Vintage original WW 2 US Army Air Force photo lot of a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber Ramblin Rebel aircraft number 43-37540 and its crew from the 323rd Bomb Squadron of the 91st Bomb Group, 8th Air Force based out of Bassingbourn, England. There are 81 photographs for sale in this lot. There is a lot of information online about this particular aircraft that flew over 100 missions and was involved with return POW flights at the end of the war. There is actual video on youtube that I found showing this plane flying POW’s. Based on what is written on the back of some of the photos I think they came from the bombardier who was from Johnstown, Pennsylvania. There are various pictures of the aircraft, and of one of its many aircrew that flew her during the war. Most of the pictures are on pages from a photo album that they were placed in by the collector who obtained them from one of the crew members from Pennsylvania. No album cover is included, just the photos on the pages that are pictured in the listing. The captions noted on the pages appear to have been placed there by the collector, and based on the online information he misspelled the bombardier’s name. Many of the photos have a passed by US Army Examiner stamp on the back. The stamp condition varies from hard to read, to easily read. Some of the photos are loose from their page, or are coming loose. There is a spot on the one album pages where it looks like there might be a missing photo, as the 3 loose training photos do not seem to match this spot. There are 81 photos for sale in this lot. I will give a general description of the photos below, but there are too many to describe each individually. There are 3 loose photos that appear to be from training as they have aviation cadet insignia on their caps, original notation on the back of these notes 4 buddies from Squadron 98, and they are from 1943. It looks like the bombardier is one of the men in the training photos. There are 6 photos in this lot that are noted as some of the crew visiting a friend in the hospital, these photos have the inspectors stamp on the back, plus a notation on the back of them that is a little hard to read. There are various crew photos around base wearing various uniforms including their leather flight jackets with the squadron insignia on them. There are pictures of some of the crew by a horse, posing with a football, a picture noting University of Cambridge from the air 1 Oct 44, a picture of the grounds crew posed in front of the plane, a pictured noted as being taken of the plane & some of its crew after a practice mission in 1944. There are pictures noted as being taken prior to a mission on 29 Sept 44, and show the crew around the plane as well as an airfield vehicle and a bomb dolly with bombs underneath the plane. There are some nice detailed photos of the crew standing around the Ramblin Rebel, and some nice photos of the plane itself with its nose art visible. There are some photos from the outside of the aircraft of the crew inside the cockpit & the nose of the plane. There are 4 photos noted as visitors to Bassingbourne, 2 of which are of P-47 Thunderbolts, and 2 are of RAF Bristol Beaufighters. There is a photo noted as the bomb group commanders plane, a Noorduyn Norseman, and a photo of a Vultee Vengance used to tow targets. There is a photo noted as the crowd at a football game, Bassingbourne. Regarding the size of the photos, there are about 8 photo approximately 3.5 x 5 inches in size that include 4 photos of aircraft captioned visitors to Bassingbourne. There are 3 larger photos approximately 5 x 7 inches in size, of the larger 5 x7 photos one is of two of the crewmen standing in front of the B-17 engine, it is an enlarged copy of one of the smaller photos, the smaller original of this photo has a caption on back noting Dick & I a few minutes prior to taking off on a pract flt Oct 1, 44 notice his ever popular soup stainer. One of the other larger 5 x 7 photos is of the B-17 with its engines running and it is an enlarged copy of one of the smaller photos, there is a great caption on the back of the smaller original photo of this engines running photo noting our baby getting herself all hot & bothered. The majority of the photos are approximately 3 inches x 4.5 inches in size. World War Two, WW2. US Army Air Corps, US Army, US Army Air Force. Good used condition, photos have wear & tear from age and use, there are bends, wrinkles, scuffs, stains and discoloration to the photos. There is some writing on the back of some of the photos. Some of the photos have an official Army examiner stamp on the back. Some of the photos are nicely focused, some are a little blurry. Regarding my description as original photographs, they are described as this since I did not make a reproduction of the photos myself. The photos could have had more than one of the image reproduced back during the war. These photos appear to be period originals, or period copies of originals that may even have been reproduced after the war. Some of them are one of a kind taken by an individual who did not share the image, some were reproduced back then and shared with other servicemen. Just wanted to be clear that I did not reproduce these for sale, each photo is the only one that I have. The free listing tool. The item “WW2 US Army Air Force B-17 bomber nose art photos, 323rd Bomb Sq 91st Bomb Group” is in sale since Wednesday, March 02, 2016. This item is in the category “Collectibles\Militaria\WW II (1939-45)\Original Period Items\United States\Photographs”. The seller is “generalbraddock1″ and is located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This item can be shipped to United States.
