The last picture of them.
With its port engine hanging following an anti-aircraft hit, the PBJ of First Lieutenant Glenn W. Smith (BuNo 35143) goes down over Tobera on 5 May 1944. The aircraft crashed a short time later killing all seven of the crew. The aircraft's wreckage was located in 1949 and the remains of at least one crewmen was recovered and returned to the United States for burial at Arlington National Cemetery. During the late 1990s the site was rediscovered and yielded additional remains. In 2000 these remains were also recovered and returned to the United States for burial. Photograph: U.S. Marine Corps (Courtesy of J.W. Leggio)More about Marine Bombing Squadron 413 here.
9 comments:
My father was in VMB-413, flew 46 missions against Rabaul and Munda. Still a weird feeling to see a pic like that.
The story of the Marine and Navy PBJ squadrons goes little noted outside of the small world of WWII military aviation historians and warbirds fans. It's a shame, because they did some very heavy lifting, especially in the last two years of the Pacific war. I know at least one Mitchell still flying is marked as a PBJ as a reminder of their dedicated service.
My Dad served in the New Guinea-New Britain-Admiralties area and appreciated the efforts in neutralizing Rabaul, whose aircraft once bombed and strafed Allied forces in the area almost at will.
I had known there was a navalized verson of the B-24 (the Privateer) but until this post did not know that the USMC flew the B-24! And I' used to be a pretty fair military historian in my youth. How did I miss that! (I know, I'm an ex-zoomie...but still..)
<span>That's a Navy/USMC version of the B-25, not the -24. Still pretty neat that the Navy knew good ariframes when they saw them, though. </span> ;)
The medium bombers in WWII really were somewhat unsung heroes - whether it was creating havoc over europe or skip-bombing in the southwest Pacific, those guys flew into some of the most ferocious AAA/fighter counter-air environments out there.
PBJ is number 11 on the National Museum of Naval Aviation Director's list for repainting and #5 for partial restoration. $25K for painting and 10K for partial restoration of the interior...more to follow on this topic and some of the other a/c on the list... ;)
w/r, SJS
SJS,
They surely did. "Medium altitude" was a euphemism for flying through the sweet spot of almost every flak system the enemy had. And some of the aircraft were almost as dangerous as the enemy (B-26 Marauder). And almost without exception, lose an engine, lose the a/c.
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