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Nose art from 706th Bomber Squadron, Donald Duck


bluethunder1959
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bluethunder1959

Hello all. Perhaps you can help shed some light on this Donald Duck insignia. This is what I found out so far...I have an original A-2 jacket that had this painted on, see below. I did some research and discovered it was from the 446BG, 706thBS based on the unit patch. This Donald was nose art on a B-24 called the "Dodgin' Don" based in the UK. I found several pics of this B-24 on a website with the exact same Donald (only better looking). The serial number is 42-50667. According to this website , this aircraft was involved in a bombing incident "on continent" on 12/31/1944. In March 1945 it was salvaged and tranferred to the 704th BS. Would anyone know the history of the design and the B-24 that carried it? I would really be interested in finding out what happened to it in December 1944 and find any place that had a list of crew members as well.

 

Thanks

 

 

post-11863-1274233104.jpg

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Johnny Signor

I have seen a black and white photo of a B-24 in aluminum unpainted with the Donald Duck emblem, it had a amored plate added to the nose area and covered the upper rear area of his head, the photo was taken a BAD-2 or Base Air Depot -2, suppossedly an 8th AAF bird the problem being there was no other details as to unit etc, the photo is in the book titled "Talisman" by JohnM.& Donna Campbell and was published by Schiffer books, it can be seen on page 141 at the top right.

Johnny

P.S. you might want to run it by Disneydave here on the site and see if he has anything on it.

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bluethunder1959
I have seen a black and white photo of a B-24 in aluminum unpainted with the Donald Duck emblem, it had a amored plate added to the nose area and covered the upper rear area of his head, the photo was taken a BAD-2 or Base Air Depot -2, suppossedly an 8th AAF bird the problem being there was no other details as to unit etc, the photo is in the book titled "Talisman" by JohnM.& Donna Campbell and was published by Schiffer books, it can be seen on page 141 at the top right.

Johnny

P.S. you might want to run it by Disneydave here on the site and see if he has anything on it.

 

Thanks Johnny. I ran across 2 photos on the B24 Best Website and according to that site...the name of the plane was the "Dodgin' Don" or "667" and had the serial number of the plane. I ran the serial number (42-50667) and several other sites showed it was involved in some sort of incident in Dec 1944 and had to be salvaged. It was transferred to the 704thBS from the 706thBS in March 1945. Whatever happened to it after that, is anyone's guess. I wish I could find some crew log or aircrew report to see who the crew members were and what the incident was about. So far I have found nothing in this regards. I am hoping Disneydave will see my post and provide some info on the isignia and plane. Thanks!

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Johnny Signor

I don't know if you've already done this, but if not put a post on the B-24 best web saying you're looking for anyone who knows/knew the crew of Dodgin Don make sure to put the name/nose art notes with it and the tail/nose # etc and see what comes of that, also try finding the Squadrons/Group web page and see if they have a bulletin/guestbook page and post an inquiry there.

I'm sure someone out there can come up with some more leads.

Good luck !

Johnny

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disneydave

I have seen a few variations of this design, including the one featured on the patch on your jacket.

 

Pictured below is the original pencil art created by legendary Disney artist Hank Porter. I am not sure of the design's creation date yet.

 

The original design was created for the 479th Bombardment Squadron (Medium), which was assigned to the 336th Bombardment Group. The unit flew the B-26 Martin Marauder.

 

Hope this helps!

 

 

blog_336th.JPG

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bluethunder1959
I have seen a few variations of this design, including the one featured on the patch on your jacket.

 

Pictured below is the original pencil art created by legendary Disney artist Hank Porter. I am not sure of the design's creation date yet.

 

The original design was created for the 479th Bombardment Squadron (Medium), which was assigned to the 336th Bombardment Group. The unit flew the B-26 Martin Marauder.

 

Hope this helps!

post-524-1274330826.jpg

 

Thanks for information Dave. It is great to get some history of the design. I have seen the Donald with the bomb on a few sites. I guess some of the units just adapted the same design to fit their needs. :thumbsup:

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disneydave

Glad to be of assistance.

 

I have seen this on a few occasions...where a design was created for one unit, and men in a different unit saw the design and made an adaptation for their own use.

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Johnny Signor

The Donald Duck emblem Disney Dave posted was an "Actual" unit used emblem,although of an "Unofficial" type, where the other on Dodgin Don I do believe to be just "Nose Art" and not a "specific" unit emblem, some jackets worn by flight crews carried thier aircraft's "Nose Art" along with thier "actual" Sqd/group such as his does , I just wanted to tell the members and others who may see this post so they don't confuse the emblem to be a "Unit" emblem.

Yes many emblems took details from other units designs and some even had the same design,but again you have to know what was a "Unit" emblem and what was just "Nose Art".

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