WWII Aviation Buffs

[Tom]

They're also planning to have the PBY's fly into Marine Corp Base Kaneohe formerly called Kaneohe NAS.  Looks like the plans call for an aerial parade to celebrate the end of WWII with a fly-over Pearl Harbor and the Missouri.  I'd like to see the B25.  No 17's or 29's, too big to bring over.

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2020/08/11/photo-gallery/world-war-ii-warbirds-unloaded-at-joint-base-pearl-harbor-hickam/

[Zoom Zoom]

That's cool.

Yeah, those sites will only become more rare as time goes on. It costs $$$$$$$$$ to keep them flying.

John Henry

[keuka4884]

I have known three men who fought in WWII and talked about it to me.

Number one was a carrier dive bomber pilot. They kept blacking out when diving. They tried all they knew. Finally the Navy injected radium into the pilot's upper sinuses. No more blackouts. One problem, 40-50 years later every pilot injected came down with brain cancer. He did and shot himself.

Number two was the county judge later to become a New York State Supreme Court judge. From tiny ol' Yates county that was a big deal.
He was in a tank group of 30 tanks plus two repair/rescue tanks. He was in one of those. He told me that after one tank battle the only two functioning tanks were the rescue tanks. Now there is pure hell.

Number three was the owner of the local Chevy dealership. He survived 52 missions in a B25 over Europe and Germany. He wouldn't go into much detail except to say that many of those planes were shot up. Very durable planes.

[kingoffleece]

My dad had 44 combat missions in a B-24 out of Darwin, Australia.

[ozarquebus]

I know one former pilot in WWII who is still living. He  flew P51s p-38s and p47s. He said the p-38 was terrible for ground attack saying they were too vulnerable to shrapnel from its own bombs and small arm fire due to its radiators getting holed. He's 99 now and shoots 22 targets with my local shooting guys. His son hands him the rifle after the gentleman gets himself seated on the shooting bench. With his cigar clasped firmly between his teeth, he always out shoots me.
 The other guy I know is gone now, but he flew p-51s too. He got shot down in France, but was rescued. A few years ago they found a p-51 in a swamp over there. It was excavated, identified and his son got a letter saying they found his dad's old plane and sent him a lever out of the cockpit as a souvenir.
 Another guy I knew was a tank driver and got cornered in a small town in France after D-day. The bullets were bouncing off the tank and it sounded like a popcorn machine, but a lot louder. Then the tank caught on fire and the crew started bailing out. One by one they went out the top and each one got IT. He slid out the bottom hatch and ran like heck. Machine gun bullets were flying everywhere and richocheting of everything. He made it to a doorway and checked himself all over and found bullet holes in his uniform, but not a scratch.
 The last one was tank driver too. He was my dad. He 'volunteered' for map reading school when his unit was staging in Britain for the invasion. Then his unit went in with the Shermans D-Day +2 and was pretty much decimated. If he had not been in that map reading school, I would probably not be typing this. He went on to driving prisoners around in trucks. Whenever he ran out of cigarettes, he would  start driving fast an hitting pot holes on purpose. The POWs would stick their faces up against the back window of the cab and say "If you vill not hit zo many bumps, ve vill give you zigarettes" out of their Red Cross packages. Later his unit looted a town and all were sent to the stockade except for him and his buddy who had walked to a bowling alley instead.
 Travis Hoover, the most famous WWII pilot from my home town, I did not know, but he was the first pilot off the Hornet after Doolittle on the 30 seconds over Tokyo raid. The photographer missed Doolittle's impressive take off on which Doolttle reportedly stood the B-25 vertically on its tail as he popped up to gain altitude off the deck before leveling off. The news reels we all see of the raid starts actually with the second plane off and that was Travis Hoover.

[ozarquebus]

 Wait, there's more. When I was in the service in San Diego in the 80s-90s, I would hang out at the Aero Club on India Street which looks down on the airport and the air station. It was operated by Virgil, a retired Greyhound bus driver who had commisioned a guy to paint a mural on the wall of the history of San Diego aviation. I would hang out there in the afternoons and talk to the old artist as he painted.
 He told me stories of flying the B24 in WWII. They were always instructed when ditching the bomber in water to abandon the airplane as fast as possible before it sank. Well sure enough, they had to make a forced landing and the only suitable place in the rough terrain they were flying over was the river Seine. He belly flopped the 4-engine Liberator in and they all scrambled out grabbing the little raft and anything that would float and started swimming for their lives before the plane would sink with them in it. They all barely made it,  and as the crew stood shivering on the bank, watched the bomber float lazily down the river high and dry for a mile or so, eventually disappearing around a bend. They had failed to tell them the B-24 was actually designed to float, for a while.
 

[GeorgiaGuzzi]

That would be cool to see. My grandfather was a Navy pilot in WW2 and Korea. He was based out of Pearl Harbor. After the attack they still had planes, but no carriers to launch off of.

He learned carrier take offs on the Great Lakes. A paddle wheeler with the super structure removed and a ramp built onto the front of it. I think he said it could probably do about 7 knots on a good day. The boat would turn into the wind, they’d firewall the engines of the plane, and hope the wind didn’t die as they came off the ramp!
 He gave up smoking his pipe after a carrier landing in rough seas knocked his pipe out of his mouth into the cockpit, which caught fire on oily residue! After that he only smoked his pipe occasionally, and never when flying.

[s1120]

My stepdad worked on trucks,tanks, etc in europe. Never talked about it at all, but did say more then once that you REALLY don't want to work on a tank after they had been hit...  Turned into more of a containment device then a tank.. 

[ozarquebus]

kingofleece,
 Flying a B-24 mission out of Australia must have been a long harrowing task. What was your dad's bomber bombing? Indonesia?

[Roebling3]

I lost 2 uncles, out of 4 in the service. My next door neighbor lost 2 sons out of 3, in Europe. A wonderful friend of many years never spoke of the war. In 1993 @ a bmw dealer an older 'gent', giving me a hard time, for fun, learned I might have a bit of credibility when I named his neighbor. It turned out this guy AND my friend (who never spoke of the war), flew Corsairs  off carriers in the Pacific during WW2.  Another close friend whom I met @
MIT, was a bit older than most PhD candidates, in 1970. We were good friends 'til his passing @ 97 yrs. Richard is a Marine. 3 beach assaults w/3rd Marine Joint Assault Grp. Signal Co. Guadal Canal, Guam & Iwo Jima. I didn't know 'til his memorial service. We went to Big Band jazz concerts in the Boston area w/wives or GF's.   R3~  Thank you for remembering.

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

From Facebook:
Hagerstown Aviation Museum
13h ·

B-17 coming to Hagerstown! This will be on the ramp where the museum's C-82, C-119 and C-123 are parked. Entrance gate is located at 14211 Basore Dr. Check out details below.

The B-17 Bomber “Sentimental Journey” will be in Hagerstown, MD August 24-30, 2020. One of the rarest historical military planes in the world will be near you. Come see it up close and personal, and better yet fly in it! 
 
The B-17 Bomber is a heavy bomber bristling with armament. They earned a deadly reputation and were legendary for their ability to return home after taking brutal poundings. Over 12,000 of these iconic planes were built for WWII, and Sentimental Journey is one of only five still regularly flying today.
 
TOURS:
Mon & Fri-Sun: 2p – 6p
Tue-Thurs: 9a – 6p
$10 per person/$20 for a family of 4
Purchase tour tickets at the airplane, no reservation required.
 
RIDES:
Fri-Sun: 9a – 1p
To book a ride, click the ticket link below!
https://www.azcaf.org/location/hagerstown-md-tour-stop/

[Lannis]

kingofleece,
 Flying a B-24 mission out of Australia must have been a long harrowing task. What was your dad's bomber bombing? Indonesia?

Probably maritime patrol bombing missions.   The B24 could stay in the air a long time, which made it perfect for ocean submarine patrols, especially after they carried radar that could see a submarine periscope or conning tower.   

Once they started using B24s and Short Sunderlands for anti-submarine patrols, the Uboats in the Atlantic were doomed.   The same happened for the Japanese ....

Lannis

[bigbikerrick]

Great story, Ozarquebus! Those were some amayzing people!
Thanks for sharing that,
Rick.

[Tkelly]

There is a video on utube showing the B24 assembly line in MI.When they were warmed up my Dad got in and took off.He came over his uncles lake house at treetop altitude to show his parents what he did as a flyboy.

[LowRyter]

kingofleece,
 Flying a B-24 mission out of Australia must have been a long harrowing task. What was your dad's bomber bombing? Indonesia?

I was curious about that.  I think those planes were submarine hunters in the Atlantic.  Of course the Pacific Theater was a naval war.

[LesP]

kingofleece,
 Flying a B-24 mission out of Australia must have been a long harrowing task. What was your dad's bomber bombing? Indonesia?

You had to find your way back to Darwin and the corridor that extended south with the numerous airfields for at least 500 kms so it was not just the perils of war but getting lost and running out of fuel.

I lived in Darwin for the best part of four years and on many occasions would look for airfields on Google Earth and use the references to find them by GPS/DR650.

Most likely posted before but my Father was R.A.A.F for the Pacific duration but already air force well before 1939. My Stepfather R.N.Z.A.F Pacific on light bombers and flew well into his 60's, we had many great adventures. (He was also in Japan/Hiroshima)
They both passed away long ago (1990's)

At least we all learnt something from those who served or were lost doing so to protect the next generations.














 

[oldbike54]

 ^^^Great story and pictures Les , thanks 

 Dusty

[ozarquebus]

Very cool.

[Demar]

OP.... thanks for starting this thread. I love WWII aircraft and as a kid in the 1960's I built a lot of 1/48 scale models. That grew to radio controlled aircraft in my late teens. About 20 years ago my extended family took a vacation to Palm Springs and my father-in-law and brother-in-law and I toured the excellent air museum there. Among the aircraft there was a B17 that you could walk thru; I was surprised at how narrow the board walkway thru the bomb bay was. I was also amazed at the information on the storyboard as we entered the aircraft that stated they were building something like 13 complete B17's per day across 3 production plants.
They had folding chairs set-up and we learned they were giving a presentation on the Battle of the Bulge that day so when it was time for the presentation we all sat down and listened to the stories from a number of veterans who fought in the battle..... amazing men with amazing stories. At the end of the presentation they asked if there were any in the audience who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. A few vet's raised their hands and told their stories. And then, my father-in-law raised his hand..... wait, what???? The family knew he fought in the war but like most WWII vet's they seldom spoke of it and we didn't know about any of his experiences. Some of the presenters told long stories; like one who said the Americans were one one side of an apple orchard with the Germans on the other. It was around Christmas time, maybe Christmas Eve, and there was no shooting and both sides could hear each other singing Christmas carols. Then the gentleman said "someone started shooting and the war started again". All my father-in-law said was "it was a hell of a cold winter". Turns out it was one of the coldest winters in 100 years there. My father-in-law was 17 years old at the time and he arrived at the Battle a few weeks after the main fighting. He was part of George Pattons army, and in the heavy artillery unit. He said he walked all the way to czechoslovakia. During retirement he and his wife were on vacation in Paris and dining with a group of people they didn't know. Someone asked him if he had ever been to Paris before and he said yes. They asked him how he got to Paris and he said "in a boxcar in 1945".

I started poking around the internet and found the video below. I think it's the one mentioned above by another poster. It states they produced a finished B24 every 55 minutes. I watched the 33-minute video in the page and it's one of the most interesting videos I've ever seen. The scale of the operation is amazing. All that engineering and production done without computers. We owe all involved in that war and really all our veterans so much. It makes me sad that so many today have no idea of what was involved and the sacrifices people made. Most "kids" today have no realization of what it takes to manufacture something and think the pinnacle of production is their smart phone. OK...... that's my "get off my lawn" moment.

I found the video amazing and very informative.

http://strategosinc.com/willow_run.htm