eBay: North American B-25 Mitchell

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1943 USAAF 1st FG 94th F SQ Biskra Algeria Photo airplane Hepsibab & bomb tally



1943 USAAF 1st FG 94th F SQ Biskra Algeria Photo airplane Hepsibab & bomb tally | eBay

He was with the 94th Fighter Squadron. When relative to the photo I have one of pages along with the cropped info referring to the photo. This is not included with the photo, just for reference. He did write in the album the locations of the photo when he moved but nothing else.
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I believe the owner of the album was with the 1st FG. in the MTO but not the above "Mitchell". Probably the bomber visited the 1st FG. or was just stationed at the same landing ground. This is a fully armed a/c and not a hack/fat cat as used by many units. The distinctive font of the nose art has been used on several "Mitchells" from the 321-st BG. and is IMHO done by the same artist. The name looks more like "Hepsibat(c)" but I'm not sure about it. Below is another a/c from the same group:

I have some more with a similar noseart but don't want to crash the thread of Snautzer with them.
Cheers!
P.S. Check post # 592 below for the correct name.
Some additional information I missed before: the a/c called "Hepsibah" is from the 446th Bomb. Squadron - see the squadron emblem: rabbit on a bomb. Same as on "Charley's Aunt" above.
 
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Years ago, going through the San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive I found and saved the following photo:

Ooops, wait a second, wrong thread, those are "Havocs"!
O.K., here's a note to the above photo from flickr by somebody who knows what he says:
Additional Information: 417 Bomb Group A-20 Havoc. Photo taken from the tail gun position of the group's B-25J - note the elevator and right rudder/trim tab vible in the lower left corner...
Oops again! B-25J in a A-20 bomber Group! Could this be true? Or was it the group hack? But this is a bombing raid!?!
And after some time I did find the "Mitchell" we are talking about:

Note the colored corners of the tail fins - same as of the "Havocs" in the group. Note the A-20 coded I (letter, not roman numeral) in the background - compare with the first photo.
Cheers!
 
cammerjeff said:
Nice detective work! The B-25 could have been used as the lead bomb aimer as it has room for a Bombardier, and the A-20's have solid noses. Just a thought.
Click to expand...
You might be right - I don't have much information about this particular a/c. But....there are a few places one can find more about the use of B-25 in the 417th BG. The usual note is that the group used "some B-25 and C-47" as transports. Which was really the case and there is even more. I found online a grave with 10 casualties from a crash of a B-25 from the above mentioned group! There is a MACR # 6136 describing the crash. The a/c is a B-25D s/n 41-29692 (not the one from the earlier photo).
Unfortunately the group lost a C-47 as well on March 27, 1945 - MACR # 14320.
It will be interesting to find a list with all airplanes (with serials) used by the group.
Cheers!
 
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This is the noseart of a B-25J-1 with s/n 43-27741 from the 445-th BS., 321-th BG. in Corsica.
Nothing really very special but how do I know the identity of the plane? Here comes the special part.
I'm sure many of us have had that moment: when looking for something in particular, to find something else. Ignored in the beginning the latter fund becomes much more important than the initial search. This happened to me a month or so ago. Going through the war diaries of the 321-st BG. in the MTO I found a booklet/collection of memoirs attached to one of the monthly diaries. It's called "Recollections of Air Force Service During WW II" by Robert Miller. Written post war only for relatives with no intentions to be published, this is another interesting piece of first-hand experience flying the "Magnificent Medium".
I'm attaching the memoirs which I "cleaned" from additional empty pages. Feel free to download and don't forget to spread the word!
Cheers!
Recollections downloaded from 321st Bomb Group History
 

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  • RECOLLECTIONS OF AIR FORCE SERVICE DURING WW II BY ROBERT R. MILLER.pdf
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U-Boat Monthly Report - Jan 1943

D. CAMOUFLAGE; AIRCRAFT vs. SUBMARINE
A submarine in a crash dive moves forward ten to thirteen feet in one second; an airplane in an attack moves nearly three hundred feet in a second. One second may mean the difference between life or death to a submarine, and between a miss or a kill for an airman. Camouflage of the airplanes and submarines, therefore, is of considerable importance.



 
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The above postcard shows the third B-25C (no block number) from the production line in Inglewood, California. Note the national insignia with red disks on the wings but without a disk on the fuselage - I believe the photo has been manipulated. The fin flashes give us the idea that this a/c was prepared for the war in Europe.

I believe there was a kind of "propaganda photo session" with these a/c:

P.S. And a proof that photos have been re-touched for whatever purpose - the above s/n 41-12436 with insignia in 6 positions but without the red disks and the fin-flashes. It's obviously the same photo:

P.S. from 27. June 2023
Another postcard with the retouched photo:

And another group photo with the whole batch of these a/c. Note that some of them have RAF-roundels and some don't. All have fin flashes though:
 
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