A Major and his Dog
Here, Major George Marzolf sits in a 38th Bomb Group B-25 at Lae with his dog Ack Ack in 1943. (George Marzolf Collection)
Entries by IHRA
Then and Now: Port Moresby
The town that would later become the capital city of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby, was a major staging base for the Allies during World War II. Port Moresby’s air fields, named for their distance from the city, included: 3 Mile (Kila Kila), 5 Mile (Ward), 7 Mile (Jackson), 12 Mile (Berry), 14 Mile (Schwimmer), […]
Kaimana Drome at Utarom
By August 1944, Utarom was the last major Japanese operational airdrome in Dutch New Guinea. On August 11, 1944, Maj. William S. Pagh, the Group Operations Officer, led the 386th and 387th Squadrons in an attack against it and was shot down and killed. (Claud C. Haisley Collection) Find this photo in our […]
Big Nimbo
The artwork for BIG NIMBO was almost certainly put on the aircraft back in the States by the crew that ferried it overseas. The cartoon character was from the Lil’ Abner comic series in the newspapers of the time. This plane was one of the original B-24Js assigned to the 19th Squadron at Charters Towers, […]
B-17 Miss Em and Crew
After its service with the Group, CAP’N & THE KIDS was transferred initially to the 433rd Troop Carrier Group. It continued to serve as an armed transport until August 1944, when it was overhauled and turned into a VIP aircraft. The nose of the plane was adorned with a red rose and it was renamed […]
Wreckage of B-24 Tempermental Lady
TEMPERMENTAL LADY flew the last of her more than 70 missions for the 408th Squadron on April 14, 1945. While 2/Lt. Rudolph L. Riccio was piloting the Liberator over Tainan Airdrome, Formosa, flak bursts put shrapnel through the pilot’s window, in the vertical and horizontal stabilizers, and damaged the hydraulic system. While landing back at […]
Explosion of the Arkansas Traveler
ARKANSAS TRAVELER, piloted by Jack Manders, is seen exploding violently after it skipped off the water a hundred yards beyond a Japanese ship in Hansa Bay on January 30, 1944. (John B. Nusbaum Collection) Find this photo on page 117 of Warpath Across the Pacific.
A Wrecked B-17
B-17C #40-2074 was one of the 170 American aircraft destroyed in the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. The B-17, one of 12 bombers from the 38th and 88th Reconnaissance Squadrons being flown from California to Hickam Field, was jumped by Zero fighters before it could land safely. As pilot Capt. Raymond T. Swenson searched for […]
Then and Now: Buka Island
After being claimed by the Germans in 1885, Buka was turned over to Australia in 1920. The Japanese seized Buka on March 9, 1942 and built an air base that grabbed Allied attention in June 1943 when preparations for Operation Cartwheel were in the works. A small canal separated Buka from the island of Bougainville, […]
B-24s at Nadzab
Scattered among the taxiways at Nadzab, New Guinea in 1944, 32 B-24 Liberators belonging to the 22nd Bomb Group can be seen in their revetments in the foreground. Can you find them all? Nadzab’s runway #3 bisects this photo, and above it, several more aircraft are preparing to take off for a mission. In the […]