B-25 Mitchells - Part II

[Mark Allen M]

My uncle, Lee Smiley, was one of the earlier pilots of "She's Engaged".

Outstanding!!!!

[gary1954]

AWESOME!!!! AWESOME Mark, THanks man!

[Hemiman]

The -25 with the "E" on the tail is 41-30434 and was attached to the 8th Sqdn, 3rd Attack Group. Regular crew was Rust/Payson with Ball and Dodge as gunners.

The -25 in the barrel reventment at 7-mile is "Algernon IV", 13th Sq, 3rd Attack Group. Lost while being piloted by William Benn..

http://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/b ... 12485.html

[Pat Carry]

Mark, those are fantastic!

[Ken]

Some observations:

Pic 1 - interesting how the MTO B-25's lost their cheek guns in theatre

Pic 2 - the near B-25J has factory camo, while the far one has the OD uppers sprayed over NMF. Also seems like the pilots quarter armored windshield was often removed. Airplane has unfaired top turret slug deflectors

Pic 3 - 43-27636, 2 digits off the real "Briefing Time". Another nice shot of 636 is in section 5 or 6 as well

Was Bones the last B-25 from that factory or just the last B-25H?

On the first Mk13 torpedo shot, the waist star & bar on 433905 looks funny, the rivet counter in me thinks that was a field repaint??

The "My Buddy" shots are neat, never knew the tube at the end of the nacelle stuck out so far on the early models. Nose radar whiskers and a pair of some other antennas(?) show under the right horizontal

The Russian airplane - is that exhaust correct for an early C?

The 12th AF photo of 9Z, 8R, and 6P is the famous shot where all have #2 engine shut down

The 2 B-25H's parked nose to nose, right airplane has nonstandard ram's horn antenna, cool

The photo that says "B-25J PROJ" - all visible ships are B-25G's

The wrecked C/D on the reclamation trailer - is that a nonstandard waist window??

The desert C/D, didn't realize they had wing racks available on those models or was that a field mod?

Airplane with circled wing damage. Looks like pilot has more rudder in than in the shots of the J-models flying single engine

Nice to see the original Barbie III!!

B-25G 264968 is a neat example of the early tail gun and what would become the standard waist windows

"She's Engaged" struck me as the classic B-25J wartime shot. Love the photo and would love to see a flying warbird adopt that scheme

Ken

[Ken]

What's happened to WIX? I'm no B-25 expert but I figured I brought up a handful of points that would normally cause an explosion of knowledge to be shared ... guess I'll go back to watching the grass grow.

[Stoney]

I always wondered why we flew step up in "Catch 22" the chief pilot told me that's the way they did in WWII, but when you turn into your wingman he looses sight of you, not good.

[Travisd80elcam]

Ken, great questions and observations. I myself have been wondering a few things about b25s. Like if they equipped with the "cheek guns", where are the ammo cans and chutes at considering it gets cramped in the 25 quickly. Then I've also been wondering what the deal was with the added side amor by the pilots? Some photos show them installed and others removed( I know it was a add on to later models). Thanks Mark for sharing the photos. Can never get enough shots of the bombers or my two favorite fighters(P-38 and Corsair).

Travis

[gary1954]

What's happened to WIX? I'm no B-25 expert but I figured I brought up a handful of points that would normally cause an explosion of knowledge to be shared ... guess I'll go back to watching the grass grow.

man, these are awesome, my brain is on over load an the GF is a little pissed I hang out here all the time

[Ken]

I've also been wondering what the deal was with the added side armor by the pilots? Some photos show them installed and others removed. Travis

It looks as though the cockpit armor plates were introduced on the factory G model and remained throughout the J series. The edges were trimmed in wood. I have always heard that there were field kits, but I can't say that I recall seeing any C/D model photos with the armor installed. As far as removing the armor, I suppose you could find a few examples where it was removed from war weary/squadron hacks. Of course, airplanes that went through postwar TB-25 mods (I assume most but maybe not all) lost their armor in the process. A handful of airplanes still sport armor (or simulated), "Briefing Time" and the NEAM B-25H come to mind, although there are more.

Follow this link and scroll down to see a great shot of a B-25G and highlight of the wood trim:
http://www.airfields-freeman.com/HI/Air ... Oahu_N.htm

[sandiego89]

Great group of photo's, thank you for sharing. The picture of the Oscar attack was especially interesting as I have not seen many photos of japanese attacks on US aircraft - would have thought the photographer would have been aiming a 50 cal instead!

[seabee1526]

Very nice...I may have missed it, do you have a pic of the now Yankee Warrior during the war?

[Mark Allen M]

Pictures not available

[Mark Allen M]

Pictures not available

[Ken]

It's interesting how many B-25 units removed the cheek guns, even the photo of the solid nose 13th AF J strafer taken (while strafing) has the packages removed. Looks like the Crusaders cross on the tail by the way, serial repainted lower.

Kinda makes me wonder what happened to all of those aluminum fairings. You would think that with so many of them laying around in theatre, there'd be all sorts of GI mods made to them.