Nose art

401st B-17 "Fearless Fosdick"

 

B-17 42-97872 IW-A "Rosie's Sweat Box"

 

505 BG B-29 Superfortress "20th Century Fox"

 

From: http://www.skylighters.org/disney/

One day in 1942, when new Navy torpedo boats were being launched, Lieutenant E. S. Caldwell, then of the Naval Operations office in Washington, wrote a letter to Walt Disney in Hollywood. He asked Disney to design an emblem appropriate for this new fleet of "mosquito boats." A few days later, back to the fleet came an emblem. It was a little mosquito, streaking through the water with a tar's hat on his head and a shiny torpedo held between his many legs. The insignia was such a hit that every torpedo boat in the fleet soon had a Disney mosquito. (In the photo at left, the insignia adorns the cabin of a PT boat.)



As soon as word got around in the Army and Navy as to what Disney had done, the Disney office was bombarded with requests to design insignia for tanks, minesweepers, bombers, and fighter planes. Disney did his best to comply. When Brigadier General S. B. Buckner, commander of the Alaska Defense Force at Fort Richardson, Alaska, received his outfit's design — a seal balancing the letters ADF, the general wrote Disney:
Since the arrival of the insignia, all of the seals in Bering Sea have been out on the ice pack halancing Ds on their noses, sneering derisively at the polar bears, expanding their chests, and cavorting merrily over being chosen to represent our defense forces.
It was clear that Disney and his artists had created a whole new system of heraldry, comparable to the ancient knightly arms. With requests for insignia stilt pouring in from the Army and Navy, the Disney studios announced that they had already completed more than 200 designs, and were expected to do at least 500 more. Two of their artists were working full time on the job.

 

Kittyhawk "Lucky 13"

 

From: http://justacarguy.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-zodiac-squadron-and-its-incredible.html

The Zodiac Squadron, nose art by Phil Brinkman

 

From RNZAF 30 Sqn's Avenger bombers at: http://rnzaf.proboards.com/thread/1213/wartime-rnzaf-nose-art-colourised

 

B24 42-95012 Trips Daily

Loss Report: http://lostaircraft.com/database.php?mode=viewentry&e=25286

 

Draggin Waggin, 42-99770, combat #61, was a 449th BG aircraft (716th Squadron) named by the Clabaugh crew. It landed dead-stick (all 4 engines out) at a fighter strip at Fermo Italy on 19 July 44 returning from Munich. That feat earned Carlton Clabaugh a DFC. It returned to combat in the fall as combat #77, and crashed out of gas just short of the runway at Grottaglie on 8 Jan 45, returning from Linz, AU. The James Bivins crew was aboard and 4 were killed in the crash.

 

Capt. Sam and Ten "Scent's" [6359] 19BG 93BS: One of the most ambitious of all nose art.

 

Another famous one.

Flak Happy, Nose Art by Richard McAroy

 

Fred, Fred, Fred,
please pull that dagger out of my back. The B-24 is underappreciated enough without you calling it a B-17 :sunglasses-peek:

 

I'll see your "Fickle Finger" and raise you one...

449th BG, 716th BS 42-52550 arrived 1 Mar 44, lost 9 June 44 Porto Marghera, Italy, with Weeks/Rierson crew. 1 KIA 10 POW

View attachment 21077

 

8th Air Force, 392nd Bombardment Group, 576th Bombardment Squadron B-24 42-50593 Lady Diana

Loss Record: http://lostaircraft.com/database.php?mode=viewentry&e=23691

 

8th Air Force, 392nd Bombardment Group, 579th Bombardment Squadron B-24 42-109814 "Jive Bomber"

Loss Report: http://lostaircraft.com/database.php?mode=viewentry&e=19651

 

8th Air Force, 392nd Bombardment Group, B-24 41-28829 "My Everlovin' Gal"

I doubt their Mama's ever got a photo...

OTTO! Why am I getting this Error Report all the time lately??? For a jpg image!!!

"You are not allowed to use that image extension on this community."

http://www.b24.net/aircraft/photos/41-28829,%20My%20Everlovin'%20Gal%20-%20RHarned.jpg

 

I don't think the problem is on Otto's end, but for whatever reason, you "copy&paste" has blown a gasket. The address you tried to link to starts out fine, but at the end of Everloving there is a " href= and then the correct address is repeated twice with no more hrefs. This is what is given the system fits.

As such, the "borked" link you posted will result in a 404 Error.

Edit - because of the href, all the system sees is "www.b24.net/aircraft/photos/41-28829,%20My%20Everlovin"(without quotes and add the usual http). As the system is looking for a file extension, it will stop at the href, and not see anything else. Since the system won't continue past the href, it finds no file extension and returns to you the error message.

As to why the href in the middle of the web address, and the repetition, twice, of the correct one, I don't know. But believe that it lies somewhere with your copy and paste function.

Correct link.
http://www.b24.net/aircraft/photos/41-28829,%20My%20Everlovin%27%20Gal%20-%20RHarned.jpg

 

Yeah well. like I said, I went back in and reposted the IDENTICAL link and it worked.... :whip: Sigh...
________________

B-24 42-7492 CI-M "Hell Wagon"

 

Quite odd, never had this problem with Firefox, but then again, I never tried Chrome.

 

8th Air Force, 392nd Bombardment Group, B-24 42-51205 "Star Swinger"
http://www.b24.net/aircraft/photos/42-51205,%20Star%20Swinger.jpg