Saturday, May 13, 2023

B-25D Mitchell “Ruptured Duck”

 


19 comments:

  1. https://pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/b-25/40-2261.html

    One of the Doolittle planes.

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    1. The Doolittle planes were B models, not D.
      For the movie, they recreated Ted Lawson's flight under the Golden Gate

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  2. From MGM's Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo with Oakland portraying Tokyo.
    The ~80-year old, live-action, air-to-air shots still are amazing and exciting.

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  3. That’s SF in the background as you just make out the base of Coit Tower.

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    1. The north GGB tower too. That is a really nice GIF!

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    2. I’d didn’t see that initially, but you are correct.

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    3. Great catches. Compare the view from the GIF to https://maritime.org/the-san-francisco-changing-waterfront/. Those are the piers on the Bay side of Telegraph Hill. IFRC, not having the movie since the 'oughts or the teens, Oakland's where they go feet dry. The 'Frisco Bay stands in for Tokyo Bay. Yes, I know that we don't say "'Frisco". Cut me a hus; okay?

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    4. Au contraire. It pisses homegrown Friscans off to refer to the city by the bay as Frisco.
      This is why the rest of California does it; it puts them in their place. ;)

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    5. How about 'feces hole'?

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  4. That's the plane that went on the insane mission to bomb Tokyo. God bless each and every one of the air crews.

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  5. Early model B-25. Top turret is in the waist, not the cockpit. Historically accurate. I need to watch that again.

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  6. Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo--

    https://archive.org/details/ThirtySecondsOverTokyoWEBDL720p

    At the 1:21:26 mark, those hills in the background are the Sutter Buttes near Yuba City, CA.

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  7. I love your aviation posts! More please and thank you. I am a "helper" at the NMUSAF (Air Force Museum)

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  8. Ducks on the wall!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2WqalhGWC8

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  9. Back in the 90's one of the people that volunteered at the hospital I worked at was a pilot who had flown B25's in the Pacific during WWII. The stories he could tell were amazing. Tried to get him to write an autobiography about his long and interesting life but he wasn't interested. He was too busy still doing things.

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    1. And sadly, that B-25 pilot's legacy went to the grave when he died.

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  10. Ted Lawson was pilot of Ruptured Duck. In the 50's he worked for Reynolds Metals in LA. My Mom was his secretary.

    Don in Oregon

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  11. Thats Van Johnson.

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  12. https://pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/b-25/40-2261.html this link indicates "After the raid, this bomber ditched in the China Sea west of Shangchow in China." This cannot be accurate as the China Sea is east of the mainland. There is no place currently called "Shangchow" in China but it might be Shangrao if this map https://i0.wp.com/militaryhistorynow.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Doolittle_Raid_Map.svg.png?w=1680&ssl=1 is anything close to accurate. And the reference is that the plane ditched - not crashed, and the flight engineer swam back to the wreck to get the medical kit. So I would think it is more likely the plane ditched just off of Zheijiang province somewhere, maybe in Hangzhou Bay or off the Zheijiang islands. That could make a water ditching be west of a body of land, and since Hangzhou Bay is connected to the East China Sea - that might be something to think about.

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