44-23151 | American Air Museum

44-23151 Colorado Belle

French countryside, photographed through the nose of a P-38 Lightning of the 367th Fighter Group on landing. Image stamped on reverse: 'Not to be published 30 Aug 1944.' [stamp], 'Passed for publication 31 May 1945.' [stamp] and '354528 .' [censor no.] Printed caption on reverse: 'P-38s over the Seine. No.1 of a series of pix taken through the nose of the P-38 as it comes in to land. Scherschel LIFE.'

Object Number - FRE 10110 - French countryside, photographed through the nose of a P-38 Lightning of the 367th Fighter Group on landing. Image stamped on reverse: 'Not to be...

Crashed in mountainous terrain in bad weather. Converted from standard P-38J to "Droop Snoot*" 2-seater; sometimes unofficially referred to as a PB-38J. Pilot Fred W. Evans Jr and passenger killed. 14-8-45.

* The 'Droop Snoot' field conversion entailed the removal of the nose armament and associated equipment to make room for a prone bombardiers position with the installation of a plexiglass nose, a Norden bombsight, side windows and an emergency hatch. The theory was for a formation of P-38's to drop their bombs on the formation lead 'Droop snoots' signal with the precision of the Norden bombsight ensuring the accuracy of the formations bombing. An idea championed by Lt Col Cass Hough and Lt Col Dan Ostrander.

Connections

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Units served with

370th Fighter Group

Unit Hierarchy: Group
Air Force: Ninth Air Force
Type Category: Fighter

401st Fighter Squadron

Unit Hierarchy: Squadron
Air Force: Ninth Air Force
Type Category: Fighter

Base Air Depot 3

Places

Andover

Site type: Airfield

Langford Lodge

Site type: Airfield

Events

Event	Location	Date	Description
Crashed	Todtmoos, Germany	14 August 1945	Crashed in mountainous terrain in bad weather. Converted from standard P-38J to "droop snoot*" 2-seater; sometimes unofficially referred to as a PB-38J. Pilot Fred W. Evans Jr and passenger killed.
Manufactured	Burbank, CA, USA		Built by Lockheed.
Delivered	Long Beach, CA, USA		Delivered to USAAF.
Other Field Modified	Langford Lodge, Ireland		Field modified to 'Droop Snoot*' configuration.
Assigned	Andover, Andover, Hampshire, UK		Assigned to 401st Fighter Squadron, 370th Fighter Group, 9AF.

Revisions

Date1 Jan 2016 13:10:22

ContributorAl_Skiff

ChangesChanges to place associations

Sources

http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=114944
Wikepedia Commons.

Date31 Dec 2015 20:27:07

ContributorAl_Skiff

ChangesCreated entry with serial number, aircraft type, production block number, manufacturer, nicknames, description, events, unit associations and place associations

Sources

http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=114944
Wikepedia Commons.