B-17G Nose Art

Tools, Techniques, and Reference Materials Reference Materials
1

I have exhausted all my personal resources looking for pictures of specific B-17s from WWII. I have one more resource coming in the mail but I figured that perhaps there is someone out there that might have access to some books or photo collections that I haven’t seen yet.

All of these planes are from the 8th Air Force, 390th Bomb Group, 568th Bomb Squadron and were based out of Framlingham (Parham Airfield I think) in England.

Serial Number Name
42-39819 Anoxia Queen (B17G)
42-3472 Shoot a Pound/The Paper Doll/The Vulture (I have a picture of the later vulture nose art) (B-17F)
42-31262 Ole Smoke (B17G)
42-37891 Minnie-So-Tan (B17G)
42-37890 Rovin Ramona II / Big Friend (B17G)
42-38048 Bomb Bay Ann / Dorothy Dee (B17G)
42-37906 Wild Children II / Angel in Di Skies / Angel in Disguise (B17G)
42-31732 Paper Doll II
42-38040 Little Butch / El Lobo

Bomb Groups and Squadrons typically dropped the 4 out of the serial number when applying it to the aircraft. Official records use the entire serial number. Some names like Paper Doll are fairly common, so if you find a picture of Paper Doll you have to be sure its the right aircraft.

I have done lots of searches on the net (which is why the list is down to 9 from the orginal 11). And yes I did find the website for the 390th Bomb Group and I have been in contact with them about these planes.

2

So you’re looking for planes from these 2 squadrons?

There are lots of Nose Art books out there, I have a couple.

Eric…

3

I have gone through the indexes of half a dozen nose art books on Amazon and didn’t find any of these in the indexes. That’s actually a single squadron the 568th which is one of the four squadrons that made up the 390th Bomb Group.

4

I take it that you looked here?

http://www.390th.org/index.htm

5

Go to your local library and look for the old Time-Life series on WW2 and leaf through it. Look at the other series of books on WW2. Look at books on the air war. Try looking outside of a very narrow box and you might find what you need for photos.

6

ive got a book with El lobo in it. B-17 and B-24. If you need a scan LMK

7

You might try the National Museum of the US Air Force. They used to call it the Air Force Museum, which is located at Dayton, OH. If you ever get the chance, this is a must see. I purchased a book from there with nose art from several different bomb groups of the 8th AF.