A Little Of My South Pacific Color

[Jack Cook]

P-47Ds of the 348th FG in their revetments at Dobodura, NG 1944.

B-25D 345th BG New Guinea 1943

C-47A unloading at Tsili Tsili, NG 1943

P-39N 40th FS Tsili Tsili 1943

P-40N 8th FS Dobodura, NG 1943

P-38H 9th FS Dobodura, NG 1943

C-47A unloading at Dobodura 1943

B-24H 90th BG parking in it's revetment post mission

B-24D 7th AF

runway construction New Guinea

Munda Point, New Georgia 1943

Zero at Munda Point

P-40Bs 15th PG dispersed after Dec7th.

[The Inspector]

Wish that shot of the 345ths AIR APACHE B-25 was a bit more in focus to see which 500ths aircraft it was-

[Jack Cook]

The B-25D is Thumper from the 501st BS, the P-38H is Eager Beaver of ace Jack Mankin and the P-39 is ace Bob Yaeger's.

[The Inspector]

DANKE meinen herr

[Robbie Stuart]

Great stuff as always Jack.
Robbie

[k5083]

Nice. Love the Zero shot. The first C-47 shot shows an example of white bars added to the US roundel with no surround; what we were calling type "D" insignia in the recent stars 'n bars thread.

August

[TAdan]

Is the C-47 unloading in the 7th shot missing it's tail?

[The Inspector]

NAW!!! I think Bev Doolittle did the camoflage work.

[51fixer]

Is the C-47 unloading in the 7th shot missing it's tail?

Missing the side door as well.
Might be practicing or engineering a way to transport trucks.
Maybe they don't have KP and they are punished by load the truck, unload the truck. Do it 25 times.
Rich

[Second Air Force]

Is the C-47 unloading in the 7th shot missing it's tail?

Missing the side door as well.
Might be practicing or engineering a way to transport trucks.
Maybe they don't have KP and they are punished by load the truck, unload the truck. Do it 25 times.
Rich

I hadn't noticed that detail the first time I looked at the photo. The horizontal has been removed also.

I was too busy studying the half-truck. Rich, I bet you're correct in that the crew is doing a practice load.

Scott

[Jarink1]

Cool photos. Thanks for posting them!

[Mark_Pilkington]

Is the C-47 unloading in the 7th shot missing it's tail?

Missing the side door as well.
Might be practicing or engineering a way to transport trucks.
Maybe they don't have KP and they are punished by load the truck, unload the truck. Do it 25 times.
Rich

I hadn't noticed that detail the first time I looked at the photo. The horizontal has been removed also.

I was too busy studying the half-truck. Rich, I bet you're correct in that the crew is doing a practice load.

Scott

No! its a very rare shot of the C-47Lite, a stripped down aircraft to improve its payload capacity for heavy vehicle transport, in addition to removal of the cargo doors, vertical and horizontal stabilisers, it also had the wing outer panels removed, although it achieved the reduced weight required, its short field and tropical take-off performance suffered greatly and the idea did not catch on - smiles.

Grabs his hat and coat as he sneaks out the back door.

regards

Mark Pilkington

[gunnyperdue]

Jack-

Very cool... thanks for the color! I am wondering though.... the paint on all but the P-40 looks greener than normal OD 41... at least to me... do you suppose it is the slide/ time/ or maybe bleaching.... what are your thoughts? We're going to be doing a NG C-47 soon and I want to get an accurate color.

thanks,
gunny

[JägerMarty]

Great pics Jack! many thanks, keep 'em coming!