Some of you may recall my early posts (for instance,
http://forum.armyairforces.com/m_73064/tm.htm, from March 2005) asking about my uncle, Roy Anderson, a pilot with the 42nd BG, and about identifying a plane, named "Powerhouse," which I have a picture of with Roy in the cockpit giving the "thumbs up":
http://helios.augustana.edu/~kla/pics/roy3.jpg Since I last posted those questions back in March 2005, I have come a long way in my research, and here is what I now know about Powerhouse:
"Powerhouse" is a B-25H model (I'm fairly certain of that now), named by a pilot, 1st Lt. Theophilus Wright, Jr., who was with the 100th BS. The picture would have been taken sometime between June and mid-September 1944, the time period when this squadron was flying the H model. (The B-25H model, of which only 1,000 were made, contained a 75mm cannon and four 50-cal machine guns in the nose, plus package guns on the side of the fuselage, either 2 or 4 depending on the block number, all fired simultaneously by the pilot with the cannon being loaded manually by the navigator-cannoneer; Powerhouse has four package guns.)
The artist who painted "Powerhouse" is Lt. Kenneth E. Miller, a pilot with the 100th BS, who painted the artwork on at least 15 of squadron planes during this time period. Here is the scan of the original artist's concept sketch (Copyright (c) Kenneth Miller):
http://helios.augustana.edu/~kla/pics/powerhouse_artwork75.jpg While I don't have a specific plane number, I am fairly confident it is one of at least fourteen different H model airplanes that I've identified to have flown with the 100th BS in mid-1944. Knowing the Theophilus Wright connection is very helpful, as Lt. Wright was the pilot who had Donald Robertson assigned as his co-pilot, and Donald Robertson in turn, when he became a first pilot and had his own crew assigned, had my uncle Roy Anderson as his co-pilot. I'm guessing that Wright probably introduced my uncle to combat flying, as my uncle started combat flying in May of 1944, as well as Wright probably completed the transitioning of Robertson to being a first pilot, all about the same time as Wright got to name this plane. My uncle, therefore, proably flew with Wright in this airplane on one or more of his earlier missions.
Interesting stuff.
Kevin Anderson
P.S. If you want to know more about the entire research process that has lead so far to these conclusions, you can read about it on this webpage:
http://helios.augustana.edu/~kla/roy_powerhouse.html
<message edited by k9iua on 09/13/2006 10:21:11 AM >