Thursday, March 22, 2012

This Warms the Cockles...

... o' my hard lil heart:
Bloody Hundredth turns 70: The World War II emblem of the 100th Bomb Group—a four-headed eagle—now adorns the 100th Air Refueling Wing's KC-135 flagship at RAF Mildenhall, Britain. On the unit's 70th anniversary, airmen at Mildenhall "share a bond with the men who flew under this emblem in one of the greatest conflicts this world has ever seen," said Col. Christopher Kulas, 100th ARW commander, during the unveiling ceremony on March 14. "This airplane now serves as a visual reminder of that bond," he emphasized. The 100th Bomb Group was known as the "Bloody Hundredth" for its staggering losses in daylight raids over Germany during World War II. Its "square-D" marking, worn by its B-17s, is now painted on the flagship tanker's tail. "It's great to have tail [number] 0100 back in the 'Bloody Hundredth' as we celebrate our heritage year," said Kulas. (Mildenhall report by SSgt. Austin May)
That's from the Usual USAF Source.  I just love it when Big Air Force gets in touch with our history (there are five hi-res photos at the Mildenhall link, as well as expanded narrative).  Speaking of history... the history of the 100 Bomb Group is here, courtesy of the Eighth Air Force Historical Society.  This is the aircraft the Bloody Hundredth flew in the Big One:


Sixty of those B-17s went down in a single raid on Schweinfurt on Black Thursday... and about 650 airmen either lost their lives or wound up as POWs when their aircraft were shot down on that day... hence the nickname "Bloody Hundredth."

11 comments:

  1. Thanks for today's history lesson!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Four headed eagle - interesting. I'm with Moogie - thanks for the lesson.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice, I love it when my old service actually looks back at its history!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very nice. My Great-uncle Al God-rest-'im was a pilot in the 8th Air Force. He was the stereotype 25 yo Captain that flew mission after mission bombing Gerry and trying to bring his crews home. Dinstinguished man; never talked about it until my ol' man got a few beers it him then it was all hand-enacting fighter on bomber laughing with realistic sounds and pushing imaginary throttles and foot-controls. I miss him and those like him. I'm glad I stayed up past my bedtime to hear those stories.

    --Gray

    ReplyDelete
  5. Aw, now you've got me thinking of my Old Cajun Friend DJ Vice. Ball turret gunner in a B-17. The A/C was damaged an could not extend grear, nor retract the ball. They wet down the field and it landed on the grass. He ended up wallowing in a big heap of mud piled into the shattered ball on landing and said: "What 'chall lookin' at?" when they fished him out. I miss those guys.

    --Gray

    ReplyDelete
  6. Moogie & Lou: You're welcome.

    Sarge: Me, too. Now if they'd only get rid of about half of the PC crap, we'd be OK.

    Gray: My Ol' Man was a lot like your Great-uncle Al. He NEVER talked about his WWII experiences until he was literally on his death bed (he flew in B-17s over Europe as an intelligence observer and gunner... no one rode free). I spent about four hours listening to him tell his stories one evening shortly before he died while we sat in his garage smoking and drinking bourbon, all of it against my step-mother's wishes. I wish I would have had a tape recorder...

    ReplyDelete
  7. All nice, but I look at this story a little differently. Why just NOW? From my perspective I see this as a desperate attempt by management to restore sagging morale--a morale and esprit d'corps that has been steadily sagging under constant PC pressure over the last 35 years. Better than nothing, I guess, but the "tell" as to the strength of the PC head-winds that try to remove ANY "martial" aspect from the armed services (e.g., "American Forces" radio viz "Armed Forces" radio) is that only the"lead" ac will be so marked. Would it be too much to ask that ALL of them would be? "What we have here" is timid tokenism at best..

    ReplyDelete
  8. PS: To buttress my point about the "timidity" bit note that it is planned to affix the emblems on all the other ac "in the near future" (so what's stopping them?) "though plans for exactly how it will be done are still in the works." What does that EVEN MEAN?? Lack of paint? Have to train more brush artists? Get real sportsfans, this is naught but bureaucratic-speak for: "we had a helluva time getting permission for just this one token plane, we don't know if we'll ever be able to get permission to do 'em all in this lifetime.."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your points are all well-taken, Virg. That said, I'm encouraged that someone... ANYone... stepped up to start the process. "The journey of a thousand miles," yadda, yadda.

      Delete
  9. Hmmmm...I think I spotted one Thursday. I wish I knew the models well enough to be sure, but I could see at the time it was special and vintage, I'll guess it was 3500 feet off the ground maybe? Dead ahead of me while I was on my way to some pressing lunchtime errand, four hungry prop engines growling away. It definitely had my attention; fortunate not to have run a red light or crashed in a ditch or anything. Maybe its appearance was linked to the festivities in some way.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Maybe its appearance was linked to the festivities in some way.

    Possible but doubtful. The Bloody Hundredth had no association with California, but B-17s are BIG draws at air shows all over the country. I saw four of 'em at a tiny lil airshow in Brownsville, TX back in 2000. You gotta admire the guys that keep those thangs flyin'.

    ReplyDelete

Just be polite... that's all I ask.