Lieutenant Groseclose Prepares to Depart for a Mission in His Mustang

USAAF Lt. William Groseclose prepares to depart for a mission from an English base in his North American P-51D Mustang of the 335th Fighter Squadron, 4th Fighter Group. He was captured when shot down over Germany on September 11, 1944.

Source :
National Archives and Records Administration, 342-C-K-3914
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
https://www.flickr.com/photos/airandspace/albums/72157715574200936

The crew of a Martin PBM-5 Mariner flying boat

The crew of a U.S. Martin PBM-5 Mariner flying boat used for patrol missions and anti-submarine warfare pose on top of their aircraft in April 1945 at Tanapag Harbor in Saipan.

Source :
National Archives and Records Administration, 80-G-K-16192
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
https://www.flickr.com/photos/airandspace/albums/72157715574200936

Chaplain Michael Ragan blesses the crew of the Boeing B-17G “Fifinella”

Captain Michael Ragan, the Catholic chaplain of the 91st Bomb Group, blesses the crew of the Boeing B-17G “Fifinella” before a mission in mid-1944. The plane was lost on a mission on August 13, 1944. The “Fifinella” was the female gremlin cartoon created by Walt Disney and adopted by the Women Air Service Pilots (WASP) as their mascot.

Source :
National Archives and Records Administration, 342-C-K-2105
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
https://www.flickr.com/photos/airandspace/albums/72157715574200936

Norden Bombsight

U.S. Bombardier trainers are readied for instruction. The motorized units would simulate the track across the ground that the bombardier used to synchronize the optics in the Norden bombsight.

The Norden Mk. XV, known as the Norden M series in U.S. Army service, is a bombsight that was used by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) and the United States Navy during World War II, and the United States Air Force in the Korean and the Vietnam Wars. It was an early tachometric design that directly measured the aircraft's ground speed and direction, which older bombsights could only estimate with lengthy manual procedures. The Norden further improved on older designs by using an analog computer that continuously recalculated the bomb's impact point based on changing flight conditions, and an autopilot that reacted quickly and accurately to changes in the wind or other effects.

Together, these features promised unprecedented accuracy for daytime bombing from high altitudes. During prewar testing the Norden demonstrated a circular error probable (CEP)[a] of 75 feet (23 m),[b] an astonishing performance for that period. This precision would enable direct attacks on ships, factories, and other point targets. Both the Navy and the USAAF saw it as a means to conduct successful high-altitude bombing. For example, an invasion fleet could be destroyed long before it could reach U.S. shores.

To protect these advantages, the Norden was granted the utmost secrecy well into the war, and was part of a production effort on a similar scale to the Manhattan Project: the overall cost (both R&D and production) was $1.1 billion, as much as 2/3 of the latter or over a quarter of the production cost of all B-17 bombers.[1] The Norden was not as secret as believed; both the British SABS and German Lotfernrohr 7 worked on similar principles, and details of the Norden had been passed to Germany even before the war started.[citation needed]

Under combat conditions the Norden did not achieve its expected precision, yielding an average CEP in 1943 of 1,200 feet (370 m) (a CEP of 1200 feet means 16% of all bombs dropped land within 1000 feet of the target), similar to other Allied and German results. Both the Navy and Air Forces had to give up using pinpoint attacks. The Navy turned to dive bombing and skip bombing to attack ships, while the Air Forces developed the lead bomber procedure to improve accuracy, and adopted area bombing techniques for ever-larger groups of aircraft. Nevertheless, the Norden's reputation as a pin-point device endured, due in no small part to Norden's own advertising of the device after secrecy was reduced late in the war.

The Norden saw reduced use in the post–World War II period after radar-based targeting was introduced, but the need for accurate daytime attacks kept it in service, especially during the Korean War. The last combat use of the Norden was in the U.S. Navy's VO-67 squadron, which used it to drop sensors onto the Ho Chi Minh Trail in 1967. The Norden remains one of the best-known bombsights.

Source :
National Archives and Records Administration, 342-C-K-885
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norden_bombsight
https://www.flickr.com/photos/airandspace/albums/72157715574200936

Capt. Jack Westward instructs combat fliers

Captain Jack Westward of Lewiston, Idaho, instructs combat fliers on the fine points of B-17 formation flying at an Eighth Air Force base in England. The basic element of a typical formation was a squadron “box” of 9 or 12 aircraft; three squadron boxes staggered vertically and horizontally formed a group, and three groups in trail formed a combat wing. In the event, the need to keep such tight defensive formations over Europe compromised the accuracy of the Norden bombsight, since individual bomb runs were not possible without breaking the formation. Whole bomb formations had to drop their loads on the lead bombardier’s command, and the inevitable small differences in timing and heading led to dispersed bomb patterns.

Source :
https://www.britannica.com/technology/B-17
National Archives and Records Administration 342-C-K-2268
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
https://www.flickr.com/photos/airandspace/albums/72157715574200936

Scrappy, the Yorktown Ship's Mascot

 

 

ARM3C (Aviation Radioman Third Class) Robert L. Brown of Denver, Colorado, poses in the cockpit of a Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter plane aboard the USS Yorktown (CV-10) with “Scrappy,” the ship’s mascot, November-December 1943. The story goes that Scrappy was found roaming the docks of Pearl Harbor in 1943. Yorktown sailors spotted the Airedale and smuggled him aboard, knowing their captain wouldn’t approve. Once aboard, the spirited little dog was officially named "Scrapper Shrapnel". He earned his nickname, Scrappy, challenging the roaring planes on the flight deck. Quickly a crew favorite, Scrappy eased stress and filled the hearts of hardworking sailors. In true mascot style, he even wore a custom-made life jacket and helmet!

Source :
National Archives and Records Administration 80-G-K-1704
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
https://www.flickr.com/photos/airandspace/albums/72157715574200936
https://www.patriotspoint.org/scrappy/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=d69c3145fb4b99e14d9acbf844f9cca4d59d149c-1615728787-0-AfVn_n0_uIilihmHT3V-5cDYjUJlOGWkHKY32UHZTnhSK4wtiqgZwA5Y2yGMOk6RrK84KbL9KpXWskC4MAzvP43Ab2GEzuieJtLC9K7ryZ45FyVqyL_fNqF_IPOG2IDJwjkfFzfcllMVLufcwb5VqqPa6WEniRxVBui9eCbG9beikkd96S8GZA7PAdKBOiIXpgDjLDMyZx_xiiZv98oV_VRQDRanLEZQQMLJHbIkUrKtj4lY-ucIqiRe-Tpw52OzV6Cm3WRkC2RdDzXuKpQzVdgvCwOKcoih2_8K9XLu1rGbp0sNX490X8irNdpjKvtsTm8hWLSRfyswDSWNkhmSrF0HisvcevOOydRsRRF9-Q9cKDDgp3LDhj3HgOIwdWP5GmVyrl9Vtr7eQA-cOS8Vw0s

The U.S. Eighth Air Force

 

8th Air Force crew members

 

The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) (8 AF) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Forces Strategic – Global Strike, one of the air components of United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM). The Eighth Air Force includes the heart of America's heavy bomber force: the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, the B-1 Lancer supersonic bomber, and the B-52 Stratofortress heavy bomber aircraft. Established on 22 February 1944 by the redesignation of VIII Bomber Command at RAF Daws Hill in High Wycombe, England, the Eighth Army Air Force (8 AAF) was a United States Army Air Forces combat air force in the European Theater of World War II (1939/41–1945), engaging in operations primarily in the Northern Europe area of responsibility; carrying out strategic bombing of enemy targets in France, the Low Countries, and Germany; and engaging in air-to-air fighter combat against enemy aircraft until the German capitulation in May 1945. It was the largest of the deployed combat Army Air Forces in numbers of personnel, aircraft, and equipment.

 

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighth_Air_Force
https://www.facebook.com/groups/237076659811098/permalink/1689714011214015/?__cft__[0]=AZVYKEV6kBNzkFj6gybNcpTQtdXe2pySr4pP62CoEzAQ7erpiSA269b0WJIkMvSf4DgxstR3cuiir6w8M9G829lTm3klLfAXNB65RltBa59XX6mi9S0aA3zemYwgZSdNXs5yC-XHxNFEbtUODx7KeBwtpliinWtjz3t2e8bvL6DPQebZ4iazi5WDDken3gteiuI&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R

Mustang Pilots Returned from a Training Mission

Pilots of North American A-36A Mustangs, return from a gunnery training mission, 1943. Behind we can see a A-36A Mustang aircraft of a training squadron at Harding Field, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. The new Harding Army Air Field were opened on 27 September 1941, in the last days before World War II. It was used by the United States Army Air Forces Technical Service Command as a maintenance and supply base, and during the war, hundreds of flyers received flight training in the city. Harding Field Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius O'Connor was credited with the first official landing at Harding Field. In reality, the first plane had landed there the day before when foggy conditions at the Downtown Airport on Goodwood Blvd. forced Lt. J. B. Thomas to divert to Harding Field. The Harding Army Air Field would be renamed Ryan Airport in 1954.

Source :
https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/world-war-2-color-part2
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=438757517393078&set=gm.1675666759285407
https://www.wbrz.com/news/happy-birthday-btr-historic-baton-rouge-airport-turns-77/
https://ww2db.com/image.php?image_id=14159

Captain Charles S. Hudson in the Nose of a B-17

 

 

Captain Charles S. Hudson, the most decorated bombardier of the US Army Air Corps' 8th Air Force, in the nose of a B-17 bomber at a base in England, mid-1940s.

Source :
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=3838202466266538&set=gm.1674090432776373
https://www.gettyimages.ie/detail/news-photo/capt-charles-s-hudson-the-most-decorated-bombardier-of-the-news-photo/103327701

Inside a B-24 Liberator Express Transport Plane

 

Inside a B-24 Liberator Express Transport Plane during a mission, 1942. Interior view of the B-24 Liberator Express Transport Plane bringing soldiers from both the US Army Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force to the base in Goose Bay, Labrador, Canada. 1942. Photos by Ivan Dmitri / Michael Ochs Archives.

Source :

https://www.facebook.com/groups/237076659811098/permalink/1539353576250060

Flight Deck Crew of USS Yorktown Extending the Wing of a Hellcat Fighter

Flight deck crew of USS Yorktown (CV-10) extending the wing of a U.S. Navy Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat "White K" Bu No 41090 (aircraft number 9) from Fighter Squadron VF-1 from Carrier Air Group 1 (CVG-1) in June 1944. This photo was taken during the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the largest carrier battle in world history and the glory hour of the Grumman F6F-3 (it should be noted, as well, that the F6F "Hellcat" is the most successful fighter in aviation history when it comes to air-to-air "kills," ultimately amassing a 19 to 1 kill ratio, primarily against the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, or "Zeke"). Notice that the propeller hub on this aircraft is painted pea green which was an unofficial recognition feature found on Yorktown based aircraft throughout much of the war. During this period (June-July 1944), Yorktown took part in the capture of Saipan, 1st Bonin raid, Battle of the Philippine Sea, 2nd & 3rd Bonin raids, capture of Guam, and raids on Palau, Yap, and Ulithi. For additional information, Leroy Grumman got the idea for the folding wing design to fold against the fuselage from an eraser and a paper clip! He took an eraser and used it, as the fuselage of the plane. Then he took two paper clips for the wings and bent out the short end of each of the clips, so that it was perpendicular to the body of the paper clip. He stuck the short ends into the eraser until he found the right angle and position at which the clip, when twisted to the vertical position, would also fold back against the eraser. It worked! all that was necessary now was the engineering to design the folding wing mechanism, make it strong and fail-safe. This principle was used on the F4F Wildcat the F6F Hellcat and the TBF Advenger, and the folding wing design is still used today on carrier-based US Navy aircraft that are built by Grumman.

Sources :
Ray Wagner collection
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Grumman_F6F_Hellcat
http://ww2.wwarii.com/wwii-equipment/wwii-aircraft/allied_aircraft/american_aircraft/US-Navy/Grumman-F6F-3-Hellcat-BuNo-41090-of-fighter-squadron-VF-1
http://ww2db.com/image.php?image_id=98

Crew of a B-26 Marauder Outside their Plane, Nicknamed Ginger

A lovely shot by Frank Scherschel, taken immediately after the engines had been shut down, of the pilot and his crew of an American B-26 Marauder (group markings B-26B-20-MA, serial number 41-31767), nicknamed "Ginger", discuss their upcoming 20th mission while on the tarmac of Andrewsfield Airport near Stebbing, Essex, England, December 1943. The crew was attached to the 449th Bomber Squadron / 322nd Bombardment Group / 9th Air Force. Their plane displaying 19 mission symbols and six "Duck" symbols, representing diversion missions (D=Decoy. The 9th AF would send out two formations to try and confuse the Germans on what the main target was. The second smaller formation was called the diversionary force and painted the duck symbol on their planes for that mission). The bomber eventually succumbed to Flak (German anti-aircraft) over Siracourt (Northern France) to cause the crew to bail out near the coast of France. All six men survived and became POW's. Their name as follow: F/O Thomas H. Rivenbark - pilot, 2ndLt. Galend E. Stone - copilot, T/Sgt. John L. Misarke - bombardier/navigator, S/Sgt. Wilbur L. Moore - engineer/gunner, S/Sgt. Paul E. McManes - radio operator/gunner, and S/Sgt. Curtis B. Hill - armorer/gunner (please note that the crew listed in the description above were not a part of the crew when this picture was taken)

Sources :
Book "Martin B-26 Marauder" by Martyn Chorlton and Henry Morshead
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dougsheley/3048891169
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-crew-of-an-american-b-26-marauder-nicknamed-ginger-news-photo/53302606

A US P-47 Thunderbolt in French Airfield

a US Army Air Corps P-47 D-11-RE #42-75329 Thunderbolt fighter "Miss Second Front" (piloted by Louis Vieck) of 395th Fighter Squadron / 368th Fighter Group / 9th Air Force getting some maintenence at a makeshift A-3 airfield in the French countryside following the invasion of Normandy, August 1944. 16 P-47's of the 395th FS, 368th FG took off from their airfield at Chilbolton, England at 0520 on June 6th, 1944 for the first of many sorties on this famous day. Only 7 days later on June 13th the 368th FG started utilizing ALG A-1 & a few days later A-3 to re-arm & re-fuel their P-47's. On June 19th at ALG A-3 near Cardonville, France the 368th FG was the 1st group to become permanently stationed and operational from France. The group would remain at A-3 until August 23rd when they moved to A-40 near Chartres, France.This picture was made by LIFE magazine’s photographer Frank Scherschel. He captured countless lesser-known scenes from the run-up to the D-Day onslaught and the heady weeks after. His pictures — most of which were never published in LIFE — feel at-once profoundly familiar and somehow utterly, vividly new

Source:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dougsheley/3047052634

A Northrop BT-1 Dive Bomber of Enterprise’s ‘Bombing Six’ Squadron

A Northrop BT-1 dive bomber of Enterprise’s ‘Bombing Six’ squadron, BuNo 0681. This one, according to the plane, from the “6-B-10″ you can see its the Sixth Carrier Group (Bomber), 10th aircraft. These BT-1’s were even worse than the Helldivers. Although colorful and at least a mono-plane, they had exceptionally bad low-speed maneuverability, which made them about the worst choice for a carrier aircraft in the world. The Navy accepted just 56 of these troubled planes. In 1939 the aircraft designation was changed to the Douglas SBD-1 with the last 87 on order completed as SBD-2s. By this point, Northrop had become the El Segundo division of Douglas aircraft, hence the change.

Source :
http://laststandonzombieisland.com/2014/09/21/the-big-es-1938-airgroup-in-technicolor/

A Flock of US Navy Douglas SBD Dauntless Dive Bombers Over the Pacific Ocean

A flock of US Navy Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers over the Midway Atoll during 1943. Serving primarily on the carriers Yorktown, Hornet, and Enterprise. They saw action in the Battle of Coral Sea, Battle of Midway (sinking 4 Japanese carriers) and worked side by side with TBD Devastator torpedo aircraft among many decisive battles

Source :
http://community.ratsun.net/topic/63908-airplane-porn-and-the-occasional-helicopter/page-3

B-17 Bombers Flying Back to Base after Mission

A rare and candid original color photograph showing an American bombardier in his B-17 Flying Fortress, flying back to the base following a mission with other B-17 bombers of the 96th Bombardment Group seen ahead (1943). He is looking over his shoulder talking to the navigator whose desk is located out of the picture to the left. Photo most likely taken by the cheek gunner At the start of the bombing campaign against Germany, B-17's flew unaccompanied. Later in the war they would have "little friends" as fighter escorts - such as P-51 Mustang fighters - on their bombing missions. This was very effective, cutting bomber losses substantially. The fighters didn't just stay with the bombers; on many missions they would fly ahead of the bombers, attacking German fighters before they were able to take-off to attack the bombers.

Source:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=757028997723030&set=gm.343565852495511&type=1
https://www.flickr.com/photos/konabish/sets/72157629764383634/detail/