James ("Jimmy") Stewart, distinguished Hollywood actor and bomber pilot, is presented with the Croix de Guerre.  Stewart went out of his way to avoid the safety of a training officer-cum-War Bond salesman in favour of an active combat role.  He finished the war a Colonel of the Reserve.  Best regards, JR.

Hollywood at war (2)

USAAF ordnance men with the 514th Bomb Squadron of the 9th Air Force’s 376th Heavy Bombardment Group, the “Liberandos”, push a bomb at Soluch Airfield, near Benghazi, Libya, mid-1943. The aircraft in background is the B-24D Liberator “Wash’s Tub” one of the bombers on the Ploesti Raid of August 1 1943. Notice the yellow circled insignia used by the USAAF on 1943. Victor Sierra

Pushing a bomb

Actor James Cagney christening the B-17 Yankee Doodle Dandy  at Framlingham Airfield England, 1944.
Source: United States Army Air Forces via the Eighth Air Force Archives.
Identikit: Douglas/Long Beach B-17G-95-DL Fortress 44-83884 "Yankee Doodle Dandy" 


