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New article on Pearl Harbor B-17's


Steve Birdsall
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Steve Birdsall

I've got an article about the eight B-17Es that arrived over Hawaii on 7 December 1941 in the next Aviation History that might be of interest.

 

AH.jpg

 

All eight were quickly reassigned to Hawaiian Air Force squadrons and over-painted with a unique multi-coloured camouflage to protect them on the ground.

 

Initially used for patrolling and training, they ultimately ranged far and wide, serving with the 5th, 7th and 13th Air Forces in the South and Southwest Pacific theaters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Are you the Steve Birdsall that wrote those great aviation books The Flying Buccaneers, and The Log of the Liberators?(to name a few)

 

 

 

I've got an article about the eight B-17Es that arrived over Hawaii on 7 December 1941 in the next Aviation History that might be of interest.

 

AH.jpg

 

All eight were quickly reassigned to Hawaiian Air Force squadrons and over-painted with a unique multi-coloured camouflage to protect them on the ground.

 

Initially used for patrolling and training, they ultimately ranged far and wide, serving with the 5th, 7th and 13th Air Forces in the South and Southwest Pacific theaters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Steve, I hope I can find a copy of this. I've always wondered what happened to those aircraft, if they survived, and where they went on to. As depleted as the Air Corps in the Pacific was after the Pearl Harbor and Clark attacks, B-17's would have been a very important asset in the early days.

 

I would have to research, but I am wondering how many of the forward deployed B-17's, other than the Swoose, survived the attacks in the Philippines.

 

Thank you for the heads up.

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looks like a mighty interesting article!

Steve, just out of curiosity, is the cover art of a B-17 flaming a Japanese flying boat based on an actual event?

thanks for giving us all here a heads-up on the publication!

Terry

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Steve Birdsall

Hello Gil, Terry and fstop61, and thanks for the kind words, always sincerely appreciated.

 

I'm glad you remembered Lee Embree . . . his photos, especially the two of 41-2408 on the ground at Hickam, tell the story better than I ever could.

 

There's much more to tell about these B-17s and those that followed over the next couple of weeks and I'm hoping to find enough to justify a book about them.

 

Yes, Jack Fellows' cover illustration shows an air battle between 41-2433 and a Japanese flying boat that took place in October 1942.

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  • 1 month later...

I found this issue at Barnes and Noble. Your article was a very interesting read. I have never seen this magazine before. It had some great articles.

 

Thanks for telling us about this issue....Kat

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RustyCanteen

I'm going to have to find this issue! Thanks for letting us know about the article.

 

I have to say the mention of the classic 'Log of the Liberators' brought back some good memories; I love that book. I hope you do write one on these B-17s.

 

RC

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Thanks for the info on the article. I'll have to see if I can find it. I've always been interested in the war in the Pacific as my dad was there. I've read The Flying Buccaneers - great book - it must have taken tons of research to reach the level of detail that book contains.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Steve, I just wanted to thank you for "Log of the Liberators" and "Flying Fortress". As a young kid I spent hours and hours reading these books over and over. It was a great way to escape from all the chaos of a broken family. I think your books are what got me in to collecting and restoring WWII vehicles. I still have the books my dad gave to me in the 1970s! I go to a lot of estate sales and flea markets and I don't know why, but whenever I see a copy of one of your books, I buy it. I guess your books were kind of a haven for me and they still give me a little buzz when I see them. My two originals from 1973 are pictured below, as you can see from the wear, I like Liberators!

 

Brad Smardo

post-683-0-03933300-1460338141.jpg

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Edward Joblonski did "Flying Fortress" :)

 

Saga of the Superfortress

Log of the Liberators

Flying Buccaneers

 

Those are Mr. Birdsall along with others.

 

That being said, the four books named have all been on my shelf since I was a teenager, many years ago. All are falling apart from a lot of use too!

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Hi Steve

 

I still have my copies of your books that I bought in the early 80's. My copy of "Log of the Liberators" has the pages falling out since I read it so much.

 

Kurt

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Garandomatic

I always tell a story from Flying Buccaneers when I teach about the Pacific War. If I recall, an early B-17 came out of the clouds and saw a lone Japanese cargo plane, a copy of a US DC-3, I think, lumbering along. They pulled up alongside and gave it a broadside of .50s! Love that story!

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Steve Birdsall

I'd just like to say thanks for all the kind remarks. Makes me feel a bit old, but it's worth it.

 

Yes, Ed Jablonski did the Flying Fortress book, but its success helped convince Doubleday to let me do Log of the Liberators.

 

True story: Ed was a music writer - The Gershwin Years among other books he did for Doubleday - and he was inspired to do the B-17 book by the box art on the old Revell 1/72 Memphis Belle kit.

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It's easy to see how this was inspiring. This was the box art for Revell's first release of the Memphis Belle.

 

Source: Remembering Revell Model Kits, Thomas Graham.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Revell-Professor-Division-Pediatrics/dp/0764329928/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460823612&sr=1-1&keywords=remembering+revell+model+kits

Revell Memphis Bell.jpg

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Steve Birdsall

I was a bit vague in my description of the HAD camouflage in the Pearl Harbor article and I thought you might be interested in seeing this Jack Fellows profile of one of the planes.

 

434PS.jpg

 

Features we've identified that were common to all planes are the "rust" nose, the pale "sand" color around the cockpit, the factory-applied Olive Drab 41 around the radio room and the blue-gray on the waist area, the latter likely from U.S. Navy paint stocks.

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  • 1 month later...

I just finished reading your article. I enjoyed learning about the B-17s missions at the first of the war. The flight of B-17s arriving at the time of the attack is well documented and often referred to, now we know the rest of their story.

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