Picture Quiz

On the right track.

The collar on the left shows Captain's bars, the one on the right shows a bird. Their deferential posture says the man in the middle outranks them both. They and the a/c behind them are about to lead a famous mission.

 

Very close, but not Kane, take a hard look at clue #3 above.

 

Good job! Probably a typo, but it was the 376th BG. Here is a photo a Ent and Compton with Gen. Lewis Brereton next to TEGGIE ANN after the misison, with what looks like a fresh 20mm hole in the fuselage next to Compton's head.

 

This thread has taken a "Wrong Turn"

 

Top row on the left is Major Paul Tibbets. He led the second USAAF heavy bomber mission in Europe. The two in the middle of the back row are Thomas Ferebee and "Dutch" Van Kirk, who would later make a trip over Japan with Tibbets. Photo from their days in the 97th Bomb Group, 1942.

 

Tibbets was the CO of the 340th Bomb Squadron in the UK flying B-17s from RAF Polebrook and led the first 8th AF bombing raid on Europe in March of 42...a real pioneer!

 

The crew in the photo is Tibbet's normal crew and the aircraft is The Red Gremlin. However, on the 17 August 42 mission, Tibbets flew aboard Butcher Shop with Col Frank Armstrong, Jr. in the right seat and the remainder of Lt. Butcher's crew aboard. Eaker was aboard Yankee Doodle, as a passenger/observer, which was the lead a/c of the second section on the mission.

 

I'll defer to TEXSON, I probably should have sat out this question since I had the last turn. TEX should have a go.

 

did a b24 normally have a crew of 11?,cheers.

 

Are you refering to the Tibbets photo (B-17 crew)? If so, I suspect that the man in the coveralls is the aircraft crew chief rather than a member of the flight crew. Since this was a staged crew photo and the other enlisted men are all wearing A-2 jackets, it would follow. However, the copy of the photo I found only ID'ed the EM by last name and not by position, so that is not definite.

The standard crew for both the B-17 and B-24 was 10 men, 4 officers and 6 enlisted men. However, depending on circumstances, a crew for a particular mission could be anywhere from 9 to 12. In the 15th AF, lead (non-PFF) and deputy lead crews were mandated to have a radio operator at the radio. Normally, the radio operator doubled as one of the gunners, usually nose or waist. PFF lead ships would normally carry 12 men, including 3 navigators; the normal nav, one riding the nose turret to assist in visual checkpoint ID, and the Mickey navigator. Other instances of 11 or 12 men would be for combat photographers is several ships of a group. There were various combinations where a crew might fly with 9 men: no bombardier (another crewman toggled bombs on leader's release); no navigator (bombardier and/or co-pilot assumed nav duties for ship back in the formation; or single waist gunner late war when fighter threat was low.

 

To continue the quiz, this is the highly classified Grumman Thundercat...

Okay, not really, but what's going on here?