Men & Planes of the 466th. Bomb Group

466th. Bomb Group B-24 "Nose Art"

Notice that nearly every aircraft has a "plate" attached below the Pilots / Co-Pilots windows.
These were light steel plates installed to provide a bit more protection from shrapnel for the Pilots..... for what it was worth.
Considering the thin aircraft skin could be penetrated easily by an ink pen, anything helped.


"Blockbuster" - Declared war weary after losing two engines on the bomb run on the 12 Aug 44 mission to Mourmelon-le-Grand, France, and landing at Beccles, Suffolk, where it was repaired. It flew no more combat missions and was eventually salvaged by BAD 3, Langford Lodge, Northern Ireland.


"Chris's Crate" - Flown to England as an original aircraft by 491st BG / 853rd BS (T8 -L). Transferred before flying any combat missions to 466th BG / 784th BS (T9 T). Transferred to 785th BS (2U V+). Ditched 23 Feb 45.





"Splash!"
Later assigned to 406th BS (NL) as J6 U and RZI from Harrington on 8 Jul 45.




"Dumbo" - Lead Formation Assembly Ship
The D style nose has been grafted on to this H model. It became the second assembly ship.







"Belle"





"Gran Slam"






"Duffy's Tavern"





"Parson's Chariot"
Transferred from the 491st BG immediately after arrival in England.




Before Name and Nose-Art were Applied



"Nobody's Baby"



"Merchant of Venice"






"The Lemon"....I wonder if it was a "Ford" Produced B-24?







"What's Cookin' Doc?"
Originally 8/491/855 (V2 Q+). Transferred before 14 Jun 44 to 466th BG.










"The Falcon"
Crashed 8 Jan 45 on return from a mission to Wittlich about 1000 yards WNW of Shipdham airbase, after making one low level pass over the airfield and running out of fuel, it lost about 10 ft of the right wing in a tree, hit a haystack, went through two hedges and into an ice-covered pond, coming to rest in the pond, having stopped some 75 ft from a cottage. The nose was crushed and the left wing was torn off. Salvaged 9 & 10 Jan 45.

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Selman Field, Monroe Louisiana

Dad completed his Navigation Training in LA.


Selman Army Airfield

The military base was built at the site of a small Monroe, Louisiana civil airport constructed in the 1930s named "Selman Airport", which was named after a Navy Pilot, Lieutenant Augustus J. Selman, a native of Monroe, LA, who died at Norfolk, Virginia, on November 28, 1921, of injuries received in an airplane crash in the line of duty. The airport housed a small Delta Airlines terminal serving regular flights, a weather station, a regional center of Delta Crop Dusting (a large hangar and maintenance facility, the number of aircraft varying with the season) and a two-plane private aviation flight school.

Selman Army Airfield construction was activated on June 15, 1942, that is, given an official existence on paper. Land construction began soon after June 15th. On August 15th Pre-Flight (B-N) was transferred here from Maxwell Field, AL. A month later the Advanced Navigation School arrived here from Turner Field, GA. Selman Field was in full operation three months after starting from scratch. Selman Field was the only complete navigation training station in the country. Of the hundreds of fields that were operated by the Army Air Forces, it was only at Selman that a cadet could get his entire training-- pre-flight and advanced--and wind up with a commission and navigators wings without ever leaving the field.

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