Warbird Information Exchange

I also felt like the digit was an "8" due to the asymmetry between the halves. Given that Crew 6 was captured in a Japanese-held area, then one would think it would have been more likely for that aircraft to be recovered.

Only after rereading the thread did I realize these were postwar pix. Too bad these parts weren't preserved.

Ken

_________________
"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

Here's a look at one of the other "8" candidates...

http://www.doolittleraid.com/Research01.htm



Glad I checked in. Those images certainly look appropriate for a B-model!

_________________
Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

That may be an “8”, but is it the right kind of “8”?

Looks like it has smooth contours, while the S/Ns on the Raider B-25s were 45-degree block characters that were stenciled on. There’s a distinct possibility that it’s an optical illusion, or a number that was applied by the Japanese post-retrieval.

It opens the door to it being any one of a number of Raider B-25s. The only known historical reference to a plane being retrieved by the Japanese and returned to Japan is Ted Lawson’s mention of the Duck’s fate in Thirty Seconds. But even that is suspect, since the information came to him second hand.

However, given his recollections of seeing the Duck’s remains post crash (detached tail twisted and projecting out of the water), and it’s location, the wreckage in those pictures seems to match and it would probably be the mostly likely of the planes to be recovered at least in part by the Japanese.