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Flying with Jimmy Stewart: An Incredible 8th AAF B-24 Pilot B-13 Uniform + Grouping


carbinephalen
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carbinephalen

This incredibly complete grouping belonged to Lieutenant W. O. S H A N K who flew B-24's for the 445th Bomb Group in the 701st and 702nd Squadrons. Born in Ohio in 1924, he was commissioned in May of 1944. Upon completion of training here in the States, his crew shipped out overseas in Jan of 45 bound for Tibenham, England where they would join the 445th. S H A N K flew 11 combat missions over Germany, several of which he flew deputy lead to Jimmy Stewart's lead. In a newspaper article, S H A N K spoke of Jimmy as being "...very well thought of. On Saturday nights, he would drive around to all the bars and taverns in town to pick up his crew members so they wouldn't miss curfew. He ate in the dining hall with every one else and refused to leave the control area until all squadron members landed their planes." S H A N K last spoke to Stewart during a book signing in Ohio.

 

S H A N K's wartime service was over on a fateful day in April of 1945. Returning from a training mission, they lost an engine while flying in solid cloud cover. Unfortunately, it was the engine that provided the vacuum necessary for the flight instruments to work. The aircraft went into a spin and became badly damaged during the spin recovery. They lost the entire left vertical stabilizer and also most of the left half of the elevator. While attempting to make an emergency landing at Thorpe Abbots, they were waved off by the control tower because the runway they were lined up on was too short. To avoid the village of Thorpe Abbots,S H A N K had to turn into the dead engine. The aircraft stalled and crashed outside the airfield, killing 3 and injuring 6 others. Horribly injured in the crash, he had to undergo quite a bit of plastic surgery to his face.

 

After his release from the military, he went back to college and practiced Law until his retirement. He passed away in 2011 in Illinois.

 

This group started out as an incredibly pristine B-13 jacket and upon speaking with the vet's daughter, she wanted all of his possessions to stay together. Being in the USAF myself, she said she wanted me to be the caretaker and carry on the story of her heroic father. This grouping has over 200 original documents chronicling his service from his enlistment to mail from the 8th AAF association. His Air Medal, original aviator sunglasses, a set of mini-wings, association membership cards, certificates, his laundry bag complete this making it the most complete grouping I own. All of his flight and pilot logs provided much insight to the amount of time and training put in before a crew could ship out to a theater. I will let the photos speak for themselves. Thanks for looking!

 

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Very, very nice! It's all in such great condition. Not to take anything away from this officer (clearly a brave and accomplished man) I never cease to be amazed by Jimmy Stewart. "Jimmy Stewart, Bomber Pilot" is a great read. If I'm ever with friends or family and some Jimmy Stewart movie comes on I always tell everybody about his military career and his wartime flying.

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carbinephalen

Thanks for all of the positive comments! Jimmy Stewart is one of my favorite classic actors as well which makes this group that much cooler for me.

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carbinephalen

Very cool Johan! He didn't want to live the typical Hollywood celebrity glam war career, he wanted to be in the thick of it all with his men!

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  • 1 year later...

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