Alright all you propeller types out there. I picked up this 1/72 Italeri B-25H a few years back.
My question is: did the navy or usmc use this variant of the mitchell during WWII? I would like to forgoe the o.d. and gray scheme and use a “blue-white” if one is appropriate for this subject.
Thanks for your help!
Ray
There were B-25s used by the Navy, but I cannot recall seeing Marine B-25s but I was not looking for that information either. The model used by the Navy will take a little research. The Navy used a different designation for the aircraft so you would have to compare the Navy varients to the H model.
I remember seeing a Navy B-25 in Non-specular sea blue, light blue, and white camo. the aircraft I remember reading about were used for coastal patrol and VIP transport.
Just the opposite. The Navy didn’t use the PBJ, the Marines did.
http://www.bluejacket.com/usmc/images/pbj_northamerican_mitchell_pcola1102.jpg
I know the Navy had B-25J’s in inventory as I built one a butt-long time ago, But I can’t say authoritatively that it used H’s although it is probably a safe assumption that they did. Can’t give you much more help than that though…
In Squadron publication “B-25 Mitchell in Action” it shows a PBJ-1H in three tone camoflage making a test arrestor landing on the USS ShangriLa.
PBJ… peanut butter and jelly… mmmmm
Thanks guys. John I’ll check out that squadron pub.
Ray
Here is a picture of one at the Marine Corp Air-Ground Museum at Quantico VA. I am not an expert on B-25’s but it looks to be J model by the exhaust dampers.
http://aeroweb.brooklyn.cuny.edu/database/museums/getimage.htm?id=5066
And here is a refurbished one at the NMNA during an airshow at Pensacola. Speaking of which, if you ever have a chance to go to the Pensacola airshow it’s great. They bring A/C from the museum over to the static display ramp.
http://www.bluejacket.com/usmc/images/pbj_northamerican_mitchell_pcola1102.jpg
Thanks wayners. I’m actually from P’cola, but I haven’t been home for over year now.
BTW - good to hear from ya again!
Ray
Ray
Good to be back and have a bit of spare time to write. That A-4 is still sitting on the bench right where i put it 7 monthes ago. You think the paint is dry enough to touch?
Here is a great website outlining one Marine squadron’s use of different variants of PBJs, including the H model gunship. I didn’t even realize that the Marine Corps used Mitchells in the Pacific until I saw a restored version on display at EAA last year. Very cool. Anyways, here it is…http://www.vmb-613.com/ …a good wealth of info, drawings, and pictures about the PBJs.
Semper Fi
Snake that is one cool site indeed! Thanks bro.
Hey Wayners, don’t feel bad. I have to finish that F-4J to S conversion I started last spring!
Greetings from the officers and men of Marine Bombing Squadron Six-Thirteen (VMB-613), the website mentioned above.
We hope that you will find the history of our squadron informative and helpful to your modeling. We continue to add new photographs and information as it becomes available. Within the next few weeks, we will also be modifying the website to make it a little better. One of the items we will be adding is a section to post photographs of aircraft built by modelers such as youself. If you construct a model of a PBJ-1 and e-mail a photograph to us, we will be pleased to post it for all to see.
There are some rather unique photos throughout our website, some of which you will find interesting. For example, our aircraft carried rudimentary “nose art” – a rather rare occurrence for Marine Corps aircraft (see “February 1945” for photos).
Our squadron was the only one to fly the PHJ-1H against the Japanese. Should anyone require information, please don’t hesitate to contact us at: yanacek.rj@vmb-613.com.
Semper Fi,
Yanacek
Thank you sir!
I have been reading this thread, in hopes to see any pics. of the PBJ,
but none yet, so I’ll show you all an old bird of mine that’s been around for
a long time.
It’s a Monogram 1/48 B-25H, that I brush painted years ago, in an attempt
at something a little different,
Here she is,
Leon.
That’s a great kit Leon - kinda hard to find now. I know AM does the “G” in 1/48th.
Does anybody know of an after market conversion for Monogram’s B-25J to an H - including the radar on the starbbord wing?
Yanacek,
Sir, an honor to have you post on this topic, and thank you for your service in WWII. As I mentioned earlier, my interest in Marine PBJ-1s was sparked last year when I saw a restored version (“Devil Dog”, I believe) at the EAA convention in Oshkosh. My search on the internet after that turned up your site about VMB-613. It is an incredibly informative resource, and I look forward to seeing the new items on your website soon. I hope to start on my own model version of a PBJ-1H sometime in the future.
And as you can see from the photo in my signature area, the Marines today still like to put a little noseart on their attack aircraft when they can get away with it!
Semper Fi.
usaf sgt,
Nice PBJ-1H! I’m impressed that you constructed this aircraft a number of years ago before much information was available on the Internet. Would you consider permitting me to post one of you photos on the VMB-613 website? We will be adding a section for this in the near future. If so, would you please e-mail me at yanacek.rj@vmb-613.com with your name, so that I can provide you with proper credit?
Semper Fi,
Robert
Glad Robert Y checked in on this. He is the modest but extremely hardworking Marine and all-round great guy who works as VMB-613 Assn. webmaster. He has been tirelessly helping me research a magazine historical/build article on the PBJ-1. The man knows his PBJ’s.
It was never operated by the Navy, only the Marines, who were bailed 700 of them from the Army. Only one G model was bailed and it wasn’t used except for testing. Otherwise, the Marines flew every variant of the B-25 in combat except the B.
There are references out there, such as Alan Carey’s “Leatherneck Bombers, B-25/PBJ Mitchell Squadrons in WW II” published by Schiffer. Then there’s the Osprey “PBJ Mitchell Units of the Pacific War.” Both have great color profiles and drawings. Be careful using the Squadron Signal “B-25 In Action” and “Walk Around” books. They are great photo references, but like most aviation writers and modelers and war buffs in general, the text has incorrect information about the PBJ, which has been unfairly passed over by historians until just recently. (Both books quite often incorrectly identify the B-25 variants in the photo captions.) The PBJ-1 subtypes were designated by a letter that tells you which B-25 version they originated from, such as PBJ-1C for one that began life as a B-25C and PBJ-1H for a cannon nose B-25H version (cannons were removed and replaced with two or three machine guns in some cases). The PBJ-1J was used by the Marines as well late in the war, both glass- and gun-nose versions. The CAF’s Devil Dog, which I had the good fortune to fly in about 20 years ago, is supposed to be one of the latter, but isn’t a real one. Unfortunately, the paint job is not even very close. The Marines did not permit nose art, and very rarely will you see anything more than bomb mission marks on a PBJ. They wore every scheme that tactical Navy a/c did. The late J models based on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and using the huge Tiny Tim missile late in the war, were overal FS 15042 Gloss Sea Blue, while a lot of the H models used the three-tone scheme until the end of the war. Most, however, were blue-gray over white for most or all of their war and training time.
The main external difference, besides the color, if you want to make a PBJ-1, is the addition of a radome in either the ventral turret position or over the glass nose, as I wrote in an earlier post, to make the “hose nose” PBJ. They were quite common and butt ugly. The H and J models carried the radome on the starboard wing tip. Also, PBJ’s, which were primarily strafers and low-level bombers with air supremecy, very often did away with the top turret altogether, leaving just the lip.
About six months ago Joe Myers of AcMin told me they are trying to make a PBJ conversion set for their B-25C/D, including a torpedo and other armament. But despite what you may hear or read, no PBJ is ever recorded as having fired a single torpedo in anger. They trained for it, and the instrument panels were wired for it, but by the time they got the the Pacific in Feb. 1944, there were no decent shipping targets left. Still, you will often see the photo of PBJ-1D “Johah” at Cherry Point with a torpedo slung under the open bomb bay doors (it wouldn’t fit inside), but this is a PR photo.
Eduard makes an excellent, three-fret PE set for the Monogram kits, with parts to backdate the old Monogram H, a very good kit, to G standards. It includes parts to add the “bay window” modification to the waist gun positions. Changing the Monogram late-war B-25 to an earlier one such as the B-25 C, D and G models involves moving the forward dorsal turret to the rear of the fuselage, because the H and J models of the B-25/PBJ had the turret even with the wing leading edge, and the earlier models had the turret aft of the trailing edge. On the other hand, all the AcMin B-25 models are early ones, with the aft turret. Eduard makes a B-25 PE set, most of which is appropriate for the C/D and G. It’s a quick way to identify early and late B-25’s, since the noses were so often modified in the field. Most or all PBJ’s had the raised tail gunner’s “greenhouse” position fitted, even the earliest ones.
One more thing in this long screed: the Air Force Museum “B-25B” representing the Doolittle Raiders, and whose cockpit and instrument panel is often used in modeling reference books, is in fact a D model.
TOM