T/Sgt. Benedict “Benny” Borostowski, ball turret gunner of Capt. Oscar D. O’Neil’s B-17 Flying Fortress “Invasion 2nd” (serial 42-5070) of the 401st Bomb Sq, 91st BG.

The B-17 and crew were on a bombing run destined for the Focke-Wulf factory in Bremen on the 17th of April 1943 when it was hit by flak and crashed in the region of Nikolausdorf, near Oldenburg in Germany.

The crew spent the rest of the war as POWs.

A tight squeeze

Nose art is a decorative painting or design on the fuselage of a military aircraft, usually chalked up on the front fuselage, and is a form of aircraft graffiti.

While begun for practical reasons of identifying friendly units, the practice evolved to express the individuality often constrained by the uniformity of the military, to evoke memories of home and peacetime life, and as a kind of psychological protection against the stresses of war and the probability of death. The appeal, in part, came from nose art not being officially approved, even when the regulations against it were not enforced...
read more + lots of photos on:

http://www.thevintagenews.com/2015/04/29/50-images-of-amazing-nose-art-bet-you-havent-seen-some-of-these-before/


Crazy nose-art :)

The 455th Bomb Group’s B-24, 15th Air Force waiting for the mission at sunrise in San Giovanni Airfield, Foggia Airfield Complex, Southern Italy. Victor Sierra