Today I got a shirt box full of my Dad’s pictures from WWII.I’m trying to put together a shadow box of Dad’s medals,patches,artifacts,etc. Since he was an airplane mechanic on Siapan (mostly) a lot of them were of the “girls”- that fantastic nose art painted on the airplanes.
Some of those guys who painted these were really artists! What work!
(I now know why we were never allowed to look at them as kids-forbidden to get the “box” down from the top shelf of the closet)
I’m trying to scan these into a file and also find out what I can about each airplane. I’ve searched but haven’t found out a lot. Are any of you out there aware of any site I might not have found to help identify these planes? Any WWII buffs?
Best bet would be to start at the library for picture books of WWII. You should be able to get enough pictures of US aircraft then to make some close guesses. If you really want to go in-depth to identify individual planes, there are people who really sweat the details over stuff like that involved in the model aircraft world, as well as in the war-gaming world. I’m pretty sure there is enough detail out there to sink your battleship, but rather than spend a fortune on books, it would probably be best to start with a good public library.
I have no time to get to the library or that would maybe be an option. But I appreciate the suggestion.
I’m mostly wanting to find out about the individual airplanes. What happened to them. You wouldn’t believe how many pictures of the planes he had. I’m sure he worked on a lot of them. You see, he was intended to be an airplane gunner, then the army found out he could fix ANYTHING and invent stuff too.(he made a washing machine on the island out of broken machinery and did his fellow soldiers’ laundry for them, for a fee, which gave him gambling money.
Probably your best bet for general photos of just about any flying thing in existence. From there you would likely be able to Google or Wiki any specifics on a particular aircraft you’re looking for. Good luck.
This website seems to have lists of who was on some planes and what happened to the plane, one them seems to be Supine Sue (I think there was only one, but I’m not certain) and maybe some of your others are there too. http://www.powmiaff.org/20thAAF/500thBG/883rdSq/SquadronLists/883sq.html
This website seems to be one belonging to a fellow who is trying to do just what you are----finding out about the history of each plane and crew. It might be of interest, not sure. I think a lot of the info is in books that you would need to buy. http://www.usaaf-noseart.co.uk/contents2.htm
There is a little info there on some of the artists. This fellow is thought to have painted Supine Sue----but it isn’t certain and also nothing is really known about him except that he signed some of his work “The Drowsy Swede”, which I can surely relate to . http://www.usaaf-noseart.co.uk/johnson-h.htm
It could be that if you have the name of the plane, if you just search on that there may be someone with a personal connection to that particular plane who has a website about it. That seems to be what the first website is.
This poem says it all for me. I have loved this work since I first read it at 13 years of age.
The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
by Randall Jarrell, 1914-1965
From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from the dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.
An excellent poem. This is what poetry should do – just grab you by the testicles and twist. I think I first saw it at about age 13, too, right about when Twelve O’Clock High was on television and I was building models of the Memphis Belle. The contrast was, shall we say, attitude forming.
Cynth, those are great sites- I must just be lousy at searching…
Dad was in the 881st Bomb Squadron, 500th Bomb Group, 73rd Wing so you did REALLY good!! Great help!!!
Cynth said:
This website seems to be one belonging to a fellow who is trying to do just what you are----finding out about the history of each plane and crew. It might be of interest, not sure. I think a lot of the info is in books that you would need to buy. http://www.usaaf-noseart.co.uk/contents2.htm
I’ve gotta get ahold of this guy, since he want’s info from the guys that maintained these planes too, not just the crews. Dad told us a bit about this stuff not long before he died, for a book our county put together on WWII vets.
Martin, I’ve got pictures of almost all of those planes on that site, and some that are not up there. I’ve gotta lot of reading to do …
but in the mean time, here’s some more… as usual, click on the picture for a larger version…
I was thinking your Dad might be in one of those groups after I had looked at those websites—so it is interesting to hear which one it was.
I’m so glad you’ve gotten a start. It was a real weird fluke that I came up with anything. Since I don’t know a thing about the Air Force, I just typed in the name of the plane instead of something more sensible like B-29 or Bomb Squadron or things like that. I think my lack of knowledge pushed me in the direction of making a lucky guess. And I really only got about 3 hits—so it’s out there for some planes but the specific info you’re looking for is not that easy to find I don’t think.
After reading some of the records for the planes about who was on the crew and the missions they went on and then the final fate of the plane, I could see why a person would be interested to know those things. That one website about Supine Sue that has the radio conversation taking place during a raid was really interesting. My main thought was very selfish—how glad I am I did not ever have to be in that plane in such terrifying circumstances.
Well, anyone that rigs up a washing machine to do laundry to get money for gambling----yep, it sounds like he was a fun man . It almost sounds like a TV show plot, doesn’t it?
djm, if you click on the pictures they will be bigger!
