#11
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I think it's settled:
"UC-64A #44-70285 was olive with gray bottom as of 15Dec44. We have two photos of the aircraft taken with the line maintenance chief at Abbots Ripton circa Nov44 or early Dec44. Please go to the University of Colorado Glenn Miller Archive web site and click the Reports page and read our detailed 15Dec44 white papers. #44-70285 was pulled off line on 12Dec44 for a carburetor inspection and a part replacement due to numerous instances of carburetor de-icing equipment failure with other aircraft of this type operating in the UK in Nov44 and early Dec44. THE 8th AAF lost eight UC-64A utility aircraft in the month prior to 15Dec44 due to equipment malfunctions (engine). It is commonly misunderstood that the aircraft reamined in bare alumimum because the factory in Canada sent them out in this manner starting on the date you cite. However, upon arrival in-theatre the 8th AAF Service Command painted this aircraft standard olive. The wheel wells remained bare aluminum. We would be happy to share the aircraft records with you. Dennis M. Spragg Glenn Miller Archive University of Colorado at Boulder" All I need to do is make some tweaks to the olive Norseman, and it's done. |
#12
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My interpretation of Glenn Miller's Norseman is now available.
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#13
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Got it! Many thanks, Murph. Been waiting for both the info on the aircraft color scheme and the model. Now have both.
Don |
#14
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Just purchased the Glenn Miller version.
Looks good.
__________________
~Doug~ AC010505 EAMUS CATULI! Audere est Facere THFC 19**-20** R.I.P. it up, Tear it up, Have a Ball |
#15
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With all due respect Aaron, are you 100%, absolutely sure this was Miller's Norseman? I am not trying to be fastidious just accurate.
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#16
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I believe it is a matter of record that Glenn Miller was flying in 44-70285 when the aircraft was lost over the Channel. He was on the passenger manifest for that aircraft.
Joe Baugher's web site has this: 44-70285 (MSN 550) Delivered to USAAF July 5, 1944; Newark, New Jersey July 5, 1944; shipped to the 8th Air Force, England July 14, 1944; 35th Depot Repair Squadron, Abbots Ripton, Cambridgeshire. Disappeared over the English Channel on December 15, 1944 while en route from Bedford, England to Paris, France. Band leader A. Glenn Miller was lost along with the pilot John Morgan and Lt. Colonel Baessell. The pilot departed Abbots Ripton at about noon on the 15th with orders to pick up his passengers at Twinwood Farm, a satellite to RAF Cranfield, located three miles north of the centre of Bedford. After picking up Lt. Colonel Baessell and Major Miller, it departed for Villacoublay, France in marginal conditions, with Bordeaux being the aircraft's ultimate destination; Villacoublay was located some ten miles southwest of the centre of Paris. The aircraft was never heard from again. It is believed that the plane was lost by straying into a forbidden zone in mid-channel which was designated for the jettisoning of surplus ordnance. On its east bound channel leg the Norseman flew directly under 139 RAF Lancasters flying in the opposite direction. The Lancasters were returning from a scrubbed mission in France and were ordered to dump their bombs in the water. Two airmen, both now deceased, witnessed the accident. The Lancaster's navigator had never witnessed a bomb drop on any of his missions and changed positions to see one. He said "I had never seen a bombing before, so I crawled from my navigator’s seat and put my head in the observation blister. I saw a small high wing mono-plane, a Noorduyn Norseman, underneath. I told the rear gunner there's a kite down there. There's a kite gone in! and he said he saw it too." 1944 USAAF Serial Numbers (44-70255 to 44-83885) We can go back and ask Spragg and Baugher for the sources they used, but I feel confident that both researchers were working from reliable sources and am willing to accept that 44-70285 is the right airplane and that the colors Spragg indicates are correct for the aircraft at the time of the flight. Don |
#17
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Ransom Stoddard: You're not going to use the story, Mr. Scott?
Maxwell Scott: No, sir. This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend. From the movie "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence" |
#18
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The only unsure thing is the theories as to what caused the plane to go down. Another article mentions that since there were 2 major personages on board (Glenn Miller, and the Lt. Colonel), the pilot would have paid particular attention to his navigation, and not strayed into a no-fly zone. Also, the last reported sighting of the plane put it on a heading that was no where near where the returning bombers dumped their bombs.
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#19
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My 2˘ worth and a new wrinkle: The Norseman was found in a French farmer's field, safely landed, in January, 1945. It was subsequently reclaimed and attached to a maintenance squadron in England where it served until it was written off after a load shifted on take off. This was mentioned in William Brinson's "315 Group", his history of the 315th Troop Carrier Group in WWII. This "mention" was expanded upon in a group newsletter article by Robert L. "Doc" Cloer, the long-time recording secretary of the 315th TCG Association.
Curiously, an almost word-for-word copy of the article showed up in 1995, on the instruction sheet of Modelcraft's 1/48 scale Norseman, itself a scaled-up 1/72 Matchbox kit. "Word-for-word", that is, except for the part about the a/c's discovery and recovery. Also, the kit's tail number is shown as "470258" instead of "470285". A miss-identification anomaly or just a dyslexic key-stroker in Modelcraft's art department? Doc Cloer was a C-47 pilot in the 315th's 34th Troop Carrier Squadron and it was his plane, among others in the 34th, that flew the band members to France several days after the Norsemen and its passengers had departed. I wish I could find that newsletter as Doc quoted, IMMS, tail numbers, squadrons and dates. As I said, my 2˘.... |
#20
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Correction: Modelcraft's decal sheet IS correct, box art and instruction sheet 3-way drawing are not....
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