Recent content by bowfin

I had a great uncle who looked out of his top turret of his B-25 and saw a piston pumping up and down on the starboard engine with no visible means of support. That engine held together long enough to clear out of Simpson Harbor and get it feathered. The fact that he told me about it 60 years...

In my opinion, the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 was the best engine of the war. Radial engines were a lot more robust than inline engines and didn't need cooling. The list of aircraft on which the Double Wasp was successfully installed is as long as your arm. However, I am pragmatic enough to...

I have heard this same thing from a pilot who flew in the 345th Bomb Group as well. The B-25D flew back on one engine after its running dog fight. I was told that the B-25J was too heavy to fly on one engine. Again, I would have to look up his name, but he signed my copy of "Warpath Across...

Just some information on the 75mm cannon used on the B-25 as relayed to me by my great-uncle, SSgt. Jack Murphy, who was top turret gunner on the "Tondelayo", a B-25D of the 500th Bomb Squadron, 345th Bomb Group of the 5th Air Force: Uncle Jack was not a fan of the 75mm cannon in B-25s...

Any place that has oil can leak oil. A tiny leak or drip would "spray" when it is in a 200-400 mph. slip stream. I am sure that one couldn't even narrow it down to a handful of causes for any one such incident. The oil coolers themselves probably have more than dozen points of possible leaks...

The B-25 Mitchell carried 31 gallons of oil for both engines. New engines in perfect shape would burn a gallon of oil an hour. This information came from a Army Air Corps mechanic whose job it was to receive B-25s from the factory somewhere down in Texas (Sheppard?). I also remember seeing...

The Spitfire. It was a war winner...as long as the war didn't get further away than a hundred miles from its own aerodrome. Also, the Bf-109 for the same reason, along with the fact that its tendency to kill pilots and destroy itself on takeoffs and landings, although it was very formidable if...

No armor or self sealing tanks, but that weight savings meant it had a fantastic range for a single engine fighter at that time. If the Germans had the Zero, it could have flown escort during the Battle of Britain, chased around Spitfires until THEY were out of fuel, and then head back to...

My great uncle was a top turret gunner on the Tondelayo. He was SSgt. John (Jack) Murphy. We brought the Collins Foundation B-25 into town here in Columbus, Nebraska in 2003. Jack Murphy had passed away by then, but 2nd Lt. Lynn Daker came and "there was a rumor" that he was able to do a fly...

I am not sure raw tonnage in and of itself is a good measurement. There is tonnage "accrued" from blowing up Italian freighters tied up alongside a dock in Libya, and other tonnage "accrued" by sinking Japanese carriers twisting and turning at high speed and sporting dozens of AA guns with a...

A B-25D named "Tondelayo" acquitted herself rather well against a swarm of Zeros...while flying on one engine, no less: "The 500th Bomb Squadron Association Home Page" However, luck was definitely on the side of the crew of the Tondelayo that day. A 20mm API shell hit one of Murphy's guns...

Having said my piece about the B-25, I will now say that my choice for "best ship buster" would have to go to the Avenger, with one reservation. Being an aircraft that could land or take off of carriers (as the norm) gave the Avenger an inherent advantage over land based aircraft, because it...

The four B-25 squadrons of the 345th Bomb Group of the 5th Air Force were credited with 260 vessels destroyed and 275 damaged. How many of these "vessels" were actually ships, I don't know. I do know that the B-25s did sink dozens of destroyers, destroyer esctorts, corvettes and similar type...

My great uncle was a top turret gunner in B-25s (500th BS, 345th BG 5th AF). In his last mission, his B-25 was caught in the blast of an exploding fuel dump and was enveloped in flame. As the plane burned, it burned through the hydraulic plumbing (hoses, lines?) and the landing gear came down...

Many people overlook this story when castigating the U.S. for Japanese internment camps. Although I don't agree with that the actions of a few were good enough reason for the creation of the camps, one would have to admit that relations between those of Japanese ancestry and America got off to...