Avro Lancaster Dam Buster nose art?

[Plumbum]

I was searching for a subject other than AJG and I noticed my Airfix decals had AJS

with nose art. I can not confirm  it either way. The decal is on the left front fuselage

and appears to be a stick figure with angel wings and a halo. It is real hard to see as

the decals are old and it is white on white paper. It looks like there are letters below

it, UMA maybe? I have seen something like this on another British plane, The Saint?

Did S for Sugar really have nose art on the dams raid?---John

[dnl42]

I cannot provide any authoritative info except to note that Amodel's 1/144 kit appears to agree, at least in principle. 

 

HTH

-- 

dnl

[Plumbum]

Thanks, I did some digging. AJ-S was ED865, Airfix's AJ-S is ED912 and was

flown in December 1943. It had crashed and was destroyed in Holland on May

17, 1943. This plane made a "later" dams raid?---John

[Jure Miljevic]

According to Mark Postlethwaite's and Jim Shortland's book Dambusters in focus (Red kite) ED865 AJ-S was shot down over Luftwaffe airfield in Holland during Chastise operation. There is no indication this aircraft was decorated with nose art. In the same book, however, there is a photo of F/L Kearns' crew standing in front of 464 type Lancaster ED912, already equipped with SABS bomb sight and with the Saint nose art. It is said that it was in this plane F/L Kearns and his crew had flown their first operation with 617 Sqn, bombing of Antheor viaduct on 11th November 1943.

I am almost certain the nose art had been been added post-Chastise. The photo in question can be seen on this forum along with more information about this topic. Cheers

Jure

[Smithy]

6 minutes ago, Jure Miljevic said:

I am almost certain the nose art had been been added post-Chastise.

 

The nose art is post-Chastise. Terry Kearns joined 617 after the op and the nose art was his design.

 

Cheers,

 

Tim

[Mancunian airman]

Didnt Les Monroe have artwork on the nose for the Dams attack ??, can't remember if it was a panda bear ??

[Smithy]

1 hour ago, Mancunian airman said:

Didnt Les Monroe have artwork on the nose for the Dams attack ??, can't remember if it was a panda bear ??

 

He had it on a later one very definitely but I'm not sure about the William he flew in Chastise. Probably one of the DB experts will be able to say for sure.

 

I only know about Kearn's one as I plan to build mine in the same scheme and there was quite a bit about him and the aircraft over at the Wings over NZ forum a few years back.

Edited October 17, 2019 by Smithy
Typo

[Plumbum]

Thanks for clarifying the nose art and viaduct attack after Chastise. I do remember searching

for FAA F4U Corsairs and seeing a very similar nose art, The Saint, on an FAA Corsair in the

Pacific theater but don't remember which British carrier it was on.---John

[Graham Boak]

For younger followers, the stick figure with halo (sans wings) was the symbol of Leslie Charteris's popular private detective/James Bond predecessor in a large series of books - later starring Roger Moore in a popular TV serial.  In a rather nice Volvo, very exotic in those days.  It appeared on a number of WWII aircraft, in a range of variations.  It was supposedly carried on a Sea Hurricane on Operation Pedestal: I reckon I can just about make it out on 7.E but with a Byzantine halo rather than the Western one.  Not every one sees this, I must admit.

[Seahawk]

13 hours ago, Johnv said:

It looks like there are letters below it, UMA maybe? 

Not so far away.  I've just been looking at the reasonably clear photo in the link in Jure's post 4.  I reckon it says "ITMA", which for younger followers was the name of a popular radio comedy programme of the period, the letters standing for "It's That Man Again".  Two references to contemporary culture in the one piece of artwork.

[593jones]

Not nose art, but according to Max Hastings in his book 'Chastise', Bill Astell's radio operator, Sgt Abram Garshowitz, chalked on the aircraft 'Never has so much been expected of so few'.  Hastings doesn't say on which part of the aircraft it was written, though.

[Dave Swindell]

ED925 / AJ-M had "OFFICERS ENTRANCE ONLY" chalked on the fuselage forward of aft entry door / below serial for the Dams raid.

[Jure Miljevic]

Yes, F/L Hopgood's aircraft. There is a photo which shows the part of wreck in question in Helmut Euler's book Als Deutschlands Dämme brachen. Unfortunately, I could not find it on the web. Cheers

Jure

[Dave Swindell]

12 hours ago, Jure Miljevic said:

Unfortunately, I could not find it on the web

There's a copy on the WNW page for their upcoming Dambuster kit in the archive photo's section