Need help identifying my uncle’s WWII plane

[BlackSheep]

Patch looks like the 6th Air Force

View attachment 690591

They served in the Caribbean / Panama

Good eye!!

 

[pararaftanr2]

I took your photo and ran it through Photoshop and Irfanview to clean it up and restore it. I think if you look VERY closely you can see just the tip of one of the radar antennas on the Wellington just above the change in colors above the trailing edge of the wing. I think the airplane was on a trans-oceanic transfer from Brazil to Dakar then on to ??? Whether they were just flying it to there for pick up or taking it on further I have no idea. Brazil to Dakar was a common So. Atlantic transfer route. That's the best idea I have for it.

After the photo's resolution is increased, and brightened, some more details may be apparent. Did anyone else notice the undersides of the B-25 appear to have been overpainted? Possibly black, as the tone is a close match to the undersides of the Wellington in the background.

 

[CATCH 22]

After the photo's resolution is increased, and brightened, some more details may be apparent. Did anyone else notice the undersides of the B-25 appear to have been overpainted?

This was my first thought after seeing the original post. There was a famous B-25C in GB (one of the few used in the ETO) from the 7-th Photo Group painted all in black for night missions (check "Miss Nashville"). Since more photos of Double Trouble appeared, I'm almost (99%) sure that this is an optical illusion and the quality of the photo adds to it. See how the light comes from 1:00 o'clock and the underside of the plane is in full shadow. On many, relatively darker photos one can see the same effect of a "black belly":

In the case with Double Trouble the areas under the cockpit are probably freshly painted (OD) and the new paint appears darker. This new paint is not black - compare it with the outline of the "cloud" around the rat. This and the shadow creates an effect of darker undersides. In the "cleaned" variant of the photo I believe we can feel (rather than see) the demarcation line between the dark and light camo - look carefully under the words Double Trouble. This line is relatively low - check the other side of the nose in the additional photos.
I strongly believe that there is no connection between the "Wimpy" and the "Mitchell" beyond the fact that they were photographed together at the same place.
I also believe that the "Mitchell" is not shown during a transit flight and the "Wellington" is not at her base.
We started with the idea that the only place to see both types together is Dakar, because this was the base of No.344 sq. RAF. But what if the "Wellington" is shown somewhere before her delivery and the "Mitchell" is visiting (with some cargo or an important passenger) the same place?
Cheers!

 

[Big Jake]

The person second from right (the short guy) looks very much like a pilot named Lou Baron whom I knew well as I worked for him and was his friend during the late '60s. He was an immigrant from Germany who immigrated to the USA I believe in the '20s. He flew in the Los Angeles area for the movies and was a flight instructor before WW2 started. When the war started he enlisted in the USAAC as a pilot. He claimed to have been the oldest second lieutenant in the Army...

Why is it relevant to our case? He was sent to North Africa where he flew B-25s. He told stories about mostly flying the squadron's huck on toothpaste and toilet paper runs. This fits the B-25 in the picture which looks like a huck as there are no guns visible on it. North Africa also fits the presence of the Wellington as well as the type of ground.

When the powers to be discovered that he was fluent in German, he was transferred and was given the job of interrogating prisoners of war. After the war he kept flying for the movies and started a flying school and airplane repair facility in Van Nuys airport in California. He knew many celebreties and quite a number of them used to stop by the shop and talk airplanes.

 

[SaparotRob]

Cool!

 

[CATCH 22]

The person second from right (the short guy) looks very much like a pilot named Lou Baron....

Big Jake, one might call this a coincidence. I'll call it fate.
The right time, the right place, the right forum, the right people!
Do you remember if Lou Baron you knew had a different name (being a former German citizen, his name could be Ludwig e.g.). I'm checking some rosters with names from the MTO, but if this is not the name he enlisted under, it would be impossible to find him.
BTW I mentioned earlier in one of my posts that the pilot looks too old - this was kind of obvious. But to expect somebody in the forum to know him personally is like to win the lottery: 1/10 000 000 chance (or less).
Cheers!

 

[CATCH 22]

The person second from right (the short guy) looks very much like a pilot named Lou Baron whom I knew well....

The only similar name I could find is of Lou Barron, from New York, born in 1912, which makes him 32 in 1944. He was born in New Jersey though...
Check here.
No match of this or similar names with the rosters of MTO B-25-units I've checked (they are not all and not for all periods of the war of course).
The search continues!