Just A Car Guy: "Janey," Alfred W. Schultz's World War II artillery spotter plane, an L-4B Piper Cub, the only Piper Cub to survive WW2 intact

Monday, August 15, 2016

"Janey," Alfred W. Schultz's World War II artillery spotter plane, an L-4B Piper Cub, the only Piper Cub to survive WW2 intact

During World War 2, like most red-blooded Americans, the Piper J-3 Cub was called to serve in the military.

William T. Piper, owner of the Piper Aircraft Company, loaned the army several Cubs and pilots as an experiment to determine if they could be employed for air observation. The name stuck.

Classified as the L-4 by the Army but most commonly called "Grasshoppers," more than 4900 were used to help spot and correct the fall of artillery shells over enemy lines and otherwise help coordinate troops.

"The arming of Piper Cubs was considered and even tried. Charley Carpenter in North Africa killed five enemy tanks with three bazookas mounted on each of the wing struts of his Piper Cub. After that, he became famous throughout the army, at least among the pilots, as “Bazooka Charley.”

Janey was the longest lasting Piper Cub of World War.

Schultz and Janey had flown in support of the 3rd Infantry Division for two and one-half years from landing on the shores of North Africa in November 1942 and Schultz and Janey fought their way across North Africa into Sicily, Italy southern France and Germany.

George Patton was a passenger in Janey on dangerous flights to observe ground fighting, to check out German glider fields, and to meet wounded soldiers as they were being evacuated.

Schultz hasn't seen the original Janey since August 1945 when it had been exhibited under the Eiffel Tower in Paris along with American fighters and bombers.

All efforts to find the original Janey since then have failed.

Well, it turned out that the Army needed these planes in some pretty inaccessible places, and that's where the Navy came in.