B-25 Mitchell

B-25 Mitchell bomber, #438, takes off from an airstrip, at Yangkai (Yangjie) air strip in Yunnan province, China.

B-25 Mitchell bomber takes off from an airstrip, possibly Yangkai (Yangjie) air strip in Yunnan province, China.

B-25 Mitchell bombers take off (or land) from an airstrip, possibly Yangkai (Yangjie) air strip in Yunnan province, China.

Nose gear of this 491st B-25D Mitchell bomber has begun to retract as it takes off from Yang Chiseh Airfield, Yangkai, Yunnan province, China. This is an early "D" model which still has the retractable ventral (bottom) turret installed in the fuselage just behind the wing. These turrets used a periscope sighting system with gunner facing forward while kneeling over...

Images of escorting P-40 Warhawks with a painted shark's mouth somewhere over southern China, Indochina, or Burma during WWII, as taken from the tail gunner's window on a B-25 bomber. Close in is the P-40 nicknamed "Princess," tail number 155. Who is this man in the cockpit? This plane is likely of 75th Fighter Squadron, 23rd Fighter Group.

Hubert F. Blades, S/Sgt., from Vicksburg, Mississippi, aerial gunner on the B-25, lost in China on 8 May 1943. A marker listing him and most of the crew was placed at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery Section 82 Site 202, 2900 Sheridan Road, St. Louis, Mo. (Image, and much information, courtesy of Tony Strotman.)

A marker listing him and most of the crew was placed at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery Section 82 Site 202, 2900 Sheridan Road, St. Louis, Mo. (Image at top, and much information, courtesy of Tony Strotman.)

Clearly deeply missed by his family, a memorial for Douglas C. Weaver was embedded within the tombstone for his parents, Harry Elwood Weaver (1878 - 1964) and Nora R. Weaver (1885 - 1972) at Hill Grove Cemetery, Miamisburg. (Images thanks to Mary Downing-Mahan.) Douglas C. Weaver, Capt, from Miamisburg, Ohio, pilot on the B-25, lost in China on 8 May...

The loss of Frederick Burton Lee mentioned in Princeton Alumni Weekly during October 1943, where he is called 'Burt'. Frederick B. Lee, 2nd Lt., from Salem, Massachusetts, navigator on the B-25, lost in China on 8 May 1943. A marker listing 2nd Lt. Frederick B. Lee, and most of the crew was placed at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery Section 82...

According to Lt. Lyman's family, Lt. Lyman did survive the exit from the burning B-25 only to be killed in his parachute by the Japanese soldiers on the ground. This was witnessed and reported by a Chinese teen who worked in the hospital where his body was taken. Years later that teen became a Catholic Priest and stayed in touch...