Compliments to the Sandbar Mitchell team for helping out the Desert Rat with a belly gunner ball turret!

 

Though the restoration began in 1985, it's still got another 40 years to go. 

I first posted about it in 2013 https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2013/12/there-is-b-17-getting-restored-that-was.html

I first posted about the Sandbar Mitchell in 2014 https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2014/01/sandbar-mitchell-was-finally-lifted-out.html

https://www.facebook.com/12595DesertRat

https://www.facebook.com/Sandbarmitchell

The National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force has acquired a remarkable collection of nose art and portraits by WWII artist Cpl. Tony Starcer, probably the best known and most prolific nose art painter of WWII, known for painting nearly 130 B-17 Flying Fortresses

The newly acquired Tony Starcer Collection includes 13 original oil-on-canvas paintings recreating his most memorable nose art designs.

“When I began looking for a home for my dad’s collection,” said Jerry Starcer, son of the artist, “I asked in various Facebook groups where people thought it should go. There were several suggestions, but one name kept coming up again and again—the Mighty Eighth in Savannah, GA. The oil paintings are now nearly 40 years old, and the V-mails are over 80.

“We wanted as much of the collection to remain together as possible,” said board member Mick Hanou. “This collection is a truly extraordinary addition to our museum,” added Tiffany Bueno, Research & Collections Manager at the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force. “Tony Starcer’s work not only reflects the artistic flair of the era but also offers a deeply human connection to the people and planes that shaped the air war over Europe.”

https://vintageaviationnews.com/aviation-museum-news/national-museum-of-the-mighty-eighth-air-force-acquires-historic-nose-art-collection-by-wwii-artist-cpl-tony-starcer.html

101-year-old WWII veteran, a navigator on a B-17 bomber, got a new class ring last week in Alton ILL, after trading his original Class of '41 ring, for sardines in POW camp

Captured on German soil, after his plane was shot own on it's 5th mission, Ryan endured the remainder of the war as a prisoner, where hunger became a dangerous enemy. One day, an opportunity for an unusual trade presented itself at the fence line.

"There was a Russian there on the other side of the barbed wire, and he had a can of sardines, and I was hungry," Ryan said.

So Ryan traded his class ring for a tin of sardines — a moment when necessity outweighed nostalgia.

"It wasn't doing me any good," he said matter-of-factly.

The surprise ceremony, kept secret even from Ryan himself, culminated in the presentation of a new Marquette class ring — a golden circle linking past and present.

For the students, history stepped from the pages of a book into real life.

"To see someone who went to the same school as you, who walked these halls and made this big of a sacrifice ... it makes you feel a sense of pride," said senior Carson Morrisey.

https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/local/making-a-difference/101-year-old-ww2-veteran-receives-replacement-for-ring-he-traded-for-food-in-german-pow-camp/63-c4e39439-fcd1-4e13-ba8d-727b3726a12a

the 4th season of Love Death and Robots was just released on Netflix, and the animation is better than ever, and one of the episodes is about a B17, the Liberty Belle, on a bombing run

more than one B 17 tail gunner was stuck in the tail section after it was severed from the rest of the aircraft with no parachute, and survived the crash landing

Raley's account came almost three months to the day after he improbably survived that fall from the skies over Piraeus Harbor in Greece. His crew was part of the 353rd Bomb Squadron, 301st Bomb Group, Fifteenth Air Force

He recalled "a hell of a jolt" as the bomber's 12-foot tail section was sheared off from the rest of the aircraft. Crammed into tight quarters and his movement constricted by the pair of machine guns he manned and several hundred rounds of ammunition, Raley could not create enough space to put on his parachute.

But instead of descending at breakneck speed, the bomber's tail spiraled downward, somewhat slowing its velocity, and Raley estimated it took 10-15 minutes for the wreckage to complete its fall.

The tail section fortuitously first made contact with a cluster of trees on a mountainside before stopping abruptly. Raley painstakingly extricated himself from all of the ammo surrounding him, then -- with the escape hatch nearest him damaged and pinned shut -- exited through the bulkhead door. For the first time, Raley saw the full extent of what he had survived.

On Nov 1943, inside a B-17F named Rikki Tikki Tavi from the 96th BG, was Staff Sergeant Moran.

 As a tail gunner, Moran was in the thick of the fight against the swarm of enemy fighters  when the Rikki Tikki Tavi was cut into two pieces, by German Bf 109s and FW190s. 

Moran was still inside the tail.

Some of the research for the above film of his experience was found in the great book Tailspin by John Armbruster.

https://www.military.com/history/how-world-war-ii-tail-gunner-survived-midair-collision-without-parachute.html
https://www.thegleaner.com/story/opinion/2019/04/04/henderson-soldier-survived-3-7-mile-fall-during-wwii/3371078002/

WW2 colorized photos

https://www.facebook.com/worldwarincolor

The 6,981st B 17 was the last B17 that was built at Boeing Seattle, each of the colored items on the plane, are construction paper cut into the shape of a bomb, showing every target that B 17s had bombed in WW2

 https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=527365027117631&set=a.126528027201335

You can see video of the roll out of this last B 17 at https://secure.boeingimages.com/archive/Rollout-of-Final-Boeing-Seattle-Built-B-17-Flying-Fortress-2JRSXLJWH62O.html on April 9th 1945

the "Fortress on the Plains" in Hobbs, NM. the metal sculpture of Brian Norwood, a local artist.

It also depicts pilots-in-training who flew these Boeing B-17s at the former nearby Hobbs Army Air Field which was a prevalent training base during the Second World War. 

 There is no plaque or highway sign informing of said historical piece.

https://www.yelp.com/biz/fortress-on-the-plains-hobbs

https://www.newmexicomagazine.org/blog/post/hobbs-brian-norwood-sculpture/

20 years ago snapshots from WW2 scrapbook were bought in an antique store, and they were just shared on generalaviationnews.com, along with the mystery of the soldier named Mel, and how his photos came to be floating around

Mel was in Italy on V-E Day, and made plans to fly home across the Atlantic with a bunch of other servicemen shoehorned into a returning B-17 in the summer of 1945.

Three snapshots show their homeward-bound Fortress, serial 44-6681, parked on turf in Italy. Destination: Florida. 

The caption for that flight tells quite a tale: “B-17 we flew from Italy to U.S. Lost 2 engines beyond point of ‘No Return’…we all had to throw out our personal gear (including German Mauser sniper rifle). Made it to coast of Florida at 25’ above water.”

https://generalaviationnews.com/2024/05/23/notes-from-an-unknown-veteran/

cool photo

https://www.vintageleatherjackets.org/threads/ww2-original-color-photos.25534/post-296264

Milk Wagon, 129 missions, no problems, great mission symbols!

It set a record for a Fortress in the 447th Bomb Group, as she racked up no fewer than 129 missions without suffering a single abort due to mechanical issues, a testament not only to the strength of the B-17, but also to the ground crews who kept her in the air.

https://www.vintageleatherjackets.org/threads/random-cool-photo-thread.26448/post-349691

https://www.hornbyhobbies.com/products/boeing-b-17g-flying-fortress-43-37756g-milk-wagon-aa33321#

https://www.reddit.com/r/ww2/comments/ugimmy/milk_wagon_b17_june_20_1944_milk_wagon_set_a/?rdt=60394

Alley Oop, one of my favorites, and I can't believe that hasn't been made into a Netflix series. (Ever seen Primal? Awesome)

 https://www.vintageleatherjackets.org/threads/random-cool-photo-thread.26448/post-353432

This reminded me I posted the art a decade ago

https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2013/03/some-cool-airplane-badges.html

coincidentally, only a couple days ago I saw a B17 on a trailer for the 1st time, and just found this on a different website... it had a belly landing, so it was put on a trailer to get it moved for repairs

https://www.vintageleatherjackets.org/threads/random-cool-photo-thread.26448/page-65

Did you ever see a B 17 mounted to a trailer?

https://www.vintageleatherjackets.org/threads/random-cool-photo-thread.26448/post-383467

there's always someone with too much time on their hands, and too many junkyard parts to play with

https://www.vintageleatherjackets.org/threads/random-cool-photo-thread.26448/post-385463

how a B17's wings attach to the fuselage (thank you George!)

 

https://vintageaviationnews.com/warbird-restorations/b-17-liberty-belle-restoration-don-brooks-interview.html

Thanks to John for sharing this memorial about a B17 crash site in Oregon's Blue Mountains, and it's crew!

 

B 17 42-30655 crashed on training flight in Oregon mountains 33 miles from the base near Pendelton, a bomber training site during the war

The US Government retrieved the bodies of the crew and left the wreckage of the bomber at the crashsite.  It seems that the wrecks are never cleaned up by the govt. 

1st Lt Lewis Hubbard, Navigator

1st Lt Francis Stephenson

An engineer in the Army Air Corps, Lt Stephenson had been a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers while attending the University of Illinois. He took his basic training at Rantoul. He was also stationed at Rapid City, S.D., and New Haven, Conn.

http://chiuiaaweb1.admin.uillinois.edu/illinois/veterans/display_veteran.asp?id=379

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/43447916/francis-stephenson

1st Lt Walter Fitzmaurice, Eng

Mstr Sgt Phil Rogers

This airplane is Chapter 6 of the book Aircraft Wrecks of the Pacific Northwest, By David L. McCurry, Cye Laramie, Dan Thomas Nelson

Read the 2 pages, and see 6 pages of photos at https://books.google.com/books?id=vO3RDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA61&lpg=PA61&dq=42-30655&source=bl&ots=P_NDLMf_D_&sig=ACfU3U3_lT6SEsR3zcHF0HCoNtzJrhWTLQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwih5NCu-dSFAxUWTjABHU1OBIo4FBDoAXoECAMQAw#v=onepage&q&f=false

there's a website made by a guy who is tracking down all the Oregon plane wrecks, and there are a lot of them, besides this B 17, there was a P 38, and an A 6, and a Hellcat on Deadman Mountain, there are at least 24 WW2 era crash sites in the Blue Mountains area

A6 above, and P 38 below

and another B 17 crashed on Cape Lookout

http://www.photographoregon.com/Oregon-Airplane-Wrecks.html

myself, I feel the govt is responsible for the equipment it knows of that litters the planet, as a result of crashes, or as a result of wars. There are many crash sites, on mountain sides, in swamps, in lakes, etc etc that the govt has never bothered to remove.

After all, try and tell the govt that you'll be expecting them to ignore the aircraft you relocate from some crash site to your museum or home.... and you'll see them get mighty protective of their ownership of the planes. You know?

But tell them they have some plane crashes to clean up, and they'll give you the I don't think so, "it's not in the budget" dead shark eye look while they wait for you to move along.

The govt has turned a blind eye to the crashed Army Air Corps planes for about 80 years, but if its YOUR cars and trucks in your back 40, that are on someone's hit list, you can guess who gets fined by the day until abandoned cars are removed.

Diary of a B-17 Tail Gunner

 https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/diary-of-a-b-17-tail-gunner/

the Movie Memphis Belle has completed two years of restoration work and the engines were fired off for some test runs... (thank you George!)

During this initial ground run, three of the aircraft’s four engines (#1, #2, and #4) were run at different power settings but the aircraft’s right-inboard engine (#3) required more work before it could be test run.

In the leadup to the engine run other work was being done to get the Belle airworthy again after its time on loan to the National Warplane Museum at Geneseo, NY from replacing a section of the wing spars to adjusting tail control cables and restoring the floorboards in the waist section.

https://vintageaviationnews.com/warbird-restorations/engine-runs-on-the-movie-memphis-belle.html

The crew of 'Our Gang', a B-17 of the 324th Bomb Squadron, 91st Bomb Group. Rare pin up art on engine cowling instead of the nose

 https://www.facebook.com/worldwarincolor/photos/pb.100064576096574.-2207520000/3910118915784538/?type=3