Original PB4Y-1 Nose Art

ACarey · **Posted:** Sat Sep 25, 2010 8:39 pm

Partial original nose art for PB4Y-1 Bureau Number 32108. The piece measures app. 2x3 feet. The original work had the word THUNDER on the left and MUG on the right.

John Kerr · **Posted:** Sun Sep 26, 2010 8:07 am

Better hide it before the USN Museum tries to claim it belongs to them.

John Kerr · **Posted:** Sun Sep 26, 2010 9:15 am

Here are the only two photos in my collection of Olde 8 Ball - Thunder Mug.
PB4Y-1 32108 VP-109. Do you have any more photos of it that you might
want to share.

ACarey · **Posted:** Sun Sep 26, 2010 7:45 pm

I don't recall any other pics but I'll check.

gregv · **Posted:** Sun Sep 26, 2010 7:55 pm

There's a shot of Thunder Mug in the old ARCO B-24 book, showing it after the landing incident that iirc ended its career. I'll try to scan it tomorrow at work and post it.

greg v.

Second Air Force · **Posted:** Sun Sep 26, 2010 8:15 pm

I don't have my copy with me, but I'm pretty certain the post-damage photo is in Steve Birdsall's Log Of The Liberators also.

Scott

gregv · **Posted:** Sun Sep 26, 2010 8:50 pm

Scott

I believe you are correct, and that is a great book by the way! "Saga of The Superfortress" by the same author is also great.

gregv.

Steve Nelson · **Posted:** Mon Sep 27, 2010 12:41 am

Not sure if it's in "Log of the Liberators," but here is a scan of the pic from Birdsall's "The B-24 Liberator" from Arco's "Famous Aircraft" series.

If I'm not mistaken, "thunder mug" is a slang term for an old fashioned chamber pot..in the days before indoor plumbing it was kept in the bedroom for nights when it was too cold to go out to the privy.

Is the background color of the nose art panel dark blue? In the photos, it appears the aircraft is painted OD/Neutral Gray like many PB4Y-1s.

SN

Second Air Force · **Posted:** Mon Sep 27, 2010 8:35 am

That's the photo I'm thinking of, Steve. It may not be in Log Of The Liberators, but I knew it was in one of Steve's works. Poor old warhorse!

Oh, Thundermug was in standard USAAF o.d/grey--she came off the San Diego assembly line as a standard B-24D-110-CO, AAF serial 42-40898.

Scott

Django · **Posted:** Mon Sep 27, 2010 10:21 am

Wow! What is the story on how that survived Alan??

ACarey · **Posted:** Mon Sep 27, 2010 5:13 pm

One of the crew cut it out and had it for over 60 years. His widow has it now. The original piece, I saw it on an old home movie from 1945, was larger and cut square.

DaveG · **Posted:** Mon Sep 27, 2010 7:26 pm

Steve Nelson wrote:

If I'm not mistaken, "thunder mug" is a slang term for an old fashioned chamber pot..in the days before indoor plumbing it was kept in the bedroom for nights when it was too cold to go out to the privy.

my goal for tomorrow is to work the term "thunder mug" into a conversation that has nothing to do with PB4Y-1's

ACarey · **Posted:** Mon Sep 27, 2010 7:33 pm

DaveG wrote:

Steve Nelson wrote:

If I'm not mistaken, "thunder mug" is a slang term for an old fashioned chamber pot..in the days before indoor plumbing it was kept in the bedroom for nights when it was too cold to go out to the privy.

my goal for tomorrow is to work the term "thunder mug" into a conversation that has nothing to do with B-24's.

How about, "My great granny used to give my great grandpa hell when he made too much noise using his thunder mug during the middle of the night!"

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