Plane Names and Bloody Noses

Amid the horror of war, emblazoned on the machines of destruction there was often to be found beauty, humour, poignancy and wit. It was no different at Thorpe Abbotts – home of the group dubbed by some as `The Bloody Hundredth' or 'The Vanishing Americans.' Many of the B17F and B17G Flying Fortresses based at Station 139 carried nose art or names. Some sported two or three different designs during the course of their combat service. The glamorous, flamboyant pin-up so often associated with the genre resided alongside the cartoon, the sentimental and the sometimes outrageous image. Some crews made do with simple lettering while others, full of intent, could find no-one to paint their plane. The name so lovingly or irreverently bestowed had to be carried from Fort to Fort in the minds of men, or painted onto the backs of their A-2 leather jackets.
• 260+ Flying Fortresses – their crews, their service, their fate and their nose art
• 360+ photographs, many never previously published
• 306 combat missions listed and credited to the 100th Bomb Group (Heavy), with aircraft losses
• Crew listings for the 120 named aircraft of the group designated as Missing In Action

Men talked of the exploits and misfortunes of the 100th Bomb Group far beyond the bounds of Thorpe Abbotts, of East Anglia and of England itself.
This, so it was said, was the group that the Luftwaffe had singled out for special attention no one survived a tour of combat with the 100th....it had been wiped out, rebuilt and wiped out again — or so the gruesome tale was told.
In every far flung base of the USAAF the reputation of `The Bloody Hundredth' was recounted and with every telling the legend grew.
And, as with most legends, it was founded in truth. These are the stories of some of the men who lived that legend, of some that died and some that
did survive, and of the planes that they painted with names and images some decorative, some poignant, some outrageous, some mischievous. All with a tale to tell.
Selected at random by a ruthless Fate to be destroyed in an instant, in a flash of brilliant orange, to plunge into a cold dark sea, to lay crippled in a far corner and be ravenously dismembered by friend or foe alike. Or revel in a fanfare of glory and return home to wait in silent rows for reincarnation in a world at peace.





by Ray Bowden
Published by Design Oracle 2001st edition. 296pp profusely illustrated, index, bibliography. 22 x 31 mint, including d/j.





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