Doolitle Raider B-25.

[3Turner]

I think this Ruptured Duck image was the original one....I also have not seen a photo of the actual nose art on the B-25 from that raid. Ruptured Duck Nose Art originally by Rodger V. Lovelace

[tingmissartoq]

Another excellent book is The First Heroes by Craig Nelson. Appears to be well researched and published in 2002.

It mentions the motifs on the aircraft but only one photo of one B-25, not Ted Lawson's.

This book is a great read and has a lot of detail on the mission and analysis of what happened, how it happened and why. The book also covers the fate of the crews after the mission, and their war service for those that survived.

Cheers

[SMWulph]

So who else will be at the gathering at the Air Force Museum?
I'm planning on being there (Saturday will be my birthday)

[RyanShort]

Originally Posted by tingmissartoq

Another excellent book is The First Heroes by Craig Nelson. Appears to be well researched and published in 2002.

It mentions the motifs on the aircraft but only one photo of one B-25, not Ted Lawson's.

This book is a great read and has a lot of detail on the mission and analysis of what happened, how it happened and why. The book also covers the fate of the crews after the mission, and their war service for those that survived.

Cheers

I'm just going to say this... I don't like The First Heroes at all. It's the worst of the books written on the Raid. Much better off reading Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo by Lawson and Consadine, The Doolittle Raid by C.V. Glines, The Doolittle Raid by Schultz, Four Came Home by Glines, Doolittle's Tokyo Raiders by Glines, Target Tokyo, or Destination Tokyo by Stan Cohen.
What really irked me about TFH was that it seems he was basically rehashing the same story with more "gory details" - but I just don't know how accurate his research was to come up with it. For instance, the language he uses is much more course, and there's some really flaky things in there like calling the B-25s "Billys" that I've never heard of outside of his book. Also, the book is disjunct in my opinion...

Ryan

[30-06]

Ryan - I remember my Dad (USAAF veteran -WWII) referring to the B-25 as the Billy Mitchell Bomber, but never just the Billy. I did a search and the closet I came to that was the Billy Bomber. Sounds like TFH took artistic license loosely by using Billy - disrespectful sounding to say the least. I know the British named alot of U.S. lend-lease equipment - maybe the billy mitchell tag origin was there.Thanks for the heads up - TFH was one I looked at possibly reading.
Gregor

[Wily]

Well, my aviation geekdom may not rank as high as some around here, but I'd never heard the term "Billies" before reading TFH.

However - this may fascinate ya'll - I do have documentation that a CBI squadron referred to their B-25s as "Gulls."

When I was talking with the pilot, I asked him about it - "That's the first time I've heard the name Gull..." I asked. He flipped through his photo album and showed a B-25 with its cranked wings and said, "See? That's why we called them 'Gulls. They look like Seagulls."

But something just doesn't ring right about "Billies" though - perhaps the author got a little too close to the nostalgic vibe of the book...or maybe one guy that he interviewed did indeed call the B-25 a "Billy" and he made an assumption.

That being stated, I've never heard of a P-51 Mustang being referred to as a "Horsie." But it could have happened, I'm sure.

[Wily]

And, here's your proof on the "Gull". And "Pigeon" too.