The Air War in Color

Jack Cook · **Posted:** Tue Apr 12, 2005 9:50 pm

Thought you all might enjoy these shots from my collection.

One of my favorite all time photos! Lt Darwin Berry ready to lauch his 4th FG P-51D on a escort mission over Germany.

Capts John Godfrey and Don Gentile of the 4th Fg by Don's P-51B.

B-17G "General Ike" of the 91st BG in 1945.

The B-24J "Hookem Cow" 2nd Air Division 8th AF 1945

B-24D "Lonesome Polecat Jr. being readied for a mission in China.

Lynn Allen · **Posted:** Tue Apr 12, 2005 10:42 pm

Jack, thanks again for taking the time to put these on the WIX!

Cheers,

Lynn

KarenG · **Posted:** Wed Apr 13, 2005 4:38 am

Just beautiful Jack!

Thank you so much for sharing these!!

Karen

mrhenniger · **Posted:** Wed Apr 13, 2005 7:33 am

Thanks Jack!

Mike

Robbie Stuart · **Posted:** Wed Apr 13, 2005 8:42 am

Jack, I always enjoy your photos! Thanks for posting them.
Robbie :lol:

mjanovec · **Posted:** Wed Apr 13, 2005 1:19 pm

Great photos! I always prefer seeing color photos of WWII, as it suddenly seems more "real" (for lack of a better term). While B&W is fine, it makes one feel removed from the history. Those vivid color shots look like they might have been made yesterday.

For those who don't have them, there are a great series of books showing the air war in color, some of which were edited by Jeff Ethell (RIP) and Warren Bodie. There are great volumes covering fighter command, bomber command, Pacific air war, flying the Burma Hump, the carrier air war, etc. Of all of my WWII books, those are the ones I return to the most...

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Wed Apr 13, 2005 5:03 pm

fabulous!!! i'd swear you were hooked up to a time machine & shot the pics in the 40's today!!! best, tom

mrhenniger · **Posted:** Thu Apr 14, 2005 10:31 am

I realize this is likely a long shot, but is there any chance that you know the serial numbers of this airframes?

Mike

Swiss Mustangs · **Posted:** Thu Apr 14, 2005 10:41 am

the P-51D is 44-13883 - a P-51D-5-NA - not the lack of the fin fillet on this Mustang.

Don Gentile's P-51B is 43-6913 VF-T

The heavyweights I would have to look up.....

Martin / Swiss Mustangs

dollar65 · **Posted:** Thu Apr 14, 2005 12:46 pm

mrhenniger wrote:

I realize this is likely a long shot, but is there any chance that you know the serial numbers of this airframes?

Mike

General Ike is B-17G is 42-97061, 401st BS, 91st BG, 8th AAF

Hookem Cow is 42-95120, 755th BS, 458th BG, 8th AAF

There is about 10 lonesome polecats in the nose art name directory I have, but if China is the place, then it could be 42-40850, 425th BS, 308th BG, 14th AAF

BTW, thanks for posting the pictures, Jack.

Cheers,

Laurent

Jack Cook · **Posted:** Thu Apr 14, 2005 12:55 pm

"Lonesome Polecat" was I believe 374th BS 308th BG 14th AF

mrhenniger · **Posted:** Thu Apr 14, 2005 1:53 pm

Thanks again Jack for these incredible pics. As promised in the other thread I told you I was going to ask you about the photographer. So... Who is he/she? The reason I am asking is so I can give proper credit in my personnal photo collection. I hope it is OK to use the pictures for that.

Regards,

Mike

SPang · **Posted:** Thu Apr 14, 2005 3:37 pm

Hello Jack,

Thank you for the pics.

Very nice quality.

SPang

Jack Cook · **Posted:** Thu Apr 14, 2005 4:10 pm

The shots on this thread came from the National Archives. No photographer is given credit in these. Between a friiend and myself we've gleaned about 25,000 photos from the archives. Most have never seen the light of day!

mrhenniger · **Posted:** Thu Apr 14, 2005 6:04 pm

Jack Cook wrote:

The shots on this thread came from the National Archives. No photographer is given credit in these. Between a friiend and myself we've gleaned about 25,000 photos from the archives. Most have never seen the light of day!

I don't support that is an on-line service?

I think we have something similar here in Canada through the Canadian War Museum and there is a fee involved. I haven't looked into it yet.

Mike

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