Military AI Works

John's creating AI aircraft like others doing screenshots - and all beauties! Deep admiration, mate!

For John: Please see your PMs.

Have done thank you hobby. I'll package up the Bofors for you shortly.

John

Thank you John

John;
Years ago, an old friend of mine gave me this picture to see if I could find out what squadron or where it was taken. I had no luck.
My friend's father is the one on the extreme left on the front row. Sadly, both his father and he have passed away.
I never found out any thing. As you can see none of the markings are evident on the aircraft in the photo. It looks to have been a maritime
patrol aircraft and the background suggests England. One can make out an "M" on a background aircraft. Also, interestingly, it looks like the photo
was censored as the area below the cockpit where the "nose art" may have been looks 'doctored".

I just thought you might be interested in seeing the photo.

Joe

Definitely looks like a PB4Y-1 scheme.

That's a really intriguing photo Joe. There's really only 3 things things to go on - the aircraft, the colour scheme and the crew.

The colour scheme is probably the start point. I've just gone through all my books to try and find it. It's quite unusual with the wavy demarcation line going right up to the top of the wing. Assuming the lower colour is white, then I can only find one scheme like that and that belonged to the US Navy Sea Search (anti submarine) units as you and Steve have suggested. However all the aircraft I found in that scheme had the fixed nose glass, as on the B-24D.

The crew might tell us something, but I'm not the one to ask. Do you know if your friend's father was US Navy or USAAF? Can you tell from the uniforms whether they are Navy or Air Force?

I'm not sure it will take us much further in any case. Just a pity the numbering is not in view.

John

I believe he was USAAF. Looking at the uniforms of the enlisted crew I would believe that.
If they were Navy the enlisted would be wearing dungaree trousers, chambray shirts and the white
"dixie cup" headgear. At least 18 years later that's what I and other 'airdales' were wearing. Without
a color photo, the officers's hats could be either, but the device on the pilot's hat does not
look like Navy. It appears more like Army. (Navy officer aviators also had both a dark
green uniform similar to the Marines and a light tan uniform as the USAAF).

FWIW: Here is a 'blow up' of the tail. It appears to have a white background and a
darker emblem.

I did find a short clip of a PB4Y-1 attacking a U-Boat.
It does seem to have the same nose as the pic, and therefore is presumably based on the B-24J. Amongst the comments there are the fact that the cammo was applied purely to those operating in mid-atlantic and that the particular aircraft was from FAW-7 based in the UK.

I would suggest that this is far from conclusive, it just supports what our initial thoughts are.

Searching through B-24 crew pictures on line look what I found !

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/p ... =3&t=50794

"Lt. Hill And Crew Of The 479Th Anti Submarine Group Pose By A Consolidated B-24 At An Air Base In St. Eval, England. 1943"

First page, near bottom just below color pic of a B-70.

Then : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/479th_Antisubmarine_Group

I love this group!! What a repository of knowledge we have!!!

Great research mate!

St Eval is in Cornwall and the RAF still have quarters there. A friend was housed there whilst working on Seakings at St. Mawgan.

That's an amazing find Joe.

Now that you've found it, would you like me to paint up a "J" model in those colours?

Here's an example of a 479th B-24 I can work from:

http://bathead.com/Noseart/AC-B24-BLINDbat.jpg

John

John; Heck yeah. The tail matches the photo.


Maybe a C-87 model ? Just do away with the armament ?
(See my topic in the Real World Military !)

Off to do an AFCAD of St Eval !

Amazing to find the same pic with the info attached. If I was you I would buy a lottery ticket this week.

Joe, I'll do the J repaint for St Eval, but give me a week or two while I try and finish what I'm doing at the moment.

The C-87 would require a lot more work, but it might be possible in a longer time scale.

John

Thanks John. Take your time. I still have to build the airfield.

Amazing stuff guys!

Brian Clarke, who's making the North Pickenham scenery with my Liberators, has been researching the 479th ASG serial numbers and has already come up with 12 or so. What's interesting is that most of the aircraft were "D" models with the solid glass nose. I think the example in the photo is a "J" model (with the nose turret).

The 479th were only at St Eval for a month. They moved to Dunkeswell for 3 months where they were absorbed into the UN Navy as Navy Patrol Bomber Squadron VPB-103, Fleet Air Wing 7, according to Wiki. Their aircraft were also re-designated as PB4Ys. I assume that means that the "J" models were re-designated because the "D" model is rather different to the PB4Y.

Brian has also found quite a few photographs too. The paint schemes were quite varied and that's absolutely fine because it will add more interest to the AI pack.

All from Joe's old photograph.

John

John if you're feeling creative you may like to do Winston Churchill's personal Liberator

It seems it was a one off custom built for him!

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205210845