I will be building something I don’t see very often or at all, PBJ1-J (Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwhich Lol!) Mithchell. I just read about this via Wikipedia as I saw the paint scheme on the instruction sheet. It is a three color USN Fighter Aircraft/Attack/Bomber. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the paint scheme. I am very intrigued with the USN tricolor aircraft like the F4U Corsair etc. This will be a very exciting color scheme!
Your friend’s, Toshi & Ezra
The PBJs were operated almost exclusively by the Marine Corps as land-based bombers. To operate them, the U.S. Marine Corps established a number of Marine bomber squadrons (VMB), beginning with VMB-413, in March 1943 at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina. Eight VMB squadrons were flying PBJs by the end of 1943, forming the initial Marine medium bombardment group. Four more squadrons were in the process of formation in late 1945, but had not yet deployed by the time the war ended.
Operational use of the Marine Corps PBJ-1s began in March 1944. The Marine PBJs operated from the Philippines, Saipan, Iwo Jima and Okinawa during the last few months of the Pacific war. Their primary mission was the long range interdiction of enemy shipping trying to run the blockade which was strangling Japan. The weapon of choice during these missions was usually the five-inch HVAR rocket, eight of which could be carried. Some VMB-612 intruder PBJ-1D and J series flew without top turrets to save weight and increase range on night patrols, especially towards the end of the war when air superiority existed.
During the war the Navy tested the cannon-armed G series and conducted carrier trial with an H equipped with arresting gear. After World War II, some PBJs stationed at the Navy's then-rocket laboratory site in Inyokern, California, site of the present-day Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, tested various air-to-ground rockets and arrangements. One arrangement was a twin-barrel nose arrangement that could fire 10 spin-stabilized five-inch rockets in one salvo.[25]