World War II Bombers Visit Sherman/Denison

    I was working out in the garage when I heard an unusual sound outside...and it was getting louder by the second. I looked up just in time to see a B-17 bomber banking right over my house. Naturally, I didn't have my camera with me, but I quickly grabbed it and fired up the Shadow for a ride out to Grayson Airport.

      There she sat...in all of her glory. America's largest bomber during the early years of World War II. The Boeing Corporation turned out B-17s by the thousands from the late 1930s until the B-29 came into production in 1943. Each B-17 carried a crew of ten men,.. a pilot and co-pilot,..a navigator and radio operator.. also a flight engineer/crew chief..and the rest were all machine-gun operators. America lost hundreds of these planes and men in their campaign to bomb Nazi Germany into submission. 

       This particular B-17 is home-based out of Mesa, Arizona and operated by the Commemorative Air Force. They fly the planes to various functions and air shows around the country to allow today's enthusiasts the chance to see the airplanes that won the war and gain some knowledge about America's Greatest Generation. 
   That pin-up art of Betty Grable was the most popular among GI's in World War II and I even spotted her on some locker doors during my Army training days in 1964. A beautiful woman never goes out of style.

    To fully realize just how large a B-17 is you have to walk around it and admire it from all angles. America not only supplied her own military with this plane, but also sent them to British, Australian, and Canadian forces as well. Bristling with twelve 50-caliber Browning machine guns, the B-17 still could carry over twenty-thousand pounds of bombs. She deserved her nickname of 'Flying Fortress.'

     Also paying a visit to Grayson Airport was this B-25 Mitchell Bomber... This is the type plane that Colonel James Doolittle used in his raid on Tokyo in April of 1942. In that raid, sixteen B-25s took off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet and bombed Tokyo, Nagoya, and several other cities to let Japan know America was ready to fight back after the Pearl Harbor attack.

     This particular B-25 is named 'Maid in the Shade' and is also adorned with nose art.  Good Looking!!...and the plane ain't bad either. The Mitchell bomber was used in just about all campaigns of World War II and it proved to be a very versatile plane. Not only a bomber, the B-25 was also used in ground support and also reconnaissance missions.

       The most obvious distinction of the B-25 is it's twin rudder configuration. It made for an easier operation and the Germans were constantly trying to duplicate this plane without much success. Note how the tail-gunner sits in the canopy and has an aiming device but the twin 50-caliber machine guns are fired remotely at whatever the aiming device has in its sights.

      The B-25 was always my favorite bomber of World War II and it proved to be a work-horse for the Allies. I am reminded of the test pilot character played by Mel Gibson in the movie 'Forever Young.' While training another pilot, he said, "If you can fly a B-25, you can do anything."