On night harassment missions to Rabaul, B-17 aircrews would often be assigned a stack of 4-pound incendiary bombs for the rear fuselage in addition to the load in the bomb bay. The waist gunners tossed the bombs out the side of the aircraft as the pilot circled over the Japanese base. Pictured here is one […]
Gasmata was located on the southern coast of the island of New Britain in an area known as Surumi. It had been occupied by the Japanese in early February 1942. The distance from Port Moresby was 350 miles, near the maximum operating range for the B-25C bomber. This shot of the airstrip was taken in March 1942, shortly […]
Located in Savannah, Georgia, Hunter Field was originally a municipal airport built in 1929. It was named Hunter Municipal Airfield in May 1940 after a World War I flying ace from Savannah, Lt. Col. Frank O’Driscoll Hunter. Soon afterwards, an Army Air Corps base was built and several units, the 3rd and 27th Bomb Groups […]
Every Tuesday, we will be posting a photo from our enormous archive. Each photo will be accompanied by a detailed caption and where to find it if the photo is from one of our books.
A member of Capt. William Gowdy’s B-24 crew parachutes to the ground after bailing out of B-24D #42-40060, THE CHAMP. Read more about this story on Military History Now. This photo can also be found in Ken’s Men Against the Empire, Volume I.
MISSLEADING had its hydraulics shot out by antiaircraft fire during a combat mission to Taihoku, Formosa on May 31, 1945. Without flaps, the 19th Squadron co-pilot, 2/Lt. Robert A. Morgan, made an emergency landing at Laoag Strip, Luzon, after the pilot, 2/Lt. Charles E. Critchfield, was badly wounded by flak. Parachutes were deployed out both […]
After an air battle with Zeros over the Bismarck Sea on March 2nd, B-17F #41-24455, OLD BALDY, was safely landed at Seven Mile by 1/Lt. James C. Dieffenderfer despite having only minimal control of the plane’s vertical movement in what was thought to be an impossible feat. Note that the fabric on the stabilizers has […]
Starting on January 23, 1945, the 312th Bomb Group supported the advancing American infantry by targeting Japanese troops in their path. On the 23rd, all four squadrons joined B-25s from the 345th Bomb Group to strike the towns of San Jose and San Nicholas in Luzon’s Palawan Province. Here, an A-20G from the 389th Squadron […]
Flying along the China coast on April 6, 1945, the 500th Bomb Squadron of the 345th Bomb Group came across a target that was originally misidentified as a Japanese merchant vessel. Upon closer inspection, they realized it was the destroyer Amatsukaze. Here, 1/Lt. George R. Schmidt’s camera caught 2/Lt. Samuel W. Bennett’s B-25 pulling away from its […]
These B-17 and B-24 profiles, drawn by aviation artist Jack Fellows, appear in our new book Ken’s Men Against the Empire, Volume I. There are 24 profiles in all, most of which are B-17s. Each aircraft profile has a detailed history of the plane itself as well as its crews in Appendix V. Pre-order your copy today.