The Mission For Today***War Birds Photos-

mission4today.com ^

[virgil283]

P-47 pilot Ed Fisher, 1944: 7 enemy planes,3 V-1s,25 enemy trucks,5 locomotives,40 bombing missions,25 dive bombing missions,15 clean sweeps. -Helldiver, B25 plant, Hangar deck 1945, Guam 1945, Bell YFM-1 Airacuda, Piper L-4 and B-24, Dauntless, PBY....

[virgil283]

---Ed Fisher

[virgil283]

Doesn’t look old enough to shave...

[Yardstick]

A couple of questions about his nose art...

I notice it’s not just Shirley Jane but Shirley Jane III. How does that work? Were Shirley Jane I and II planes that he flew or were they someone else’s?

Also, what is the meaning of the vertical bomb symbol versus the slanted bomb? And what is the bottom symbol (square with line sticking out)?

[rockinqsranch]

It’s all in the write-up above.

[virgil283]

I think- don’t know- the slant is a dive and the square with a stick is a clean sweep, meanig no enemy opposition. the I, II mean he has lost previous planes.....maybe I’m wrong...

[Tijeras_Slim]

Meticulous nose art, did he become a CPA after the war? ;)

[SueRae]

Shame we still don’t do that on our aircraft.

[beebuster2000]

awesome post. great pics at the site. many thanks. my dad flew over Japan, i think a B 24, reconnaissance and weather. after the war ended he flew over Russia for a while, although oddly he never mentioned any of that, only learned about it from my mom in little snippets.

i always thought that if they had not dropped the bomb, i might not be here.

[Yardstick]

Thanks. I see the symbols explained. Any idea about the “III”?

[75thOVI]

Typicaly when a pilot changes planes, he’ll add another number to it. “Shirley Jane” may have been a P-40, while “Shirley Jane II” may have been a P-47 razorback. I believe Chuck Yeager was up to “Glamorous Glenn IV” by the end of the war.

[par4]

That's a question I have had for a long time too. When my father passed we found an old newpaper clipping with a "local boy of interest" story about him flying a mission in his P-47 "Lady Liz IV".

Never found out what happened to Lady Liz I - III.

[75thOVI]

Typicaly when a pilot changes planes, he’ll add another number to it. “Shirley Jane” may have been a P-40, while “Shirley Jane II” may have been a P-47 razorback. I believe Chuck Yeager was up to “Glamorous Glenn IV” by the end of the war.

[75thOVI]

Typicaly when a pilot changes planes, he’ll add another number to it. “Shirley Jane” may have been a P-40, while “Shirley Jane II” may have been a P-47 razorback. I believe Chuck Yeager was up to “Glamorous Glenn IV” by the end of the war.

[75thOVI]

Sorry for the triple post. The computer hung up.

[SnuffaBolshevik]

This is a bittersweet thread.

Look at the vast number and variety of aircraft produced in America in a very short period of time.

Virtually everything from the lugnuts to the bomb sights to the camshafts on those planes was produced here by American workers and capital. And that doesn’t even touch on the ships, tanks, trucks, locomotives, artillery and food produced concurrently.

Now we make lousy burgers and consultants in profusion and little else. Not even Mai-Tai umbrellas.

What happened to us?

[Yardstick]

Okay, so as the pilots were assigned new planes, which I guess would happen if the mission changed or their old plane was retired for whatever reason, they would move the name to their new plane and increment the number by 1. That makes sense.

[Joe 6-pack]

"I notice it’s not just Shirley Jane but Shirley Jane III. How does that work? Were Shirley Jane I and II planes that he flew or were they someone else’s?"

It means he's on his third girlfriend named Shirley Jane. ;-)

[Little Ray]

Not to mention the “offensive” nose art.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2979596/posts

I’d love it if the USAF started painting nose art on their aircraft again. It would be nice to watch the heads of all those PC pansy inspectors explode.

[tanknetter]

Yup. The USAAF started the war with a pursuit inventory based on P-40Bs, P-39s and early mark P-38s

Planes were swapped out quickly due to technical advancements. After those early war pursuit ships came improved model P-40s, P-38s and P-47 Razorbacks. Then P-51B/Cs ( which were also razorback style fuselages) and P-47 bubble canopies. Then came P-51Ds with the bubble canopy. There was a lot of overlap in service dates between the various models, but by the end of the war I think the only (or at least one of the very few) ETO based USAAF fighter unit not flying Mustangs was the 56th FG with P-47s

[STD]

Can you post links to me of other photo collections please? I’ve seen all these, they are wonderful; thank you!