Coolest B-29 Nose Art Ever

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This was my tribute to Asq5 ( 42-24598 ) Waddy's Wagon in search of 73rd BW mission two years ago.
If color picture of the noseart available, I would like to complete the port side too in the future.
 

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JG 26 said:
I love nose art pics. I wonder if there is a coffee table type book with them?
Click to expand...

Jeff Ethell did one - great assembly. There have been others but I will have to complete my unpacking to get tmy Library.

Terry was right about assembly ships with a couple of points to emphasize.

The East Anglia airfield complex was the densest ATC challenge the world has ever seen with literally 2000-3000 8th and 9th AF ships assembling in same two hour window, in a vertical climbing cylinder until completely formed into combat boxes, from multiple locations, to form combat squadrons, then groups, then wings, then Divisions - and get them in the right position in weather fair and foul.

The 'cylinders' would become combat boxes of single and multiple combat wings - and the boxes then had to be placed in correct 'trail position' behind the Division commander in the lead airplane of the lead box.. The Assembly ship's job was done when 'his' group was formed up and headed to the assembly 'Splasher Beacon' to hook up with the other boxes of their division.

Hopefully the RAF BC was already on the ground when this glorious exhibition of controlled chaos was underway - particularly in bad weather.

The Assembly ships did a great job, making their specific colors available when even 'triangles, squares and circles' were not visible.

Target Escort Fighters took off a couple of hours later after the Penetration Escort fighters took off, and the Penetration Escort left 30-40 minutes after the Big Friends and met them over the Axis coastline - no 'Assembly' ships required.

The PTO and Korean War on the other hand never put up the numbers, were mostly assembled in the clear and had a much easier time assembling.

Interestingly enough one of the things my Luftwaffe friends marvelled at the most was the awesome requirements and execution of getting that mass of airlanes up and headed in the right direction, more or less in the right position and flying good formations.

My older Brit friends remember the daily thunder of up to 10,000 piston engines going through the circular climbing dance until the sound faded to the east - then return some 8-10 hours later during daylight hours -only to restart the process with RAF BC a coupe of hours later.
 
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