Color World War II B-24 Nose Art - Eighth Air Force
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ก.ย. 2024
- Take a walk on the tarmac at an Eighth Air Force B-24 Liberator bomber base in World War II. There's an immediacy, a familiarity, with color photography that bridges decades and brings the classic World War II era nearer to us, as these vintage Kodachrome slides reveal. Each minor flak patch stands out. Touch-up paint is evident. The Liberators have an Eighth Air Force modification, carrying heavy bolted-on armor plates outside the cockpit beside the pilot and copilot. This add-on armor inadvertently censored some earlier nose art. Because the B-24 fuselage has a slight curvature, the plates had to be hammered and bent slightly; tool work marks show in the sunlight. Some of the B-24s, like "Rugged But Right" carry thick armor glass in the cockpit as well. The 486th Bomb Group's 834th Squadron famously adopted stylized signs of the zodiac for themed nose art in 1944. Walk amongst the Zodiac Squadron's Liberators in these views. Tail markings suggest some of the Zodiac aircraft transferred to the 493rd Bob Group. Other 493rd BG and 490th BG B-24s are pictured here in color. The first half of the 1940s, when huge formations of Eighth Air Force Liberators and Fortresses rose en masse to fight the European air war as part of a concerted Allied effort, was a brief moment not possible earlier, and rendered out of date by technological advances soon thereafter. Even with all its grim aspects, it was a brief era of a particular breed of brave and dedicated fliers, many of whom went home at war's end, never to operate an aircraft again. We salute them as we remember them.
Have you subscribed to the Airailimages Channel on TH-cam? Shared this video link? Thanks!
Here are more links to interesting programs filled with World War II Kodachorme color photography:
• B-17s of the Mighty Ei...
• Hellcats in the Navy -...
• World War II Color Ima...
• U.S. Navy World War II...
• Color World War II US ...
• More US Navy Color Wor...
Full color World War II combat movies from Airailimages include:
• German Drop Tanks for ...
• World War II Color P-5...
• World War II Color P-5...
• World War II Color B-2...
• WW2 Color B-26 Maraude...
And for some more bomber nose art in black and white:
www.youtube.co...
Thank God someone had the presence of mind to take these photographs. A lasting tribute and memorial to those brave men who flew those aircraft. Unbelievable heroism what they went through we can only imagine. Visited a lot of the old Eighth Air Force bases in England still today have a haunting feeling about them.
Zodiac series are absolutely awesome
Greatest Generation! R.I.P. we Thank you!
Love all the slapped on armor plates. Getter done!
And thank you for watching and commenting.
The Greatest Generation , brought up during the Great Depression and were humble and righteous people. 🙏🏼🇺🇸
I never noticed the extra bit of plate that protected the pilot and copilot from the side. My father also told me that a lot of guys sat on pieces of plate or folded up flak jackets.
Yes, that armor plate was an add-on done in England. You don't see it on B-24s in other Theaters of Operation. Thanks for watching.
But i guess those single sheets of metal didn’t do a lot for flak shrapnels. More like psychological thing maybe?
These planes were crewed by amazingly brave men!
You darn right !! , Just Boys that had to grow up quickly some just 18 and 19 years old. God bless them all. 🙏🏼🇺🇸
My grandfather Tommy Francis Moody was a ball turret gunner in the 443 BG he went over in 42 and came home alive in 45.
Mine in late 44 made it through! Flight engineer.
He was one of the lucky ones. 🙏🏼🇺🇸
Outstanding !!! Great historical images ! Lest We Forget !!! Brave men for sure!
My Dad was a top turret gunner on "the Baby" B-24 in the 8th AAF, came home in one piece, thank God
What a time in history! Thanks for watching and adding your story.
He was one of the lucky ones ! 😔😢🙏🏼🇺🇸
The house I was born in stands around 700 yards to the east of Norfolk's Snetterton airfield, once home of the B17 - 96th Heavies. In addition, as a kid, up until my teens, I spent all my summer holidays helping my uncle on his farm, which ran parallel to the old WW2 airfield at Shipdham, home of the B24 - Mighty 88's, in the county of Norfolk, UK.
Can clearly remember those hot, cloudless summer days back in the 70's, playing tag with my buddies in and out of the old blast shelters and around the old G.I. tin huts... Learnt to ride motorcycles on the runway there, too.
Can also remember going walking and camping in the woodlands around East Wretham, and frequently coming across corroded and dented old drop tanks from the fighters, Even as a kid I felt some sort of what I can only describe as a tangible 'atmosphere' or 'presence' to those old airfields. Same with all the others I've later visited, even if all or most of the infrastructure has gone.
The events which occurred during those wartime years have certainly left some sort of residual imprint, for sure. Sounds crazy perhaps, but I guess it's just something people have to experience for themselves.
May God bless all the U.S.A.A.F lads who served with the 8th and died during that damned war.
An excellent video, made me feel nostalgia for the time and place, thanks for uploading !
Did you find any planes? There
@@lunabobles4526 : I wish... sadly all long gone.
My uncle Willis Steberg was a ball turret gunner with the 44th bomb Group at Shipdahm. He flew 22 mission before his Liberator "Toad" was shot down near the French?Swiss border in May 1944. He spent the rest of the war at a POW camp in Poland. I would love to visit Shipdahm some days as tribute to him, as well as his mates who never came home.
@@olentangy74 ;
Big respects to your uncle, it's hard to even begin imagining what all those young guys went through and how they felt, especially being hit and going down so far behind enemy lines... ouch !
I hope you do make it over to visit the old field, and perhaps a tour of some of the others, too.
There were so many of them that a 20 minute drive will easily get you from one bomb group airfield to another, and then there's the 'accompanying' fighter fields scattered in between. For instance, Snetterton is only an 8 minute drive from the East Wretham fighter base, and both are in turn only a 15 to 20 minute drive from Shipdham, and so it goes with all of them, I'm sure you'd really enjoy the experience.
In addition, several of the fields have small museums which are well worth checking out, whilst all have a monuments of commemoration. You'd probably also like visiting the old RAF fighter base at Duxford, which is part of the Imperial War Museum group, about an hour drive from the Shipdham area, over near Cambridge.
It's a 'working' museum with countless airworthy WW2 warbirds, including the B17 which starred in the movie 'Memphis Belle'. Seem to recall they had around 11 airworthy Spitfires there the last time I visited, as well as P51's and P47's.
They've also got a fantastic static museum there too, dedicated to the 8th, with a hulking great shiny, polished alloy Lib on display. Interestingly, they have a belly-ball from another Liberator right next to it, so folks can get really close up and hands on with the thing. Claustrophobic experience is a pure understatement for it, that's for sure !
Anyway, my regards to you, and sincere thanks to your uncle for all he went through.
Really hope you get to make the trip.
Cheers, fella !
@@cuhurun Thank you! Duxford is palace I would love to see. It would be the ultimate field trip! Cheers to you!
Fondest memory of my entire life - being hoisted through the nose wheel well of dad's B-29 at age 3 for a little tour of his "office".
That's a great memory. Thanks for watching and commenting.
My grandfather was a navigator in B-29s. He never talked about it.
You know why he didn't . He saw things a young Man should never see. 😔😢🇺🇸
You are safe at home, caught my eye. Spectacular photos
I asked my father how he handled the stress of a combat mission. He said “once you consider yourself already dead it was easy”. The Eighth Air Force suffered horrific losses.
My dad said that on his first B-24 combat mission the only thing that made him land in England instead of flying home to to the USA was a bunch of fuel gauges pointing to empty. After watching one of his buddies go down it was no more stressful than a basketball game. He had been on the team that had won the Kentucky state high school basketball championship.
I respect these men to see the horrors of war and come home and have productive family lives
Now I want to know about the zodiac bombers. Thank you for posting!!
You are welcome!
I can't imagine that was popular with the crews
I couldn't have done it, God knows how they did, again and again
My heart goes out to the young men that fought so bravely for the United States,GOD bless them all!
Thank you for commenting.
EVERYONE STAND UP AND SALUTE TO THE GREATEST GENERATION EVER!!!!! THANKS FOR BEING
Randy : Amen to that !
A salute isnt even enough. We cant possibly thank the Greatest Generation with just words for their supreme sacrifice .😔😢🙏🏼🇺🇸
I was lucky to have served int he strategic air command but blessed to be in the 8th air force. B-52d's the landshark. the mighty eighth wasnt just in WW2. I was in a nuke squadron for 44 months in the 70s. SAC is mothballed, for now.
The artwork on these Beautiful Ladies(B-24’s) is amazing! Very talented artists for sure!!
Yes. And it is fortunate that an Army Air Forces majorhad a camera and Kodachrome film to capture the images. Thanks for watching.
Watched this video kinda hoping to see my Dad's B-24. He was stationed at Sudbury, East Anglia. Nose Gunner. His B-24 was "Slamin' Spamy" ---. A pig standing on two legs wearing a helmet. Under one leg(arm) was a Bomb, and the other arm (leg) held a .50 Cal Browning MG. Dad had 6 Air Medals and a D.F.C. and a letter from F.D.R. thanking him for his extra 5 missions.
Thanks for adding your dad's story -- always enjoy hearing from the families of veterans.
My Uncle, Lynn George Peterson, was a B-24 Pilot, shot down on his 23rd mission, Friedrichshafen
Germany, March 18, 1944.
Thanks for watching, and thanks for adding your family history.
Great video.
I was lucky enough to help restore the 24 at the Pima Air Museum in Tucson.
Great times.
That's a good experience to have. That has been my favorite aircraft to visit at Pima on each visit over the decades.
@@airailimages I worked on it before it was moved inside. It was backed up against the building with the "Shoot you're covered" paint scheme.
Oh good times. Lol
Wow, would love to see more information about these aircraft, the crew, mission status, did the plane or its crew survive to the end of the war, the artwork is so iconic, who did the illustrations?
thank you so much. Great gift of our history......
You are very welcome. Thanks for watching. We have some additional nose art photo shows on the Airailimages Channel; hope you'll check them out too.
the second B-24 pictured (rugged but right) was the "purple cow" ,a tired but capable aircraft, its mission was that as formation point for the rest of the flight to make their formations -
off the ground first it would circle the field as the formation gathered, once on their way it would be back on the ground.
so brave
Lest We Forget.
My Uncle was a Waist gunner on the B-24 Queen of Peace. I have a picture of him in uniform but I wish I could’ve seen a group photo. The only group photo they had is the one taking of them when they’re playing crash landed in Sweden. I couldn’t believe that that was in the Internet.
Always goods to hear bits and pieces of everyone's family history, honoring the World War II generation. Thanks for watching and commenting.
Your video is great, and I love your music. Thanks for shearing.
Thank you! The music is all from Audio Blocks; it is listed at the very end.
airailimages can you make a link to this music?)
Thank you, very tasteful.
Just finished reading Masters of The Air, great book & I had a hard time putting it down. I always knew General Jimmy Stewart flew with the 8th but never realized he flew that many combat missions, also even flying in Vietnam, RIP General Stewart. Read something somewhere about B-24 production at Willow Run, at peak they were rolling out a B-24 every hour. FLY NAVY!!!
835th squadron of the 486th Bomb Group ZODIACS!!!!!
Excellent work !
Thank you! Cheers!
Great stuff!
Lest we not forget the "Lady Be Good" 41-24301.
Amazing..
Sir Johnson it's just incredible color stills. The 24 perhaps did not get the recognition it deserved but it did its share and then some to help win the war. Some 17 crews used to joke that the 24 was the box the 17 came in. Not the case. Could take on any mission given to it and bring its crew home. The music score you put behind it fits perfectly. Reminds me of the movie "dances with wolves" Has a mighty and historical tone. Great video. JG...🍻👍
Thank you very much. Yes, the B-24 and its crews deserve our respect.
Libra ,that is my birth sign . Nice to see on a B-24 . Thank you .
Awesome 👏🏻 😎👌🏻
my dad flew a B-24 out of benghazi, libya. was shot down over northen italy and spent 2 years at stalg luft 111. i have the flag from that camp. may i dedicate it to somewhere?
Wow, that is an interesting story. Several possible options come to mind for the flag. There is a special Air Force POW collection as part of the Air Force Academy Special Collections Library, and I can think of other options too. Let me know if you'd like to pursue this.
My grandfather was a nose gunner on one of these beautiful aircraft and came home after 22 missions. I'll try to find out what this beautiful bird was named when I take a look at his flight book.
It's good to have a bit of family history like that. Thanks for watching and commenting.
He was in the Eighth so I know it was one of these.
Some dang good artist, back then..
Merci beaucoup pour cette vidéo 👍🇫🇷
Je vous en prie. Merci d'avoir regardé et commenté.
A shame there are no color images of my Dad's "nose art". :(
Thank you airail for this presentation. My uncle flew as a ball turret gunner in the 44th Bomb Group out of Shipdahm. His Liberator was called "Toad", SN 42-94962. It was shot down in May 1944. If you ever come across it in your research, could you post it one one of your upcoming videos? Thank you.
Will keep an eye out for such a photo. Thank you for watching, and for sharing a bit of family history about your uncle.
These dudes were thirsty AF lmao. Very cool, that is for sharing
I've seen just about all the nose art here but alot of the pictures you have are of aircraft that have been repaired so some of the artwork is missing.
The 8th Air Force added armor plate to the outside of B-24 cockpits, and that extra platy hid some of the original art.
My Dad's B24' "Dogpatch Delight".
Thanks for watching, and adding that personal family history.
Great Pictures ! How did ya miss Witchcraft?
I don’t believe Witchcraft was in the 8th AF
Does anyone know if they were ever based near Aldermaston.
Personal reasons for the question so would be great if anyone can answer thanks.
I would not have included the number art that someone later sanitized as so many of these have been.
Not actually sanitized -- the armor plate was a later addition, and it just happened to cover where some of the art had originally been painted.
Lots of artistic talent among the aviators of yesterday. The only question is why where panels below the cockpit side window replaced? Definitely not original because more than a few messed up the artwork
Those are armor plate that was added after the B-24s were in service already. That is an Eighth Air Force field mod. See details on this and more in the introductory text, above.
B24在歐州战場命運坎坷多舛，堅固性.火力，耐航力都略遜B17一筹，在轟炸普羅什特油厰時就損失惨重，十去四回，且机組人員碧血洒藍天，傷重不治者甚眾，B24也慢々退出欧洲陰霾天空，転往冰島苏格蘭基地，以巡弋大西洋航綫獵殺U艇狼群為主業，而蚊式机，B25，B26也取代其角色且勝任之。
I know the golden years of nose art is WW2. What about other wars? Like Korea and Vietnam? Why were they not allowed to do that and when did it stop?
Not sure when it stopped but I do know the B-1 bombers crews tried fo bring it back and the command staff outlawed it.
@@samuelhowie4543 When was this?
@@marywebb9127 I want to say early-mid eight's but I could be wrong
@@samuelhowie4543 thank you
Me bad but then again my tablet hides a lot of write ups which is anoying.
I understand! Thanks for watching.
If you enjoyed the Eighth Air Force color nose art, here's a collection of historic black-and-white B-24 nose art photographs from the Pacific in World War II:
th-cam.com/video/7Hsh4t5t4NI/w-d-xo.html
all the patched up panels are creepy
Most of what you are seeing is armor plate that was bolted on after the original painting was done.
I didn't know they had white girl flying crews in combat. You know, all the astrology painted planes lol
Woiy woff den. Lucky lady were my Dads planes in ww11 in Philadelphia 13 air core 1043 an Burma also 👍 👺 was one they always flu different planes