“Yippee” was the 5,000th P-38 Lightning

We made a video about the Me262 which features a Jumo004 in our museum and the flying replica of the FlugMuseum Messerschmitt. Video in comments.

While the DPAA makes good progress on the Lindell crew lost on Dec 26th 1944 (with recent reburial of Myron Yaw, and upcoming ceremony for Avery Gilliland), there are more airmen who died over Blechhammer and are still unaccounted for.

On October 13th, 1944, 2nd Lt Meyer’s crew of 455th BG was shot down, and the wreck fell into the forest between Blechhammer North and Blechhammer South. There were only two survivors, and 8 men died. Four were recovered and identified after the war, but the burial sites of 2nd Lt. Meyer, F/O Fajans, F/O Bray, Cpl. Bartholow were never found. They are still unaccounted for.

The local Blechhammer 44 Association remembers the crew in their museum. Here is their post published earlier this week, on the anniversary of this tragedy.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Gydq3aN5v/?mibextid=wwXIfr

You will find more stories of American airmen over Poland in WWII on my Substack:

https://open.substack.com/pub/sserwatka

Looking for any information on this "tank"? I can only find these tear dropped shaped tanks on models, was this something they really did or where do I need to go to research these? I appreciate any advice, thanks in advance!

https://collections.rafmuseum.org.uk/collection/object/object-1810/

Happy Anniversary to the veterans and families involved in the Second Schweinfurt Mission by the 8th Air Force, October 14, 1943. My father was copilot of TS (Big Moose) of the 384th Bomb Group. They were shot down that day; my father bailed out and ended up in Stalag Luft III. Above is a watercolor painting from my father’s scrapbook he made during his internment depicting part of that battle.

Avro Lancaster – Legendary RAF WWII Heavy Bomber @ RAF Fairford Royal International Air Tattoo 2023.

One of the most iconic aircraft of the Second World War, the Lancaster formed the backbone of RAF Bomber Command's heavy bomber force.

Powered by four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, it became famous for its long-range bombing missions and its role in the legendary Dambusters raid of May 1943.

I absolutely love this photo.

Equipment -

Google pixel 10 pro.

50 Megapixel.

Sky enhancement.

Normal Photo settings.

You may remember my post from a few weeks about a B-24 sitting in a Soviet airfield in Poland and captured in a German Luftwaffe recon photo taken just 12 days after Polando landed in that airfield. I had some archival documents related to this story, and was lucky to find a relative of the pilot who was so kind to share more information and many photos.

Here is the full story of what happened to Polando’s B-24 and crew, an extraordinary account of wartime travelling across exotic countries, and a glimpse of how the USAAF managed the logistics of returning the crews and aircraft which ended up in Soviet territory.

Enjoy, and please support my research by becoming a free or paid subscriber!

The link to the full story is in the first comment below.

What turned out to be her final mission was supposed to be a “milk run” – a routine, uneventful sortie completed without incident. However, the B-17 was hit by an 88 mm flack shell, which blew a 7-foot by 12-foot hole in the floor, roof and side of the aircraft. Despite the damage, the aircrew ensured Miss Irish went on to complete the mission, and the pilot, Capt. John P. Gibbons, managed to emergency land the plane at RAF Raydon, Suffolk.