have it stop and watch the pilot start sweating!

Holy smokes. Did anyone else notice how low the B-25 is in the sequence of the depth charge attack? The props are barely clearly the water and they are leaving a wake!

Chappie

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Brrring. Dispersal? TWO SECTIONS SCRAMBLE!!

My favorite aspect as well, Mark. Never get tired of these. Like finding gold.
Ken

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

Alright time for my questions/commentary.


What are the 5 diagonal lines on the aft fuselage? Proto-Invasion Stripes?


This is of special interest to me - knowing that the TSWM's B-25 (Axis Nightmare, 45-8898) was the 10th to last off the production line and is the newest remaining 25. I sometimes mention that I don't know what happened to the 9 newer ones, now I can say I don't know any information about only the 8 newer ones. Whoo hoo!


Now that you mention it, it would seem that you're correct. Darn.

Kind of interesting when you realize it as I just did - that both American and Soviet workers left messages on their planes. I mean there is a difference in situation (text - names vs. slogans/phrases, reason - commemorating a milestone vs. propagandistic morale boost, audience - the workers themselves vs. the soldiers at the front) - but still similar nonetheless (both demonstrate a pride in their work). Anyone know if this happened with any of the other combatants?


This has to be one of my new favorite paint schemes. I guess I'm just a sucker for those shark mouths.


I remember reading about how the ash from the eruption melted those perspex canopies - I can't say I remember ever seeing it before though.


That looks to be a Benson/Gleaves-class destroyer. If you could "zoom and enhance" the number on the stern, I could easily tell you.


Those are some amazing photos right there!


The vessel almost appears to be a landing boat of some sort. Interesting that the B-25s would attack with depth charges - guess you used whatever you had! The spots on the left side of the third photo appear to be casings from the tail gun.


It never lets up! The blow-your-mind photos just keep coming!

The fact that this is a DE (Japanese: Kaibokan) would seem to check out - Japan didn't start construction on escorts until late in the war - too late. Anyway, I would expect there to be more photos of Japanese destroyer escorts from later in the war for this reason, as well as because the capital and larger ships had been mostly sunk by this time so the only targets remaining would be smaller warships and transports. From the visual side of things, the size is consistent with a DE.

According to Wikipedia, 3 Type D escorts were sunk on that date, of which 2 were sunk by air attack: No. 18 & No. 130.

I'm never quite sure when to stop myself, so somebody please do so if I go to far.

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Tri-State Warbird Museum Collections Manager & Museum Attendant

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