An older man comes to visit me often. He was in the Masonic Lodge with my grandfather in Guymon, OK. In our visits he has told me about flying on Bombers during WWII. Today he told me after 3 tours overseas he was sent to California where they would be doing R&D work. On one test they were to fly a B-25 up with some field artillary boys. They would fire 3 shells through a mounted gun. He said the shells were about 4"-41/2". They dove the plane at 45 degrees and fired the first 2 rounds and had to quit because they had gone from over 300 mph to close to stall speed. They never fired the 3rd round. When they landed he said most of the planes rivets were loose and some where missing. I love hearing his stories. Not many of these oldtimers are with us anymore. I told him about us hotrodders putting bomber seats in our cars. He thought we were all crazy. He said they used to sit on the floors while flying because the seats were so uncomfortable.
Make that man your new best friend. It's great when those guys will talk to you. This is what he wrenched on.
thats awesome man. Maybe even consider recording some of his stories with a camcorder. We did that with my grandmother and it is invaluable. Heres one of my grampa eddie and the rest of the crew in front of the B-24 liberator. I posted this one once before in another thread. Man I wish he was still around, bet he had some stories!
Wow. Thats an old D model Lib. They had to fly through ****. No ****** fighters, nasty flak, and the best of the Luftwaffe. Glad to see he made it through the big one.
All around us in Western Poland are B-24 crash sites. Mrs Bluto's dad has a barn full of stuff beside the steam locomotives
cool story- every year there are a couple WWII restored bombers that tour here, and stop by our local airport- I always make a point to see them, by some stuff (hats, shirts, books, videos). You can take rides for $400 per hour or so if you have the loot (I didn't take one yet) Those planes are awesome- I took some pics this year they bring B-25, B-17, and B-24- see below for this years pics- we got to walk through the planes as many times as we wanted, they stayed for 3 days- each day they take off and land multiple times with each plane- being a WWI-WWII war buff with family from grandfather up that served, I developed an interest in them from a young age. Another great experience is touring one of the Navy battleships- I was on the USS M***achusetts. Those planes are the most majestic machines I've ever seen in my life- and the heritage behind them, and actually getting to see them fly- it's awesome- brings a tear to your eye. After walking through the planes, one really gets to know and appreciate the sacrifice and risk our dads/uncles/grand-dads took, to preserve this freedom we have now. The looked death in the eye daily flying those missions.
That is a B-25H, there were also B-25G's with an aft dorsal turret. The cannon is a 75mm (yes 75mm) with 4 .50's in the nose. along with 4 .50's on the fuse and 2 more forward firing in the top turret. Some B-25J's had 18 .50's forward firing. Damn, thats like the wrath of god. B-25's are very cool ships, although not super rare.
Not being Super Rare is a testament to there survivabilty and ruggedness and the crews that survived because of it. its a shame more of the old planes did not survive after the war as survied the war, so much history lost to use that we can never recover
That H is rare though. It's the only one flying. I got to meet the man that made all the replica guns (yes ALL of them). The crew was super cool when I met them up a Oshkosh. They let me and my friend poke arouond inside! If you want to see why B-25s aren't as rare as other planes, watch the movie "Catch-22." They resurected a whole damn squadron of them just for a few scenes.
My dad's brother (just younger than he was) was a co-pilot on a B-17. Flew with the "****** 100th" His plane was one of three that was lost on the 100'ths first bomb run over Bremen June 23, 1943. They had no fighter support at all. Had made their run and encountered German fighters while returning to England. I have all of his war records and training papers. I plan on donating them to the museum at Love Field. He was friends with some of the ones that later on went on to become bomber heros of sorts.
I wish i could find some of the pics that show the planes lined up for s****. These beautiful machines that brought our fathers and grandfathers back were no match for the s****pers axe and torch. While they all could not be saved, there was a few that were s****ed to extinction. (so far, there's always hope, and russia) B-25 were used well into the 60's, which is why we have quite a few. Although the cool variants didn't survive intact. I worked on the most original and highest mission (80) survivor. How 'boot that!
ironic part about alot of the planes s****ped in the ETO is that they hired germans to do alot of the demo work! some of the same guys that manned the flak guns and etc couldn't believe that they were being paid to destroy the same planes they shot at only months before. read a book called "air command" (compilation of "fighter command" and "bomber command") and it related a B-26 pilot's story about seeing HIS own plane being blown apart, dozed and burned in a newsreel at a theater after they sent him home. THANK GOD there's some b-25s left. no B-26s flying, last i heard, but they do have one in dayton. poor B-24s didn't fare well. only one flying, i think. a wildcat pilot told me they experimented with putting two 40mm cannons in the wings of wildcats, and if fired seperately, the plane would steer out of control, and would stall in a dive if fired in unison. there's a D-Day vet and an okinawa vet at the lodge that my grandpa and i go to. amazing... columbus ohio will be hosting a P-51 fly in next year, supposed to draw over 100 WWII planes, most of which will be P-51s.
This is a actual photo of a B-25B aboard the USS Hemet in 1942. Taken by a Doolittle Raider. Doolittle and his men trained here in Columbia SC about 3 miles from my home. My wife taught school with a Doolittle Raider member and the Raiders had their reunion here in 2004. Sadly, these old guys are dying off at a terrible rate. Most WWII veterns are 80 years old or older ... if they are still with us. My Dad died Nov. 3 2004 at 83 years of age. He was a vetern of WWII. Honor these folks ... because if they had not done what they did and sacificed like they did ... we could not enjoy the life we have today ...
there's 16 of those raiders still alive, man. at the air force museum in dayton, they have an amazing display of their gear. actual clothes they wore, including the silk shirts that ted lawson and his crew were given by chinese civilians as they evaded the japanese. they also have a case with 80 silver cups in it and a bottle of 1896 hennessy cognac, one for every raider. these cups have been used in their reunions for years for their toast. the upright cups belong to those still living, when a crew member dies, his cup is set upside down. when the last two raiders get together, they'll toast with that bottle of 110 year old cognac. had alot of emotions when i went there, and those cups damnnear brought me to tears.
Yes ... I saw them when the reunion was here two years ago. They also had a flyover of the B-25's ... right up Main Street Columbia SC ... I took a day off work to go ... Doolittle Raider ... Horace " Sally " Crouch taught high school math with my wife for years. My wife taught algebra and calucus in the same Math department with him. Mr. Crouch was on crew 10. He was the navigator/bombardier. I met him quite a few times. Sadly, Sally p***ed away December 21, 2005 at the age of 87. Here is his obit from our AP wire ... http://www.doolittleraider.com/raiders/crouch.htm
B 26 here www.fantasyofflight.com . Hasn't had it up in a few years but still airworthy AFAIK. Also has B 17,23,25,29 and lots more war I &II birds. Has to be one of the largest collections of flyable warbirds anywhere. I run an RV park next door and you never know what your going to see next. From the famous to the unknown so many have been through there and Kermit is a walking aviation encyclopedia. I never get tired of hearing the stories. I think there's a B26 around the Canton,Oh airport undergoing restoration. http://fantasyofflight.com/corpphotos/corp_photo_twelve.htm http://fantasyofflight.com/corpphotos/corp_photo_one.htm
Paul Allen has started a working museum for aircraft like this. You can go and tour the planes and see a few fly. They have a list they are restoring and what they have restored. Pretty amazing. http://www.flyingheritage.com
imagine having to climb out on the catwalk at 30,000 feet, and get a stuck bomb loose- here's some interior pics of the planes and the real "whole 9 yards" of 50 cal. attached to a waist gunner's machine gun Collins Foundation lets you tour the planes to your heart's desire.
not only that, but get this.... the dude who was the engineer on the "enola gay" b-29. had to HAND SET the atomic bomb while in flight, wearing his winter flight suit and gloves! he had to spend weeks practicing. i wish i could find a video of what he had to do, they had it on the history channel but it was insane he actually had to unscrew stuff and put things in a precise order..... talk about stressed out can you imagine if he ****ed up........
I hope someone records the stories from these WWII old timers...there are not many left and we're losing them at a high rate. One of my closest friends lost his dad last year. He was a B-17 ball turret gunner. Flew 25-30 (I forget) missions over Germany...the early ones without any ******. Luckily he told us many stories over and over...so we remember. Todd also was very interested and do***ented much of his Dad's escapades over there. Coming back with 13 feet of wing missing...or having the plane next to you explode-and then seeing a man-shaped imprint embossed into the skin of your plane from a crewman who was blown out...recovering an exploding shell from your wing tank-filled with sand by the resistance so it never went off...I can go on and on. History told to us as kids...from one who participated. Now years later I feel honored to have been able to listen in. -Scott
I read a book about a great P51 fighter Bud Anderson "to Fly and Fight" You should check it out, he is a hot rodder also! There is a link to his site on my space page under "my heros"
there's a german plane with resistance graffitti inside panels at wright patt, forget the exact plane... i think it was their ME262, as i think they were primarily slave labor built. i took pictures, but ran out of space on my card by the end of WWII alone. it strikes me as totally amazing when i hear about resistance sabotaged shells and etc. the germans fired ALOT of duds. not enough, though. that book i mentioned, "air command" (or bomber command, fighter command) was written by jeffrey ethell, or rather, compiled by him. nothing but COLOR WWII pictures and veterans accounts. told of one P-38 pilot that bailed out, tangled his chute, freed it while falling head first and opened it just in time to save his life before landing unexpectedly at the head of a GI chow line. that blew me away. the school i sub at is having a veterans day ceremony friday and i was asked to help out so i loaned some of my collection for their temporary museum and "fashion show." there'll be several veterans in attendance, so it should be a very cool day. there is an A-26 restoration project in lancaster.
My wife uncle Earl was Pappy Gunn driver in the pacific.If you don't know who he was google him,a true ledgen.Earl has flow in Pappys Folly in the day,he clamed Pappy used to roar with laghter when he toughed off the 75 mm.Claim it felt like the plane stopped for a split second.Earl is a car guy btw.
my father in law was a pilot that flew 37 missions over germany late in wwII in a B17called Star Eyes after my mother in law, thankfully he made it home every time, never lost a man. He wouldnt talk about his war experience much but when he did I always listened. Unfortunatley he p***ed away in March of 2005 after a 30 year battle with MS. Most of what I learned of his flying is from my mother in law and her s**** books. They were truly special people and we owe them all our respect and gra***ude.
My friend's father was there late too. Flew out of a base called Molesworth in England. One of his rides was named "Rum Runner" but he was in others too. After his tour was up he was going to be trained for the B-29...and go to the Pacific. Naturally he really didn't want to go, and he briefly had an ***ignment servicing new B-29's that were being ferried over into service. I don't know where this was, but he did tell us that one day 3 of them came in, and were immediately cordoned off. They were not allowed to service them...another crew came in and took care of it under MP supervision. They left a few days later. This was in the Summer of '45...and one of the planes (he learned later) was to be named "Enola Gay", before it flew that mission over Hiroshima.
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