eBay: Boeing B-29 Superfortress

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Reminds me of the movie weenies trying to pull Fifi's prop thru for the movie scene of which I can't remember.
 
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bdefen said:
BOOM!
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There is a video on YouTube, somewhere I'll have to poke around it's been so long since I've seen it, but it follows a RAF EOD guy, who inherited the job of disarming the old blitz-era bombs that pop-up in England, even still.

There was an very interesting scenario where a large bomb, 550lb?, was in a cellar and couldn't be removed for disposal in the country, so after much study and consulting old Nazi/RAF/USAAF materials he had to steam the explosives in order to use a sort of closed-circuit vacuum to suck them out of the case. The machine had to be very precise because there was only something like 6 degrees between safely melting the solid explosive and detonating/ignition of the fuel, of course, the material was referencing current manufacture ordnance and not 75 year old weathered and damaged product.

Edit: While writing, I remembered the reason the bomb could not be moved was due to leakage of the primary explosive (picric acid?). So, he couldn't just unscrew the giant blasting cap-type device because the secondary/bulk explosive was contaminated with these extremely pressure/temperature/pucker sensitive crystals.

You know what they say, it's a dirty job, but……
 
FLYBOYJ said:
I'm pretty certain the Camels indicate missions over the Hump. As far as the green B-29? Possible propaganda tour
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The very earliest B-29-1 from the Boeing Wichita plant came off the production line in camouflage. Not sure how many exactly. But a fair number ended up with units of the 58th BW in India. The first B-29 arrived in India on 2 April 1944 and by 8 May some 130 had arrived at their bases in Bengal, with a number lost en route. For the next month they were mainly engaged in flying fuel and supplies over the Hump to their forward bases in China. Of nearly 3,000 hours flown in May, 83% was on Hump missions. They flew their first bombing mission (from their Indian bases to Bangkok) on 5 June 1944.

The aircraft in the photo (serial 42-62??) was amongst the first 106 delivered. Judging by the large marking painted out on the fin, it might well have served with the 462nd BG in India.

The survivors of these early B-29s were returned to the USA during the winter of 1944/45 as "war weary", which probably explains how it ended up at Kelly Field with Hump markings.

As for the B-24s, over 200 (of over 2,000 planned) B-24J/L were converted at modification centres in the USA, to C-109 tankers, stripped of armament, with 8 extra fuel tanks in the fuselage to carry fuel over the Hump in support of B-29 operations. The programme was curtailed when the decision was taken to transfer the 58th BW to the Marianas from March 1945.

In addition the aircraft of the 7th BG, 10th AF were withdrawn from bombing operations in May 1945 in accordance with US policy, following the capture of Rangoon. They were then redeployed to haul fuel over the Hump until the end of the war. Had the war gone on the unit would have itself moved forward into China along with the rest of 10th AF to work alongside the 14th AF.

The photo above with bomb and Hump markings is probably from the 7th BG. Note also the black belly and shark mouth worn by a number of this unit's aircraft.
 
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