Last weekend, I went to a small airshow with my dad at the Mercer County (Trenton, NJ) Airport. The show featured restored planes that flew during WWII and some time to talk to some of the ever diminishing number of veterans that flew them.
They offered flights to the public - a rare treat given that the planes are over 60 years old. This entry will be a two-parter - as I want to be serious in this part to show my
utmost and complete respect for the courage, fortitude and abilities of those that fought for the USA during WWII.
The white-haired man with the cane flew the B-24 Liberator in Italy walking along side of a B-25This veteran barely glanced at the B-25 Mitchell while walking past it on his way to the B-24 Liberator. He flew 42 missions - bombing Germany from airfields in Italy and he was in Italy when the war ended. He told me of the intense cold he suffered for hours on end when in the air - and of the horrors of watching his squadron-mate's airplanes breakup into pieces and plummet thousands of feet into a ball of fire on the ground after being hit by flak (anti-aircraft shells fired from the ground) and by machine gun fire from German fighter planes.
He tensed up visibly. I could see him replay these things in his eyes when he spoke to me. He related to me, that when the war was over, he flew his bomber home to the States and then onwards to the storage fields in the Arizona desert - and how he never, ever, got back into an airplane to fly again - he said he even took the train home from Arizona after climbing out of his bomber that last time.
B-24 Liberator, The WitchcraftThe USA built over 18,000 of these planes during the war years - 3,000 more than the B-17s that were built. Now only a handful of these planes remain and this is the only one left of this model that can still fly.
The Witchcraft was a B-24 assigned to the 467 Bomb Group, 790 Bomb Squadron that compiled an amazing record of 130 combat missions - it is an olive drab aircraft, with red and white nose bowls, red and white rudders, 130 bomb markings and a cartoonish witch flying a machine gun as nose art.
The B-25 Mitchell attracts the attention of a coupleAmerica's most famous medium (two-engined) bombers, the B-25 Mitchell, is most famous for the Doolittle Raid on Japan, the first American attack made on the Japanese mainland after the attack on Pearl Harbor. This famous raid saw sixteen B-25s take off from the aircraft carrier, the USS Hornet on a daring mission that brought morale back to America in a time of war. The B-25 was never conceived to fly off of an aircraft carrier, but it adapted -
All 16 aircraft were lost on this mission.
The story of the Tondelayo is mind-numbing, it was credited with sinking a 6,000-ton freighter and, while returning to it's airfield heavily damaged, fought approximately 50 Japanese fighter planes, shooting down five in a 75-minute running battle - all the while with only one engine still running. Two other B-25's flying in escort of the crippled bomber - where shot down in this action.
Oh, was he ever excited to fly on the plane his dad flew!The man wearing blue jeans running in front of this plane has been told it was time for his ride. He was thrilled beyond words - while waiting to get on the plane, he told me his father flew 25 missions in a B-25 in the South Pacific and had passed away a couple years ago. His father bombed the Japanese-held airfield in Rabaul, Papua, New Guinea. This airfield was later a favorite target of the Blacksheep Squadron of TV fame, and was used by the Japanese to attack the mainland of Australia.
My Dad standing in front of the B-17 main wheelOne of only fourteen B-17s still flying in the United States, this aircraft is named the Nine-O-Nine. The most widely recognized and revered aircraft type of World War II, is the B-17 Flying Fortress. This Flying Fortress was built at Long Beach, CA by the Douglas Aircraft Company and accepted by the Army Air Force on April 7, 1945.
In April 1952, this plane was instrumented and subjected to the effects of three different nuclear explosions. After a thirteen-year "cool down" period, it was sold as part of an 800-ton scrap pile from which it was retrieved and restored.
The original "Nine-O-Nine" was assigned to combat on February 25, 1944. By April 1945, she had made eighteen trips to Berlin, dropped 562,000 pounds of bombs, and flown 1,129 hours. She had twenty-one engine changes, four wing panel changes, fifteen main gas tank changes, and 18 Tokyo tank changes (long-range fuel tanks). She also suffered from considerable flak damage.
After European hostilities ceased, "Nine-O-Nine", with its six-hundred patched holes, flew back to the United States where it was unceremoniously scrapped.
Priming the big engines to circulate the oil before startingThe oil in the big engines settles into the lower part and they spin the propellors in order to recirculate it back into the rest of the engine - as you can see, turning the propellor is no easy feat as they really had to lean into them.
The B-17 Nine-O-Nine takes off into the wild blue yonderTake-off, a sight that must have been seen countless times in England during 1942-1945. The ground crew must of stood and watched as dozens of heavily laden bombers took off on missions of 8-10-12 hours in length and waited and waited and waited for their safe return. Too many of them, did not come back.
More pictures from this weekend if you you want to look at themI uploaded a couple videos I recorded that I think you will enjoy. Note: The propellors are whirling - the camera makes them look like they are turning slow.
Engine Start of the B-25 Mitchell The B-25 rolls off and the B-17 engines runningNote the waving guy in the window behind the wing, he was the excited guy I mentioned earlier.
