 jeaton01 wrote: |
I think the pipe is for cabin heat, Bill. That is a good scheme, maybe I'll use it on a Mk VI I also have, it's in a black night fighter scheme and I don't like it so well. |
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The box like shape on the front of that bulky aft of the crew acces and forward of the ammo boxes seems to me to be the wing spar. If so, the riser aft of that could be from the engines. Tey're aircooled though, and the exhaust collector is forward of the cylinder banks, so it's not clear to me how that would work. That USAAF Beaus didn't have it. I've got a bunch of interior shots, mostly showing the RO station, and taint there. Of course, in Tunisia....
It's a good story. My Father-in-law enlisted in the Army 12/8/41 with his brother. He came from pretty simple means and had helped his mom raise two littler kids on the farm all through the depression. He wanted to be a photographer which was his job in the world, but his intelligence got him a crew mechanic, crew chief and eventually Flying Sergeant gig. When I first met him oh so many moons ago, we became good friends and he told me, of all the people in his family, his war stories for the first time. I've got days worth of the stuff, probably every week he was in.
After a year of various adventures stateside, including bailing out of a P-70 over the everglades, he went over with the 314. They went to North Africa pdq and were issued Beaufighters. He had the same pilot as from the beginning all the way through until that guy got a P-47 in 1944 and later got killed.
He loved the Bristol. One big reason was that the circumstances and mission gave him a bunch of stick time, which is what I gather all pilots live for. Their usual mission was out at twilight, 4 hours up to Italy and 4 hours back. When he first had a ride, they'd all take turns flying because the aircraft was easy to move around in (by the way where's the door in that partition?) and one could sack out on the floor. Of course in the combat area the pilot took over.
He was fond of the Hercules. Big powerful engine. Easy to work on and he also became an airframe specialist. He got the attention of the Squadron commander because he figured out a way to rig up B-25 instrument lights, which are on a stalk on the control stick I believe, in lieu of the glowing dials, which really didn't work. And he was the first crew chief to check out the control wire tensioning kit, which he got good at. He was a real stick and rudder man and would have been a pilot if he'd had a dad that had gotten him through high school and into college.
But as a photographer he took thousands of photos and still has the negatives. Unfortunately my somewhat unfocused brother-in-law has them in a box in his house and I'll never see them.
But I've got a big pile of homade prints, hence that scan.
I asked him one time where his leather jacket was. "Left it in a garbage can in Sardinia. The parka was warmer".
He doesn't know what the colors are on those Beaus, because he's color blind, and because he never bothered to think about it. I build a Tammie for him using the Temperate scheme as I figured lend lease- who knows. But in reality it could have been RAF Cactus Airforce or green/earth.
I may crack out the Zvezda Borodino this week and give her a go.