Warbird Information Exchange

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Don't touch my junk!!

Now thats a can of Whop Ass! Jack do you have any pics of the B25s with the cannon in the nose?
Robbie

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Fly Fast Make Noise!

Great pics

Always had a soft spot for the B-25.

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Cheers

Daren

Nice shots, Jack. Here's our tribute to the 500 BS show in your photos.

Very cool! but, where's the top turret??
Gary Velasco did a great job on the artwork.
Especially how hot it waswhen he painted it on.

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Don't touch my junk!!

Well, the top turret originally installed wasn't the right model. The plexi got brittle so we pulled it shortly after it arrived in Houston. The student seats were reinstalled and since that gives us two more legal seats it was never replaced.

As in your pictures Tondelayo was a D model. Without the top turret up front, our J looks close to the D. The D introduced the staggered waist guns and a real tail gunners position. The J refined those and move the dorsal turret forward.

Yeah her nose art is OK. It's a little wrinkled but we figure she looks pretty good for an 90 year old.

We have the students seats in ours and the fully operational turret minus the pedistal.
It's a martin rather than a bendix though has are many on the flying 25s.

looks like a J without the turret

considering it was about 100' out when he painted it, it looks great!!

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Don't touch my junk!!

I hope nobody holds it against me, but the B-25 is my favorite WWII bomber!
Jerry

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"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

I just realized that the aircraft in your oringinal post predate the D model Tondelayo.

Those are C models in the attack pictures. No horse or the later indian head on the verticals. Also no large waist windows or tail gunner position

A few more of Tondelayo from the same photo session as the third picture in Rick H's post

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Rick Pisio
http://www.rwphotos.com

A link to the 345 BG 500BS site

http://500thbsq-b25s.com/

They're C & Ds. Most all of the Cs were used up by the time these photos were taken. The tail and waist positions were mods and the waist windows I've only seen on a few late model Ds. I don't know when they started painting the Mustang insignia on the tail, but I've seen lots of Ds without it.
A ditched B-25D-20 s/n 41-30561 (Oct 16, 1943) is show on the 500th BS webpage towards the bottom. Note the lacl of insignia on the tail.
http://500thbsq-b25s.com/bull-perm.html

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Don't touch my junk!!

One of my favorite books on the Air Apaches is Lawrence Hickey's "Warpath Across the Pacific". I bought it when it first came out and I was broke. Never ever regretted it!

if you like the low level B-25 stuff, get the book.
Jerry

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"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

A bit off topic, but for those interested in some first hand accounts from B-25 pilots of the 345th BG, you can go to www.timelessvoices.org and click on the video category "Military - WWII". Scroll through the list of names to Julius Fisher, Jay Moore, and Roman Ohnemus. They all flew with the 345th. Ohnemus was the pilot of the original "Apache Princess."

Zack

(PS - broadband connection is required for the videos to play properly)

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Curator - EAA Aviation Museum, Oshkosh, WI
"Let No Story Go Untold!"
http://www.timelessvoices.org

Couldn't agree more ... I have an "Air Apaches" painting in the queue, and I was advised to get the book - those who have it will agree that it set the standard for WWII unit histories.

I got mine directly from the author's outfit at:
http://www.irandpcorp.com/

Wade

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Website: http://www.wademeyersart.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Wade.Meyers.Studios