Some new WWII Photos... P-51s, Corsairs, and L-5s oh my!

[Taylor Stevenson]

These are all from my collection. Please if you have any additional information let me know. Enjoy!


1. North American P-51D Mustang 44-14742, SX-M, "Gloria Ann II" of the 353rd FG, 352nd FS. Pilot was Captain Donald Barber.

2. Same FG FS as above. Taxiing.

3. North American P-51D Mustang 44-14815 "Oaskaloosa, Iowa" FG? FS? Location?

4. North American P-51D Mustang 44-63491 FT-I Under Eiffel Tower Caption says 31 kills to this A/C. 4th Fighter Group. "Angel's Playmate"

5. Consolidated B-24 Liberator BG? BS? Base location?

6. Consolidated B-24 Liberator 7 Nazi Kills 4 ship Kills BG? BS? Atlantic Patrol?

7. Douglas A-26 Invaders Flight ETO "Flying #3 on Kirkidies" BG? BS? Location?

8. North American AT-6D? Texan Meridian Miss. Apr 22 1942

9. North American AT-6D? Texan FG Hack Erlonger(n?) Germany. FG? FS? etc.

10. North American AT-6D? Texan FG Hack "Formation on Castelongs wing" FG? FS? etc.

11. North American AT-6D? Texan 44-91274 Unit? etc.?

12. Consolidated B-24? Liberator crash PTO? info?

13. Curtiss SB2C-? Helldiver Damaged SNJs F4Us in Background unit? info?

14. Douglas A-20_? Havoc 42-516-- #65 Unit? Info?

15. Douglas C-54_? 41-37317 Bringing Mail PTO? Unit? Base? Info?

16. Captured Nakajima Ki 43 Oscar US Markings PTO "RACCOON SPECIAL" was rebuilt by the 8th FS at Hollandia.

17. Republic P-47_? Thunderbolt FG? Officers Gen. Vanderbergh, Gen. Wayland, Gen. Lardes, Bill Myers, Col Laughlin, John Myers, ETO. Info? Unit? Occasion?

18. Republic P-47_? Thunderbolt 'Lucky' and Pilot. Small name above wing 'Dolores'. Unit? Pilot? Info.?

19. Vought F4U-_? Corsairs NZ5660 NZ5652 NZ5654 Royal New Zealand Air Force; The roundel presentation is unusual for that service. You can see the characteristic RNZAF skinny fin flash. As Delivered status.

20. Vought F4U-4 Corsairs

21. USS Mindoro (CVE-120) F4U-4 Corsairs on deck Info?

22. Martin B-26_? "Valkyrie" "Lt Witherbee" Mission Markings Soldier Unit?

23. North American AT-6D? Texan "Elizabeth" Post War Info?



OF COURSE THE MOST IMPORTANT AIRCRAFT... L-BIRDS!

Piper L-4s (Info Needed/Welcome!)

24. Piper L-4_? Grasshopper Pre-War #14

25. Piper L-4_? Grasshopper "The Rebel" with Pilots Negative

26. Piper L-4_? Grasshopper PTO

27. Piper L-4_? Grasshopper Linup Meridian Miss. Apr 22 1942. 42-36403 42-36431 42-36428 C-47 in bkgd.



FINALLY: STINSON L-5 SENTINELS!! Info needed!


28. Brodie System testing, 1945. Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio. Stinson L-5 44-18835 #32 AP Wirephoto

29. Stinson L-5 Sentinel 42-92509 "Mary". Dog Mascot Named "Soupee" ETO France

30. Cool Original Stinson L-5 / O-62 42-14799 Press Photo that has sharpee editing marks and information on the back for a newspaper publishing. Nov 18 1942.

31. Stinson L-5s 42-98768 42-98729 'EL' on tails Two ac at AFB

32. Stinson L-5G Sentinel 45-34996 Women Pilot Convair Photo

33. Stinson OY-1 USMC 'Lollie May' Early WWII PTO Marine With Mail BJ Williams Jr

34. Stinson L-5_? Mortor Hit burned with soldiers ETO

35.Stinson L-5 44-17124 21-L ETO

36. Stinson L-5 44-17749 LD-749 Allentown-Bethlehem Airport

37. Stinson L-5 S/N? Crash Training Bairds Mills, Tenn. Sept 25, 1943.

38. Stinson L-5F Sentinel 44-17939 LD-939 Jun 6 1947 Langley Field, Va. Stealth exhaust prop cowl etc. AP Photo Original

39. Stinson L-5 O-62 42-98249 O-62 Gear Fairings. Nice Shot of SB's Prop. Liaison Sq Logo on Boot cowl. Red brdr Insignia.

40. Stinson L-5 O-62 42-98276 Silver Stateside with GI. B-25. C-45 42-37247 in bkgd.

41. Stinson L-5 Sentinel Pilot with chute and glasses. Cool Hollywoodesque photo.

42. Stinson L-5 with Sgt sitting on the wheel. Overseas.



Thanks for the help!

Last edited by Taylor Stevenson on Tue Mar 09, 2010 9:17 pm, edited 4 times in total.

[Pat Carry]

I do not have any info on these other than they are fantastic!

[Dan K]

First pic is of 44-14742, SX-M, "Gloria Ann II" of the 353rd FG, 352nd FS. Pilot was Captain Donald Barber.

[RyanShort1]

Taylor,

Interested in where you are finding those fantastic L-birds shots!

Ryan

[Hemiman]

Taylor...

The Ki-43 was the "RACCOON SPECIAL" and was rebuilt by the 8th FS at Hollandia. Here's a pic my dad took of it when he was stationed there..

Bill

[Taylor Stevenson]

Wow I knew I could count on the wix brain trust. thanks for the info so far.

Ryan,
I found them dumpster diving... and eBay of course
I can post more l-bird stuff later. These are my newer additions.



Keep the info coming!!

[k5083]

The line of Corsairs is Royal New Zealand Air Force; hence the "NZ####" serials. The roundel presentation is unusual for that service. You can see the characteristic RNZAF skinny fin flash.

August

[RyanShort1]

I found them dumpster diving...

The thought!

Ryan

[Dan K]

4. North American P-51D? Mustang 44-63491 FT-? Under Eiffel Tower Caption says 31 kills to this A/C. FG? FS? Pilot?

4th Fighter Group bird. Here are a couple more angles:


http://www.al4lions.com/_/rsrc/12271496 ... 072%20.jpg


http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1315/127 ... 45ac63.jpg

[JDK]

The line of Corsairs is Royal New Zealand Air Force; hence the "NZ####" serials. The roundel presentation is unusual for that service. You can see the characteristic RNZAF skinny fin flash.

Always good to fly as a US ally. Best to remove the red from your roundels though, even if flying US equipment.

(More seriously the French roundel - grandaddy of them all - was usually partnered by rudder - not fin stripes. The French Navy carried a fouled (modern unfouled) anchor over the stripes and roundel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_Navale )

I'd guess these are 'on delivery' Corsairs, as the markings are unusual for RNZAF. I'm sure the folks at Dave's forum will give chapter & verse. See: http://rnzaf.proboards.com/index.cgi?

Note that the Helldiver has a red-line less bar in the star and bar, and is thus early to be carrying what looks like radar to me. Not my area, but interesting.

Regards,

[Dan K]

4. North American P-51D? Mustang 44-63491 FT-? Under Eiffel Tower Caption says 31 kills to this A/C. FG? FS? Pilot?

4th Fighter Group bird. Here are a couple more angles:


http://www.al4lions.com/_/rsrc/12271496 ... 072%20.jpg


http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1315/127 ... 45ac63.jpg

DOH! I think I jumped the gun on this one.

There was more than one Eiffel Tower Mustang. Here's the pic I meant to link. Unit marking is FT-I. 354th FG, 353rd FS


http://www.parisenimages.fr/fr/popup-ph ... to=9136-14

[akdhc2pilot]

Aha! The photos you've been snagging on eBay all this time and not sharing. Hey, leave some for us poor guys! Anyway, here are some comments and corrections on the Sentinel photos:

Pic 28) A well known "Brodie" publicity photo. This is actually L-5B serial number 44-16835. "Dusty" Rhodes, one of the 3 pilots who flew tests with this airplane at Wright Field and later demonstrated the Brodie device to the British in India, was still alive and well when I spoke with him last year. Says he developed his deep booming voice from yelling at students from the back seat.

Pic 29) This is actually L-5E 44-17509 that arrived in the ETO in April 1945 and was assigned to Army Ground Forces. For all you L-5 owners who turn the fuel vents the wrong direction, look at this picture! They face aft. Period. End of argument.

Pic 30) 42-14799. Another well-known Public Relations photo that can be found in publications such as Jane's ATWAC. It is one frame of at least a 13 photo sequence taken at the factory airport in Wayne, MI. This is L-5 #2 and was completed 4 days before #1 so it was used for the PR shots. It rolled out of the factory on Nov 14, 1942 and went to Wright Field Test Center. It was scrapped in late 1946.

Pic 31) 42-98768, photographed at Biggs Field. Assigned to the Base Squadron HQ and the EL on the rudder stands for El Paso. It was one of 6 aircraft reassigned to the USCG in 1948. The other L-5, 42-98729 remained in Texas its whole career and was reclaimed in March 1950 at Kelly.

Pic 32) L-5G 45-34996. Another "stock" publicity photo published in some editions of Jane's and other books. This airplane was accepted on Aug 7, 1945 and the war ended a week later, so it sat at the factory until November. A lot of women were employed by the ferry division to deliver L-5's and one of them was the famous pilot Betty Skelton. This airplane originally went to Laurenburg - Maxton AAF in NC but ended up going to the Far East with the National Guard during the Korean War. It ended up at Chofu Aero Club in Japan where SOPA member Bill Seidman flew it in 1959.

Pic 33) "Lollie May". Note early exhaust, making it one of the first 24 OY's delivered to the marines. The script on the cowl is similar to that on VMO-2 OY's that were in combat at Saipan and later on Okinawa. A guess says this pic was taken in Hawaii at Ewo or Camp Tarawa, Feb - May 1944. Could be at Saipan or Okinawa later, but most of their original birds were wrecked or so ragged out by then they weren't flyable.

Pic 34) Burned Stinson. I have the records on what happened somewhere. As I recall it was torched by retreating Germans who had been cut off and infiltrated through the liaison squadron field perimeter one night.

Pic 35) L-5B 42-17124. Fuselage marking 21*L indicates it was assigned to the 8th Armored Division HQ Artillery Battalion. Arrived in the ETO March 1945. Survived the war and the scrapper. Still active duty in Germany in 1953. Fate unknown.

Pic 36) L-5E 44-17749 built 4/13/45 and originally assigned to Ft. Sill artillery school. This pic was taken at Allentown PA in 1950 when it was assigned to the CAP there. It was reassigned to the Army Field Forces in August 1951. Fate unknown.

Pic 37) This is 42-14910 of the 14th Liaison Squadron. The water-soluble white band on the fuselage indicates it was a participant in the Tennessee Maneuvers. According to the accident report it crashed due to engine failure and pilot Richard H. McAuliffe was killed. The 14th, of course, went on to fly for the 3rd Army in Europe.

Pic 38) 44-17939. Another photo well known photo to L-5 enthusiasts and found in several recent books. Flight tested at Langley by Frank Malinak of the 161st LS, who is still alive and has corresponded with me. The prop is at the Smithsonian. The "stealth" prop-exhaust combo reduced noise in the cockpit from 115db to around 55db. To observers on the ground it was "eerily quiet", barely making more noise than a large glider. After tests it was converted back to standard config and later ended up as a fish hauler in Alaska as N4754C, powered by a W670 radial (think Stearman) and was eventually wrecked by a civilian owner.

Pic 39) 42-98249. Also pictured on p69 of "The Stinsons" by John Underwood. This is NOT an O-62 which were production aircraft #1 thru #275. This is #490. Don't be fooled by the early exhaust which was used quite a ways into L-5 production but most got replaced because they had a tendancy to crack. The red surround on the insignia was used from June to Sept 1943. This aircraft was retained by Stinson and employed as a demonstrator in August 1943 (there's a story there I won't go into). It later went to Camp McCook, Nebraska in December '43 and was surveyed in Feb 1945 after being washed out in an accident by a pilot at the base HQ.

Pic 40) 42-98276. Again, this is NOT an O-62. This is production #517, a "standard" L-5. Photo is obviously pre-1947, most likely taken in 1946 at the 2002nd Air Base Group, Stewart Field, Newburgh, NY. Later went to Vermont NG in Burlington. It still exists. Previouisly owned by SOPA member Dave Viviano in the 1970's. He and the current owners would love to get a copy, I'm sure.

Pic 41). No info, but do you think you could climb into an L-5 wearing a chute like that? Try it. Only takes once to figure it out according to the old L-pilots.

Pic 42) No info. Germany?

Thanks for posting these and allowing me to "strut my stuff". Cockadoodledoo! Jim Gray

Last edited by akdhc2pilot on Wed Mar 10, 2010 12:30 pm, edited 5 times in total.

[Pogmusic]

Talking about the number of "Nazi" kills on an A/C is funny. How did the pilots or gunners know the pilot was a Nazi? I did my masters thesis on Axis POW's in Georgia and always found it funny that we fought the Nazi's, not the Germans; but, we did fight the Japanese. Other than that observation, I loved the pictures. Brings to mind my time flying L-Birds with the old Mid America Air Group (MAAG).

[RyanShort1]

Taylor,

Hope you don't mind, but I took that negative scan and tweaked it around. Here's how it came out:



Ryan

[HMFischer]

FT-I was the mount of Bruce Carr in the 354th FG 353rd FS 9AAF. My uncle was in that squadrn. He said that when they were in training Mr. Carr would stay in and study gunnery while the other guys would find other entertanment. Sully said Mr. Carr was an increadable shot and he could make some amazing deflection shots. And he would always come back with ammo even if he had shoot downs on that mission. Hugh