Monday, February 25, 2019

Thanks to Bruce for scanning these nose art photos from his uncles WW2 tour photo album!





anyone know what this B 29 was named? It has at least 3 pieces of nose art, and what seems to be one battle group logo, was on 10 bombing runs, and I bet those painted guys on the plane have a story to them!


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/124130533463808379/

LJ figured out that this bottom B 29 I want to know about, was in the 6th CB Brigade 505th Group, 482nd Squadron.  http://www.usaaf-noseart.co.uk/unit_planelist.php?unit=487&showgroup=no#.XHYfPehKiUk

6th CB Brigade was based on Tinian from October 1944 building airfields and other facailities. In July 1945, 121st NCB left for Saipan and a month later 135th NCB was detached and sent to Okinawa

This badge looks like the SeaBee is standing on a crocodile


So, this B29 is the 6th Brigade, SeaBees, serial number unknown

In 1944, the 482d Bombardment Squadron, Very Heavy was activated and assigned to the 505th Bombardment Group.

Its last assignment was with Thirteenth Air Force, stationed at Clark Field, Philippines. It was inactivated on 30 June 1946.

505th Bombardment Group, (B-29, B-29A, 1944–1946)
Activated, March 1944
XXI BC; 313th Bombardment Wing
Circle W Tail Code; North Field, Tinian
482d Bombardment Squadron
http://b-29.org/313BW/505thbg/MacIntyre-history1.pdf





http://philcrowther.com/6thBG/6bgtinian_map.html

It was one of several that in 1945 were bombing the Mitsubishi Aircraft Engine factory, and the Nakajima Aircraft factory

Color image of the B29 http://www.axis-and-allies-paintworks.com/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?132.670

Thanks Bruce! 

7 comments:

  1. "The Great Artiste" was a Silverplate B-29 bomber. It was with the 393d Bomb Squadron, 509th Composite Group. It was named after the bombardier because of his bombing talents. It flew training and practice missions using facsimiles of the atomic bombs on targets in Japan. It was the only aircraft to participate in both the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as an observation aircraft on each mission. Whiteman AFB MO has a B-29 gate guard that is painted with the same nose art.

    After the war ended it returned with the 509th Composite Group to Roswell Army Air Field, New Mexico. It was scrapped in September 1949 after being heavily damaged in an accident at Goose Bay Air Base, Labrador, the year before.

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  2. The third photo is of B-29 Superfortress 44-70005 from 505th Bomb Group, 482nd Bomb Squadron, which was based on the northern part of Tinian Island, the same base that the Silverplate (atomic bomb program) bombers operated out of. The last photo is a bit more difficult because you can't see the main art clearly. The others are cartoon characters of the flight crew, located near their stations on the aircraft. The men in the photo appear to be this aircraft's ground crew. There were hundreds of examples of nose art and all of them were unique. If we could see the bomber's unit markings you might be able to narrow down who flew it etc.

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  3. Jesse, looks to me like that's some of the ground crew painted on the side doing there various tasks on the plane. Maybe there's more of them painted on the other side. Great pictures, thanks Bruce.

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    1. that's what I was thinking too, and it's a damn shame that this photographer stood back a bit too far to get some details of the paintings, as I bet they are comical

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    2. It is. Though if Bruce want's to find out he could post it on some WW2 sites that would get more coverage, there may be someone who knows this bird. Also, forgot to mention, there's a color photo of "herd of bald goats" on Flickr, in that picture it has 28 mission markings.

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  4. Interesting. It appears they named some aircraft for the construction units that built and serviced their airfields. This one is after the 6th Naval Contraction Brigade:

    http://www.usaaf-noseart.co.uk/plane.php?plane=ncb-5th-brigade#.XHYTheivA1I

    More examples up one level:
    http://www.usaaf-noseart.co.uk/unit_planelist.php?unit=489&showgroup=yes#.XHYUGOivA1L

    /
    L.J.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! That narrows it down a lot! I'll see if I can see if I can stumble across the B 29 and get some better photos of it.

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