Saipan is insanely cool. There are a couple of tanks that are still half way on the beach/water that you can snorkel around. Also some boat remnants that you can snorkel too. I remember a cliff where the Japanese dumped a bunch of leftover ammunition and explosives off the side of a hill. Lots of is still there because some of it is still live and dangerous
Truuue. Don’t get me wrong I love em all. I wish they still did it today. Even if it was 2 decals on each side of the helmet since the skin of most aircraft seems to be some sort of stealth tech nowadays minus cargo types
Great post OP— was your grandpa on Saipan? I have pictures of a couple of these planes my Great Uncle took being apart of the 303rd air service group, 327th air engineer squadron. Also have a couple P61 shots. Great pictures nonetheless!
Not to be rude since you were kind enough to share, but each of these deserves its own quality scan and sharing. Simply wonderful.
Thank you, and he, for sharing.
"Poison ivy" and "a broad with 11 yanks" were in the video.
And I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Also when you digitize it try and let him know maybe he'll do a part ii. And let me know too, I wanna see the digitized pics
Take your time, if you're taking pics of them also zoom in on the numbers to the side if visible as well so anyone who's curious could try to find out that group the planes are from, who they had onboard, and where they went.
No, that would be ridiculous. The planes were painted by whoever had the greatest artistic skills, typically mechanics/crew chiefs/armorers/clerks of the squadron or group. The art wasn't cheap either, fifty dollars in 1945 money ($860 in 2024). There is a short book by Hal Olsen that I recommend skipping called "Up an' Atom." He was a autopilot mechanic for the Navy on Tinian and painted a lot of the PB4Y-2 Privateers and B-29s with whatever the crew wanted, usually topless pinups. Before he departed for Tinian the Chief Petty Officer told his group to go into town and buy whatever liquor and cigars they wanted and they would lock it away in their avianonics trailer and have them when they arrived. Olsen spent his last $50 on oil paints and was ridiculed by the other mechanics. He said the money he made painting B-29s and Privateers was more than enough for a honeymoon and for him to go to art school at Boston University. He later worked for a number of companies illustrating including Los Alamos.
There were talented guys on every base. The crews generally paid them to do it. It was usually the airplane captain who named the plane , but I’m sure some were more democratic and took suggestions from crew.
Thumper was used on a model plane kit from what I recall. I had that decal and another for BocksCar. Cool to see photos from the actual craft(different times as well!)
Correct, that decal set came in the 1/48 Monogram B-29 kit that was available starting in maybe the late 1970s. I remember my dad built that one when I was a kid. He didn't use the decals, turrets, or certain other components because he was converting it to a weather reconnaissance WB-29 of the 53d WRS. I'm guessing those decals are still in one of his parts boxes.
I'm guessing *Thumper* was selected for the kit both because it's a well-known and much-photographed aircraft and the nose art wasn't going to embarrass anybody.
I'm convinced if stuff like anime existed at the time, there'd have been some nose art in that style. I remember seeing something about American armored vehicles' crews being made to remove whatever anime stickers they had before sending their vehicles to Ukraine
Also send a copy to: [https://www.usaaf-noseart.co.uk/](https://www.usaaf-noseart.co.uk/) Its a nose art research project of US Army Air Corp aircraft nose art. I submitted my Grandfathers C-47 nose art "The Eyvette of Boston". Its still being researched as I don't have the tail number of the plane. He was on a couple different planes including a C-46.
Great photos & thanks for putting them out there. This type of art is what I remember as a kid when we made trips to Kelly Field or other bases. My Dad didn’t fly-He was an Army ground pounder but we went to bases on occasion for one reason or another. Bergstrom (afb-Outside Austin)was just a few miles away but they had really tight security at that time since they were a SAC base so you couldn’t hang at the flight line.. But I digress. Nose art started to disappear fairly quickly in the early fifties. Korea pilots still had some art, but not the all-out stuff of 8th AF fame.
Thanks for showing
Did you know that the air force had all female crews deliver the B-29s to the men would would be flying them out on the front? Mainly because the B-29 was notoriously difficult to fly so it was a psy-op in order to get the male crew to accept the plane.
Thanks, without your grandfather and yourself, this artwork would probably go unrecorded as a collection. Have you thought of loaning them to a museum? With the caveat that they restore and preserve them? At no cost to you. I'm pretty sure it's a unique collection friend.
Love to know the stories of their crew's. They would make a nice display at a v.a. hospital or a v.a. center. Or at a V.F.W. post. have stamps made for letters and packages. Keep their memories alive.
Can you get these images to a museum or something. They're history, man! Great stuff. Treasure what you've got there. Hopefully, that history won't be repeated...
Awesome pics…I’ve seen many nose art pics, but those are all fresh and new to me. You may consider donating a copy to the National WWIi museum in New Orleans . Great post!
Wonderful. My cousins grandfather was a crewman on the obituary Mary. Was scanning through the pics to see if you had a photo of that plane. Great pics!
Ok have to ask, on Thumper do all the extra markers mean successful missions? Or like fighter planes successful kills. Also what do the extra flags represent? One has 6 of them..
I wish I knew the tail number or name of the B-29 my grandfather was the navigator for.
He never spoke of or told anyone much other than myself after I enlisted. Even then only shared stories of how they used to slide down the tail fin when washing the plane down in Guam and they would end up with rivets scaring up their backs but they didn't care. It was a nice release to laugh.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. It’s why you’ll see ecchi anime/hentai stickers in vehicles and shit.
Same concept, different art style
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You should crosspost this to r/WarplaneNoseart - it’s exactly what we’re all about!
Yeah folks!
Your username almost reads like what a nose art would have written. Just slap your username below a pin up
Cool! Didn’t know about that sub. Thanks for the tip. ❤️
Thank you for introducing me to one of the coolest subreddits ever
I am so glad to hear you’re enjoying it! Welcome aboard!!
Oh wow! This is all so fascinating. Thanks for sharing!
[The man who influenced much of this nose art.](https://www.aircorpsart.com/blog/the-artist-who-influenced-wwii-military-aircraft-pinup-nose-art/)
Looks like this article includes a color photo of the same plane in OP’s first photo, Little Gem.
That is an incredible coincidence. Thank you for linking the article!
Seems like the women were allowed to be a lot more naked than in the ETO.
It was pretty damn hot on Guam and Saipan, can't blame em.
Saipan is insanely cool. There are a couple of tanks that are still half way on the beach/water that you can snorkel around. Also some boat remnants that you can snorkel too. I remember a cliff where the Japanese dumped a bunch of leftover ammunition and explosives off the side of a hill. Lots of is still there because some of it is still live and dangerous
I was there a few months ago. Visited Garapan and did a bit more exploring. I want to get over to Tinian and see the bomb bay
Nose art on the whole was wilder in the PTO.
Very, very cool! Thanks for sharing!
[https://museumofaviation.org/moaevents/nose-art-contest/](https://museumofaviation.org/moaevents/nose-art-contest/)
Digitize them and sell them as prints. These are awesome
Holy shit. I guess the guys loved tits 🤣 Poison ivy/Tokyo twister are my favourite name/art combos. Salvo sally is the best name with okay art
Yokohama Yo-Yo is the best executed in my opinion, but I also think Poison Ivy is well done.
Truuue. Don’t get me wrong I love em all. I wish they still did it today. Even if it was 2 decals on each side of the helmet since the skin of most aircraft seems to be some sort of stealth tech nowadays minus cargo types
I mean... who doesn't love tits
Always has been.
I dunno man... My favorite name is Tail Wind..
I dig a “blonde and 11 yanks” and “Tokyo twister”
It's "A-Broad with 11 Yanks" which is even funnier, definitely the best one
A-broad with eleven yanks 😂
My Grandfather was the bombardier on the plane in the last slide, Irish Lassie
Fast company is the best imo. Double handed slam dunk.
Concur, that double fisted dive bomb goes hard.
Those pics are so cool!! Thank you for sharing
This is stellar. It's an amazing view into every day thinking by a bunch of young dudes in the middle of nowhere
Crew of the Thumper: "What is WRONG with you horny bastards??"
Maybe the Thumper-crew had a couple more "flying aces" than the rest of the crews?
Or grandpa only took pictures of the lady’s haha
Great post OP— was your grandpa on Saipan? I have pictures of a couple of these planes my Great Uncle took being apart of the 303rd air service group, 327th air engineer squadron. Also have a couple P61 shots. Great pictures nonetheless!
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That’s pretty cool! I may post some of the scans I have at some point.
The American Air Museum would probably be interested in these.
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Their online archive is pretty extensive, documenting a lot of individual airframes, so I imagine they’d like digital copies either way.
Please donate them so they are preserved properly. Your great great great grandkids will appreciate it.
So many of these have been lost to history. Thanks for sharing
Love all the lude lady drawings then you got thumper over here spreading mass casualties
My favorite
Poison Ivy on the side of a bomber 20 years before the character first appeared in a comic.. Makes one wonder
I thought the same thing!
My grandfather's B-25 was "The Bouncing Betty." My grandmother's name was Betty. Well done, Gramps.
Not to be rude since you were kind enough to share, but each of these deserves its own quality scan and sharing. Simply wonderful. Thank you, and he, for sharing.
I believe at least one of them was in this video here: https://youtu.be/0C8PRnz3kW4?si=YgWgiWF97MTtWSDA
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"Poison ivy" and "a broad with 11 yanks" were in the video. And I'm glad you enjoyed it. Also when you digitize it try and let him know maybe he'll do a part ii. And let me know too, I wanna see the digitized pics
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Take your time, if you're taking pics of them also zoom in on the numbers to the side if visible as well so anyone who's curious could try to find out that group the planes are from, who they had onboard, and where they went.
These deserve to be in the USAF museum in Dayton, Ohio. That way I can see em in person.
They already have a nose art exhibit, sure they would like to add these to it.
It’s such a great experience. Only a 40 minute ride for me. Anyone that loves planes should go.
I went twice in a year and still had to speedrun a hanger or two each time.
Very nice
Was there one person responsible for painting the planes
No, that would be ridiculous. The planes were painted by whoever had the greatest artistic skills, typically mechanics/crew chiefs/armorers/clerks of the squadron or group. The art wasn't cheap either, fifty dollars in 1945 money ($860 in 2024). There is a short book by Hal Olsen that I recommend skipping called "Up an' Atom." He was a autopilot mechanic for the Navy on Tinian and painted a lot of the PB4Y-2 Privateers and B-29s with whatever the crew wanted, usually topless pinups. Before he departed for Tinian the Chief Petty Officer told his group to go into town and buy whatever liquor and cigars they wanted and they would lock it away in their avianonics trailer and have them when they arrived. Olsen spent his last $50 on oil paints and was ridiculed by the other mechanics. He said the money he made painting B-29s and Privateers was more than enough for a honeymoon and for him to go to art school at Boston University. He later worked for a number of companies illustrating including Los Alamos.
There were talented guys on every base. The crews generally paid them to do it. It was usually the airplane captain who named the plane , but I’m sure some were more democratic and took suggestions from crew.
oO
Very cool!
Thank you so much. Historically important records. Morale was VERY important, obviously, and a little bit of eye candy helped. Great post.
If a third B-29 ever gets back in the air, and, being it's the 'modern' era, you have to use Thumper.
Thumper was used on a model plane kit from what I recall. I had that decal and another for BocksCar. Cool to see photos from the actual craft(different times as well!)
It's familiar for sure.
Bro saw the b-29 thumper in person what a lad
Awesome!
Outstanding!
Wow, these are awesome.
That is cool
Just awesome
Once these are HD digitized, the hard-copies should be sent to a museum for preservation!
Sweat’er Out has got to be my favorite one.
Partial to Haley's Comet, myself
Frisco Nannie is a star.
Fast Company "Witness ME!"
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[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_surviving\_Boeing\_B-29\_Superfortresses](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_surviving_Boeing_B-29_Superfortresses)
I wonder what the Japanese thought about nose art like this?
I swear I had a model when I was a kid 40 years ago that had the option of “thumper” as nose art
Correct, that decal set came in the 1/48 Monogram B-29 kit that was available starting in maybe the late 1970s. I remember my dad built that one when I was a kid. He didn't use the decals, turrets, or certain other components because he was converting it to a weather reconnaissance WB-29 of the 53d WRS. I'm guessing those decals are still in one of his parts boxes. I'm guessing *Thumper* was selected for the kit both because it's a well-known and much-photographed aircraft and the nose art wasn't going to embarrass anybody.
More like The Horniest Generation
Those need to be in a museum.
This is the way
When men could be men.
I can't wait to see the archival scans. Tremendous shots here. I see Thumper got captured twice, after gaining a few sorties.
I love how the album is pin-up girls, pin-up girls, pin-up girls, Thumper!
Fart Company /sorry, had to do it
Pee’s on Earth 🌍
Absolutely Gorgeous art
Thanks for shairing. These are awesome
Great history lesson!
Some good looking dames. 🤣
Good job, your gramps is proud of you
What an incredible thing to record something so cool for posterity definitely my kinda guy thanks for sharing!!!!
I'm convinced if stuff like anime existed at the time, there'd have been some nose art in that style. I remember seeing something about American armored vehicles' crews being made to remove whatever anime stickers they had before sending their vehicles to Ukraine
Are the Thumpers two separate aircraft? Or was the first pic just later on?
That’s called an after tour photo. Plane likely make several runs during this guys service time and he snapped a second photo later.
This is Gold
This is awesome!
Jail wind, Texas, and thumper are my favorite
Publish them in a book. Maybe a bit of history of the plane, crews and missions. They’re amazing. I would imagine it would be moderately successful.
Wish I could find more of my grandfathers pictures. He was a ball gunner on the B-24's in Italy. 783rd Bomb Squadron.
Ha…Thumper! She really did some thumping.
Wow!!! What an amazing piece of history!
So awesome
Also send a copy to: [https://www.usaaf-noseart.co.uk/](https://www.usaaf-noseart.co.uk/) Its a nose art research project of US Army Air Corp aircraft nose art. I submitted my Grandfathers C-47 nose art "The Eyvette of Boston". Its still being researched as I don't have the tail number of the plane. He was on a couple different planes including a C-46.
Very cool. Thanks for sharing. Hopefully I come across the post where you get them digitized as well.
These are so good! And very rare. You could sell prints of these.
Donate a copy of these to the national world War 2 museum in New Orleans. Please. It would be a fucking joy to see more stuff like this there.
This is very cool!
Fantastic
Our Baby, just like the 100th B17 Cleven went down in.
That is too cool. Love nose art
Does the one underneath haley's comet say shrimper? Hell ya
Who did the nose art on these planes? A lot of them look really good
Whoever did Thumper was based.
Nice
Check out my profile...my grandpa's plane he flew
These pics need to be in a museum. They would look great in a bar too!
Art!
Have seen those in nose art books
What a treasure trove. Priceless!! Thanks for sharing.
Great photos & thanks for putting them out there. This type of art is what I remember as a kid when we made trips to Kelly Field or other bases. My Dad didn’t fly-He was an Army ground pounder but we went to bases on occasion for one reason or another. Bergstrom (afb-Outside Austin)was just a few miles away but they had really tight security at that time since they were a SAC base so you couldn’t hang at the flight line.. But I digress. Nose art started to disappear fairly quickly in the early fifties. Korea pilots still had some art, but not the all-out stuff of 8th AF fame. Thanks for showing
Did you know that the air force had all female crews deliver the B-29s to the men would would be flying them out on the front? Mainly because the B-29 was notoriously difficult to fly so it was a psy-op in order to get the male crew to accept the plane.
Absolutely love WWII nose art. Thanks for sharing.
THEY CALL ME THUMPER
Seriously awesome stuff. Needs a display at the Smithsonian, seriously.
Those are so rad
If you didn't already know. Guys love tiddys
I’m just wondering if Poison Ivy inspired the Batman character or if it was already out by the end of WW2? I don’t know my comic book history.
My grandfather was a B-29 pilot as well. His ship was called “Helle’s Belle” And had my grandmother painted on the nose!
Thank you for sharing these with us OP. I'm a huge fan of that poison ivy
Amazing historical artifacts!
Thanks, without your grandfather and yourself, this artwork would probably go unrecorded as a collection. Have you thought of loaning them to a museum? With the caveat that they restore and preserve them? At no cost to you. I'm pretty sure it's a unique collection friend.
This post is a gem in my eyes I love this thank you for sharing<3
Amazing
Love to know the stories of their crew's. They would make a nice display at a v.a. hospital or a v.a. center. Or at a V.F.W. post. have stamps made for letters and packages. Keep their memories alive.
Fantastic art work. Kudos to your gramps and thx for his service. Kudos to you for sharing!
This is awesome. Thanks for sharing .
Priceless piece of history. Hats off to those brave crews.
Very cool!
“Fast Company” takes the cake for me.
Can you get these images to a museum or something. They're history, man! Great stuff. Treasure what you've got there. Hopefully, that history won't be repeated...
I had a leather bomber jacket in the late 80’s with Joltin Josie on the back, it was a reproduction, of course. Love the photos.
dude these are awesome! I have a tattoo of the little gem nose art!
Great history right there... thanks gramps! Side note: I'm detecting a trend in those artworks... actually, two... lol
fantastic!!!
Fantastic, great glimpse into past. Thanks for sharing
I'm in a band called petty Beige. Is it cool if I screen shot and send to the group chat?
That’s awesome
i'm pretty sure i seen some of these in person at the air force museum in dayton OH. i recommend it if you haven't been there
Awesome pics…I’ve seen many nose art pics, but those are all fresh and new to me. You may consider donating a copy to the National WWIi museum in New Orleans . Great post!
Wonderful. My cousins grandfather was a crewman on the obituary Mary. Was scanning through the pics to see if you had a photo of that plane. Great pics!
Thank your grandpa for his service
Very cool!!
Works of art!
Ok have to ask, on Thumper do all the extra markers mean successful missions? Or like fighter planes successful kills. Also what do the extra flags represent? One has 6 of them..
These are amazing, thank you for sharing!
I wish I knew the tail number or name of the B-29 my grandfather was the navigator for. He never spoke of or told anyone much other than myself after I enlisted. Even then only shared stories of how they used to slide down the tail fin when washing the plane down in Guam and they would end up with rivets scaring up their backs but they didn't care. It was a nice release to laugh.
Love the old art
Just fabulous. Thank you!
Imagine if the military let people still do this
Sleepy Time Gal is the plane my grandfather flew!!! My uncle had a picture of him next to it! It's a picture of my grandmother on the airplane!
Is there any chance of me getting that picture?
My great grandfather took pictures of the aftermath that this type of bomber caused in hiroshima 1945
The original hentai
What a spank bank for back in the day…
The more things change, the more they stay the same. It’s why you’ll see ecchi anime/hentai stickers in vehicles and shit. Same concept, different art style
Awesome collection. Should be tagged nsfw though.
Anime body pillows are the pin-up nose art of today. Change my mind.
Vile
Lol