B-17G-65-BO 43-37516 TONDALAYO

[oboe]

*Note: Uncle Cy's Angel is not included in his process and has been eliminated from ever seeing the virtual light of Aces High.

Say what?   Did I miss something somewhere?   What happened to Uncle Cy's Angel?   Hpw'd she get eliminated?

My most recent submission (P-38J "Journey's End") was submitted last January.  I never received a confirmation email, but in June I got an acceptance email saying the skin was in the 38J queue.   It's December now and the 16 skin limit has been doubled, so I assume Journey's End is out of the queue.  But she was not in the last skin update.  

[lyric1]

I'd also like to see a couple of the all black B24s that flew both in the PTO and ETO.

I have quite a few of these one that is in game now. All black B25-C as well that I gave to a skinner that I can't recall who it was It was that long ago.

[Guppy35]

BEYOND ALLIED LINES, SOMEWHERE OVER EASTERN GERMANY
By Romney Wheeler (AP

"April 15 - I am flying with the Word of Doom for Nazi Germany!
Ten minutes ago we crossed the West Front battle line beyond the River Salle. We have dropped bombs on our first target and are boring deeper into Hitler’s last stronghold toward a second. To the north lay by-passed Leipzig. Beyond us lies the devastation            that was Dreeden - and beyond that a Russian cyclone gathering force along the Oder and the Neisse.
Somewhere beneath us the spearheads of General Hodges are driving deeper into Germany’s vitals. We know it because four miles below us all Germany is burning.
This is total war, as Germany never imagined it! We literally are carrying the Word of Doom to Germany, for packed in the belly of this jet-black Liberator are a dozen bombs - loaded not with high explosives, but with leaflets telling Hitler’s Wehrmacht and Hitler’s civilians that this is the end….and leaflets calling for surrender.
Lieut. Bruce Edgerton, pilot, of Washington, D.C., lifts Midnight Mistress a bit higher as we swerve toward our next target. It is shortly after midnight, and moonless, but the stars are bright and there is only a light ground haze. We can see fires everywhere - most of them large ones, indicating destruction of entire towns.
“Three minutes to target” says the voice of our navigator, Lieut. John A. Alexander, of East Liverpool, Ohio.
Roger-dodger,” replies our pilot.
This big plane of the Eighth Air Force, 406th Squadron is quiet except for the roar of its four engines as we bear down on our target. The destruction going on below us seems unreal. Can this be Hitler’s inner fortress? Our maps and navigation tell us we are more that 300 miles inside Germany; scarcely 25 miles from the frontier of Czechoslovakia - and only 75 miles from the Russian lines.
Now we are bearing to the north, and off our left wing we can see flashes of heavy guns. Somewhere down there Hodges men are hitting Jerry where it hurts.
“One minute to target,” says the navigator, and our bombardier, Lieut. Carlo Zuniga of Mira Loma, Calif., prepares to hit another one on the nose.
“If you got any flak,” cautions our navigator, “turn left or you’ll be right over Dresden.”
“Rodger-dodger,” is the reply.
Our co-pilot explains bout flak. “In the daytime you can see bursts of brown smoke, but at night it is just a flash - and hard to judge distance,” says Lieut. A.H. Franke, of Spokane, Wash. “Sometimes it looks like stars.”
“Yep,” observes Staff Sgt. Emmerson Miller of Chrisney, Ind., tail-gunner, on the inter-com. “Stars that go out are flak.”
“Target” says the navigator, quietly.
“Bombs away,” answers Zuniga.
“One - two - three - four,” counts Tech. Sgt. James K. Echols of Sardusky, Ohio, our radioman, as he checks the bombs dropping into the darkness.
We set a new course farther west. Now there are fewer fires and the gun-flashes are diminishing. We are beyond even the deepest spearheads.
This target is important.
Our waist gunners attend to the cargo - Staff Sgt. Larue Shipley of Caldwell, Idaho; and Staff Sgt. Charles W. Strain of Crete, Neb. A moment after “target” they report: “Cargo over”.
We wheel sharply and take a compass heading for home. Some German field flak installations pick us up, but we are flying too high and too fast.
“Let’s get the Hell out of here,” says our pilot, stepping up the engine revolutions.
We are south of Leipzig again, and again the ground haze reddens with fires raging more than four miles below us. One massive conflagration obviously is an oil fire.
“Something down there is burning like Hell,” says Staff Sgt. George W. Knott, of Chester, Penn, our ball gunner. “Look at those flames roll!”
We hold our altitude and roar westward toward England. We swing wide to avoid the Ruhr pocket, but we can see continuous flashes which tell us of massive artillery pounding to this doomed island of resistance. Inside the pocket there is an angry flare of many fires - fires consuming Nazi towns and villages.
Further west we see heavy artillery bombardment in Holland - the battle line where Montgomery’s troops are pressing forward. Then we are over the North Sea.
Tech. Sgt. Ralph W. Wise of Nabb, Ind., our engineer, checks our fuel. We have been in the air nearly eight hours most of that time on oxygen, and the weather at our home field is closing in. By the time we reach the airdrome, an original 800-foot ceiling has disappeared. Even at 300 feet we cannot break out. Finally we head for an RAF field 80 miles away, where they think they can take us in.
It is almost dawn when Midnight Mistress drops down on the runway - nine hours in the air from take-off at dusk when we headed for Germany. "

Sure sounds like combat...

http://www.bomberlegends.com/pdf/BL_Mag_v1-3-SecretSquad.pdf

Technically.... they were leaflet canister "bombs" that blew open.

Thanks for that   interesting that the B24 in question is the one in the pic I posted.  Midnight Mistress. 

[Megalodon]

Thanks for that   interesting that the B24 in question is the one in the pic I posted.  Midnight Mistress. 

Did you read the last page of the pdf? Other events of the tour? I think the combat controversy is over.

[Guppy35]

Did you read the last page of the pdf? Other events of the tour? I think the combat controversy is over.

No I hadn't.  Yeah I think that about covers combat

I didn't notice that they had that same photo of Midnite Mistress.  Someone should do that bird too.

Very nice find.   

[beau32]

Reading through it, seems Midnight Mistress was attacked and damaged by Ju-88 Night fighters several times, plus they encountered a Me-262 during the final days of the war.

Although this article that Megalodon posted was about a B-24 named Midnight Mistress, (which I think would make a great skin), it shows that this squadron did indeed fly combat missions and encounted enemy aircraft at various times.

I hope that these do make it into the game, would be neat and fun to fly with them.

[Guppy35]

I have quite a few of these one that is in game now. All black B25-C as well that I gave to a skinner that I can't recall who it was It was that long ago.

Remember we figured out that black 25C was actually a squadron hack?  It was painted that way after it finished it's combat missions.

[lyric1]

Remember we figured out that black 25C was actually a squadron hack?  It was painted that way after it finished it's combat missions.

Not the same plane.





I have a book some place with all the specifics of this plane.

It was an armed recon plane that got shot down while over one of the V weapon bases.

I actually I have a few more black B25's as well besides this one you are talking about,PTO,CBI.



As a matter of fact I have another bare metal RAAF B-25c even harder to find as far as combat aircraft is concerned than black B-25's. FTJR has done one  already like it. If any one wants one of those to skin let me know.

[Guppy35]

The bottom bird is the one we discussed earlier as that's a post combat paint job when it was a hack.  The top one I've seen before as well.  The only USAAF B25 in the ETO  7th Photo Recon.  13 night photo missions over V sites then shot down while taking off after delivering photos to 12th army group in August of 44. 

[lyric1]

The bottom bird is the one we discussed earlier as that's a post combat paint job when it was a hack.  The top one I've seen before as well.  The only USAAF B25 in the ETO  7th Photo Recon.  13 night photo missions over V sites then shot down while taking off after delivering photos to 12th army group in August of 44. 

There you go.



50% right on the number of planes though.

[Guppy35]

LOL, well my caption said the only USAAF B25 in the UK   I blame Jeff Ethell!

[lyric1]

Also, I'm getting a little annoyed at the sudden need just to go looking for any skin just because it's painted black. What is the damned fascination with bland boring skins? Most folks just paint-bucket fill the thing black and call it a skin. They think it's easy to do a black skin. What about the white ones? Hrm? Or the all blue ones? Hrm? there are tons of other colors... Even PINK on some planes. Why the OCD fascination with black?

Here you go don't say I didn't try to get all the colours on one plane.

This bare metal B-25c is even rarer than a black B-25c.

We now have one that served in the ETO very rare indeed More so than a black B-25C even if it is the same plane.

LOL, well my caption said the only USAAF B25 in the UK  I blame Jeff Ethell!

Few more views of this plane. In many colours.





















This is what the two white mission markers look like on the black plane except these are not painted completely solid white.





Not exactly correct this picture.

[Megalodon]

Nice Lyric 

Good Job,

[Guppy35]

Not 100 percent positive, but I got this photo of e-bay not too long ago, and I think it's that same B25.  Interesting to note the second B25 tail showing in the background.



edited to add it can't be.  Serial is different and it's got anti glare panels on the engines while the one Lyric posted does now.  Hmmmmm.

[lyric1]

Not 100 percent positive, but I got this photo of e-bay not too long ago, and I think it's that same B25.  Interesting to note the second B25 tail showing in the background.

(Image removed from quote.)

edited to add it can't be.  Serial is different and it's got anti glare panels on the engines while the one Lyric posted does now.  Hmmmmm.

Very strong resemblance only issue is the last couple of digits on the tail number. May be the other B-25c form that unit? The one on the left being Miss Nashville? Can't see any tail numbers on it though.

What would be the odds of another unit painting up the same model aircraft in the exact manner as a bare metal B-25C?