Warbird Information Exchange

A-20Bs 47th BG Africa 1943

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Don't touch my junk!!

Those guys are really flying a tight formation or the telephoto is really compressing that image. I would guess the latter, as flying that low AND close together would start to be a slightly dangerous sort of thing!

Tunisia? Those mountains or escarpment are pretty big.

The Havocs, Bostons and friends snafu'd Rommel's overstretched supply lines to the point that what few tanks he had left had little petrol. Caught in a squeeze play from the East and West it was only a matter of time, Desert Fox or not.

Was it a common practice to paint over large portions of the bombardier nose perspex sections?

Dean the curious

I don't think the 4th BG, at this time, used bombardiers because of their low level mission.
Putting camo on the upper portion of the glass to stop reflection makes good sense in this case.

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Don't touch my junk!!

Jack,

I ran across some more pictures from Google Life that are dated 1943 and credit Eliot Elisofon as the photographer.Otherwise the captions are not very enlightening other than to say that these are A-20's over Tunisia.

Hey Jack have you ever seen any of the A-20 depicted at the NMUSAF or atleast in that group attacking targets. I love the skull and cross bones on the nose.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

I missed this one yesterday.It looks like the same outfit.I read somewhere that the lighter color in the camouflage is daubed on mud.

If you are referring to the skull and cross painted on the front of the nose, that would be the 312th BG and there are tons of photos of that group attacking enemy targets. There is a famous series of photos showing a 312th A-20 going down at Kokas, Dutch New Guinea, while attacking enemy targets there. If you look close you can see the skull on the front of the airplane. This photo appears on the dust cover of "Wreaking Havoc" by Joseph W. Rutter. This book covers the author's experience with the 312th. See a book titled : "Low Level Attack: The Pacific" by John W. Lambert for some 312th action photos.

TonyM

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"Welcome back Mr. Lasky."

It might interest you that Glen Edwards namesake the Edwards AFB was a flight leader in the squuadron the 86th BS 47th BG and flew 50 missions being awarded 4 DFCs and 6 Air Medals.

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Don't touch my junk!!