Really old cool plane pictures.

[Whelk]

I took better pictures this time. So here are some I haven't posted before.




The scallops on Lil Rock-ette are epic. That plane stands way out from the rest. The pilot has balls for painting a plane that would draw ME 109's like flies.

I don't see either a dorsal turret or a belly ball turret, or guns of any kind really. I wonder if that was an unarmed USO ship for flying Eddie G (and maybe some Rockettes) around to see the boys?

Awesome photos though.

[DaveT]

History of B-17 , If you look really close you can see the name Little Rock-ette From the The B-17 Flying Fortress Story", by Freeman, shows that it lead a pretty colorful career. It was first assigned to the 342BS/97BG, and took part in the first bombing mission in occupied Europe by Americans, on Aug.17, 1942. At that time, 41-9043 was called "Peggy D". It then served for a time in the 92nd BG in the fall of '42, finally getting transferred to the 534BS/381BG, call letters GD-A1, at Ridgewell. It turned into a base "hack", or ferry, until the end of the war, under the nose art name "Little Rock-ette". It has the infamous distinction of being the bomber used to collect the bodies from the 381st's Isle of Man tragedy, on April 25th, 1945. It did not return home until October 29th, 1945. A long history for any B-17

[CTX-SLPR]

Wow!!! A-20 pictures.

You don't see many A-20 Havoc shots.

[Scott Liggett]

I am really behind in starting to go through all 917 pics I took of my grandfather's photo album from his time with the 381st Bomber Group in England during WWII. Here are some pics, but you can see the rest at my photobucket page, Harry Leber album. I will post some of the more interesting pics here. There are a lot of pics of the guys doing their jobs. See my photobucket for those. I am in contact with some people from the flight group and I am sharing these pics with them. There are many copies of some of these pics, some not any where else.

http://s98.photobucket.com/user/rebeldryver/library/Harry%20Leber?page=4

[Scott Liggett]

[Scott Liggett]

[Scott Liggett]

Those Boeing emblems on the sticks are really cool.



I like this shot from the tail gunner towards the waste gunner positions and up to the belly gun.


I missed this shot before of them unloading the truck with the dude on the motorcycle.

[Scott Liggett]

This plane got hammered on a mission, but made it back. Alas, it was only good for parts and they used all of them.

[74NovaMan]

Cool stuff. Thanks.

[Scott Liggett]

I have been contacted by the historian and president of the 381st bomber group. He has said some.of the pics I have posted on their website have never been seen before. Wow. There are many men of the flight group who look through the websites galleries so I will posting them all there.

[CTX-SLPR]

I remember my grandfather describing these things. Said they were his favorite part of gunnery training.

Basically it's shooting skeet with a turret mounted on the back of a jeep. Growing up duck hunting in AR, this was a no brainer for him.

[Monster]

Great history Scott, thanks for sharing.
Are you going to continue posting shots here, or do we have to go to the 381st site ?

[Scott Liggett]

Great history Scott, thanks for sharing.
Are you going to continue posting shots here, or do we have to go to the 381st site ?

I will put every shot on my Photobucket page in the Harry Leber album. It's public so anyone can look at it.

I will continue to post interesting pics here. I am leaving out shots of people of the 381st for the most part.

I am then posting all pics on the 381st website.

http://forum.armyairforces.com/381st-BG-Ridgewell-f31.aspx

The photo albums are here.

http://forum.armyairforces.com/gallery?myalbums=false&myfavorites=false