Biggest news

Biggest news of the research cycle recently. - I think I found a picture of the Jalopy in flight. Not just in flight but actually dropping a load of ordnance (in this case napalm) on a German garrison at Fort-De-Royan (France) on April 14th 1945. If it's true this is very exciting. Early indications seem to be that the plane in question might actually be the Jalopy, piloted on this occasion by 1st Lieutenant Milton Parrish. The picture in question appears on page 200 of Adams' and Mackay's "The 44th Bomb Group in World War II" (Schiffer 2003) . In the book it's about three inches across but after some examination with the magnifying glass there does appear to be a ship marked GJ*Bar-O in the formation.

I received an e-mail after posting a question about the picture on the B-24 research and bulletin board (better put the link on the sidebar) which seems to confirm my theory. It sounds promising but I will remain calm and composed.

So, what's new?

At least the weather in this part of the country is much better now. Very soon it'll be up in the 90s and we'll all be complaining.

I have been reading through the materials I got on Inter-Library Loan (some of which I mentioned in the March 10th posting). Most of them have gone back (so maybe I should start searching OCLC for more esoteric stuff!) but one last book remains for a few days yet.

No news from Webb City - I had put this on the back burner in the hope that Sue from the Webb City Library would get back to me, but nothing happened. There's no excuse now, so it's time to hit the phones.

Roger Fenton from the 44thBGVA advised me from his notes that the Jalopy CRASH LANDED back at Shipdham after the August 9th 1944 raid. There is clearly something very interesting here which needs to be followed up. I haven't checked for other gaps in the Jalopy's service record which may indicate battle damage or extensive repair / maintenance.

Roger also tells me there is a picture of the Jalopy in the Kiefer history of the 506th Bomb Squadron.

Forgive the recent silence

My regular reader will forgive the dearth of posts in the last few weeks while I've been chasing up and down the four-state area of Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma trying to scare up a job or a contract. This research activity must be funded somehow. I don't think sponsored ads by Google will make much of a difference - this may account for their absence on this page!