Warbird Information Exchange

Why is it that we have no B25 preserved or flying in Australia? It is like they are a "bad " thing to me.. they are common as in some respects and we aussies flew them but somehow no one in oz wants to fly/own one...?

Sad...sure costs could be a thing but still... many people could restore one if they were keen to...

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Fighters pilots are born to make movies , bomber pilots make HISTORY, cargo crews haul their material and fame.

One of the WIX forumites did operate one, and I'm pretty sure he would have preferred it to still fly in Oz!

T J

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Make my day, punk!

Not entirely true, I photographed this one at the Aviation Heritage Museum (Darwin) in 2001:

http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=149432

Tillerman.

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Jets are nice. Props are nicer.

Australia is fortunate to have one static preserved B25, a rare B25C operated by the USAAF in the Pacific - 41-30222

http://www.darwinsairwar.com.au/collection.html#aircraft

An airworthy B25J was imported in the 1980's for the Australian War Memorial and was flown for a few years until it was grounded for static display in the collection, however unfortunately the AWM chose to dsipose of the aircraft from its collection in the late 1990's as not being relevent, and it returned for airworthy operations back to the USA.

Although a number of B25s operated from Australia during WW2 either with the USAAF, NEIAF (1 squadron) RAAF (2 squadrons) none operated civily post war and of the 4 known intact wrecks in Australia post war only the one in Darwin has survived into preservation.

There continues to be talk of a further warbird purchase and operation but todate these have not progressed, while other more exotic types such as the A26 and now A20 have done so.

The rising $A against the $USD might finally allow an individual or syndicate to proceed?

regards

Mark Pilkington

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20th Century - The Age of Manned Flight
"from Wrights to Armstrong in 66 years -WOW!"

Greetings to you guys "Down Under"

Maybe a little off topic, but perhaps you could be of help to me. I am aware that the RAAF did fly some B-25's during WWII...but you also had some PBJs as "guests" in March of 1945.

The pilots of VMB-611, then on Emirau Island, were allowed to rotate "R&R," flying a PBJ to Sydney; however, some were unable to go when they were reassigned to Zamboanga, Mindanao, P.I. My father, his copilot and four other pilots were lucky, they got to go to Sydney on March 11, with my father flying the trip there.

As you can note in his flight log, thay had a stop-over in Kerns...I can not find a Kerns, Australia...I think the mis-spelling is supposed to be Cairns as it is mid-point (3.0 hours) to Sydney. I don't know if Cairns had any military air bases during WWII or if they landed at a civilan airport.

Would I be correct in thinking that the log entry for Kerns was Cairns?

Thanks, Dave

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In Honor and Memory of Marine Bombing Squadron VMB 611 "Black Seahorse" 1943-1945
Remembering 1st Lt Doit L Fish, MIA May 30, 1945 in PBJ-1J "MB 11"
Cherry Point - Parris Island - Emirau - Zamboanga

There was a major US base at Townsville - "Garbut" and Townsville is about 540km (@350 miles) south of Cairns, I am not aware of any RAAF or US bases at Cairns but the PBJ may have had the range to fly beyond Townsville and therefore use a civil airfield for staging North.

I would agree that "kerns" would most likely be a phonic interpretation of the name "Cairns".

Regards

Mark Pilkington

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20th Century - The Age of Manned Flight
"from Wrights to Armstrong in 66 years -WOW!"

Mark,

Thanks for your response. I did a quick Google on Townsville and Garbutt Air Base. I stongly suspect that Garbutt is where the PBJs did their stop-over for fuel. It appears it was a large base and had bomber aircraft, including B-25s...easy to service a PBJ there.

I have found some minor mis-spelling and names of places they entered in their log, which I suspect they got from their WWII maps, and cannot be found on today's modern Google Earth, such as Del Monte on Northern Mindanao. One has to remember these American boys were in places they didn't know about or may not have studied in high school. "Kerns," meaning "Cairns" could have been on their flight manifest, as perhaps it was a larger city, but Garbutt was their actual stop. Sadly, the one VMB-611 pilot vet I have contact with is one of those that did not get to go to Sydney.

Anyway, thanks again and it looks like your Museum would be a nice place to visit.

Dave

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In Honor and Memory of Marine Bombing Squadron VMB 611 "Black Seahorse" 1943-1945
Remembering 1st Lt Doit L Fish, MIA May 30, 1945 in PBJ-1J "MB 11"
Cherry Point - Parris Island - Emirau - Zamboanga

Wait, so "Tokio" isn't the correct spelling for the Japanese capital city?

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Phil K.
Yankee Air Museum
Systems Admin / Ramp Crew / Professional Photo Ruiner