Recently in Military Nose Art Category

Since my last entry about the WW II nose art sent by Byron Crump in Australia, Byron has sent additional images that are now part of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) New Guinea, 1942-1946 section of Military Aircraft Nose Art: An American Tradition.

Lou Crump, right, on the wing of a P-47 Thunderbolt

Corporal Crump sent images of planes on airbases, such as the P-47 Thunderbolt "Jug" bomber and B-17 Flying Fortress, more scenes of New Guinea, and one of troops advancing in Bouganville. [Wikipedia article re: Bouganville Campaign, 1943-1945]

tail insignia of the JollyRogers

One of the most interesting of the new images displays the twin-tail insignia of a huge skull surmounting two crossed bombs indicating the plane was part of U.S 5th Air Force 90th Bomb group - the Jolly Rogers. On the Jolly Rogers' website and is a story about a B-24D Liberator bomber nicknamed "Ready, Willing and Able," that disappeared in a thunderstorm on March 5, 1944, over Papua New Guinea. It's tail was found 43 years later by European tourists trekking over a mountain range in New Guinea's Mandang province. This chance discovery enable the U.S. Army's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii to identify the plane and crew.

Over the Thanksgiving break I finished up the pages for this new collection of nose art images from WW II. As Corporal Crump (Australian Air Force) finds time, he will scan the photos at a high resolution and I will link retrievable copies to the embedded images. View the images:

Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) New Guinea, 1942-1946

On October 12, 2007, (appropriately enough over the weekend observing Veteran's Day in the U.S.) Bryon Crump a Corporal in the Australian Air Force, sent nearly 40 nose art images from WW II. Wrote Corporal Crump:

"I recently was given my late fathers WW2 photo album. He was an airframe fitter based in New Guinea from 1942-46. His album contained a few pages of nose art, so I'll forward them on to you as most are of US Aircraft. Nose art wise the Aussies weren't as prolific as your boys, and they obviously impressed him. I don't have details of which airfields he was based at but I'll investigate."

The site is not released to the public yet you can take a look at the five pages featuring WWII nose art. By the way, WW II nose art was distinguished for themes of pin-ups and cartoon characters. The troops on New Guinea apparently favored the former.

As noted on Military Aircraft Nose Art: An American Tradition's Korean War page, nose art created during the Korean War depicted the images of unclothed women in more revealing terms than nose art from WW II.

On April 7th, John T. Barnes sent four images from photos shot by his father MSgt John C. Barnes at Ashiya Field, Japan, ~1952. MSgt Barnes was stationed at Ashiya Field from 1950 until the unit was transferred to Ardmore AFB in 1955. Visit our newly created page to see all four images.

On November 17, 2006, John Harris, Queensdown (UK) Site Supervisor, for Reclamet Limited sent an email with images of vintage WWII military nose art. We are most appreciative that Reclamet has given us permission to include these images.

We also have a question from Mr. Hughes who asks for assistance identifying "the likely aircraft sections and/or a brief history to these particular images." Can you tell by looking at the panels what type of plane it was painted on? View the images on the Military Aircraft Nose Art: An American Tradition.