Warbird Information Exchange

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

Didn't Curdes shoot and cripple a C-47 that was heading the wrong way forcing it to land before it got to enemy territory? And did his Crew Chief tell him 'ever ting otay spanky'

Don't know where, but would assume either Africa or Italy, but POOPSIE is a chow hound, a weary stripped out and used on crew R&R missions/'grocery' trips, the 345th famous TONDELEO became CHOW HOUND when her combat days were over.

Harriet L. is an F-5 photo recon version of the P-38 so those are camera mission markers.
Same story with the F9F-2P.

The elephants on the pig boat are most likely sucessful DUMBO rescue missions.

Don't know who the little cutie is relaxing on the supervisors desk (she really was cute!), but it's an interesting insight into how the paperwork went down the line with the airplane until it rolled out the door without having to bundle up and move the ships paperwork every hour or so. When the airplane went out the door, more than likely the desk/cart was rolled back to the far end of the line for the next one coming.

Frank Danovski must have been a hell of a shot to get 13 kills with a covered windscreen and canopy, and Red Green would be very proud of all the duct tape. 'keep your stick on the ice'

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

Clive Caldwell, RAAF. One of a relatively few pilots to have victories over all combatant Axis nations; Italian, German and Japanese kill marks. (But note the P-51 with all of those and a US kill marking above!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Caldwell

Busted for (getting caught) selling booze to Yanks, and made an example of, perhaps for his role in the 'Moriotai Mutiny'.

Regards,

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James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

I think it's a good bet that her name is somewhere on that Lib...

Let's look, shall we?

Hmmm... no, don't see it here...




Not back here either...




Why don't we ask one of her friends?

"Hey, you... doll-face at the desk... would you happen to know... geez, what'd I say?"

This is actually a thought-provoking shot... the one Mark posted shows the vertical stabs unpainted... with signatures, while here the stabs are painted with different signatures. Would they have painted right over the signatures, or cleaned them off first? Anyone?




Moving right along, I don't see nuthin' here either...




Maybe a bird's-eye-view will hel... nope...




I kinda doubt her name is there...




I give up...




Oh wait... I think I see...




Nope, nevermind... my eyes is foolin'-wit me...




Wait, maybe some of her other friends will know...

Meh, no dice... shoot, I'm faded...







Source for all images this post


I'll find out eventually...


I believe this is the last B-24 built at Forth Worth, yes?


Fade to Black...

Epitaph for 444501, B-24J-105-CF-Condemned and salvaged 5/26/45

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

Just five days after she suffered a takeoff accident at Dudhkundi, India while with the 493rd BS, 7th BG, Tenth Air Force. The pilot was Ralph L. Goodrich Jr. Anyone have more info?

EDIT: Was looking through my 7th BG stuff and found this. The filename for the image made me take another look at all those photos and I realized that I'd totally missed the name, 'The Spirit of Fort Worth' on the right side of the nose.



Anyhoo, that prompted me to look through some links and I found some more images of this ship on a 7th BG site... they're near the bottom. Kinda small, but what the hey...

http://www.7thbg.org/stu.htm


Fade to Black...

Some on this bird here and it brings to mind the flying restored Jug we were discussing a few weeks ago and Republic anniversary celebrations.....scroll down to last paragraph...
http://airandspace.si.edu/collections/a ... 9600306000

EDIT

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He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

Yes, I am pretty certain that is an RNZAF photo and it shows a No. 6 Squadron RNZAF Catalina. All WWII RNZAF Catalinas that completed dumbo missions received those markings.

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The Wings Over New Zealand Forum http://rnzaf.proboards.com

The Wings Over New Zealand Show http://www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/WONZ_Show.html

Wings Over Cambridge http://www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz

I believe the symbols on the F-5 (recon P-38) and Panther represent cameras, denoting photo missinos.

The "artwork" on the Avenger looks to be a piece of paper crudely stuck to the aircraft, rather than painted on the skin itself.

Great pics..and I agree, that "Rosie" in the tight white sweater is a real looker!

SN

Joe deBona in the cockpit of F6C "Thunderbird" owned and sponsored by Jimmy Stewart. !st place 1949 Bendix Trophy Race, Muroc, CA to Cleveland, OH at 470 mph.
Chris...

I'm not sure how Jenny Scott feels about embedding photos from her Flickr account, so I'll just put a thumbnail and link here.


RNZAF 6 SQ. by Adelaide Archivist, on Flickr

Mac McCullough painting 'Dumbo' on RNZAF 6 Squadron PBY-5 at Halavo Bay, Solomon islands, 1944-45.
Photo courtesy of N.W. 'Norm' Brailey. {this photo is in the 2 March 1944 entry of DUMBO DIARY}

Looks to be the same Dumbo shape, and eyes etc.

EDIT: I assume that a mission marking was per DUMBO-tasking mission completed, as opposed to an actual successful rescue (6 SQN had 26 pickups in 2 years).

Somebody needs to crank out decal sheets of these oddball mission markers since, I'm sure I'm not the only builder who tosses the 'oh geez! AGAIN?' endlessly and unimaginative 'sameoldsameold' sheets in a drawer straight out of the kit box.

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

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

Mark, Errol's link he posted of the Dumbo artwork being applied was culled from Jenny Scott's Fickr posting....hallloooo anybody home?

_________________
He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

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