B-25'S

B-25’S
Last night I watched a DVD - “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo”’ starring Spencer Tracy, Van Johnson, Robert Michum and Phyllis Thaxter. Sadly, none of these three male actors are still living. They still seemed to be present, as I watched the video. Phyllis is three younger than I. She is also a Scorpio. A couple of screenwriters Bill and John, who I met a few months ago, sent me the video, along with other DVD’s and VCR’s relating to WWII. I thought that I had seen the movie “Thirty Seconds” before, but while watching, it wasn’t familiar to me. I did read the book. Apparently, I was thinking of that.
I noted a couple of things in the movie that I didn’t think were very accurate. While proceeding to the target area, the turret-gunner engineer was shown pouring cans of gasoline into the auxiliary bomb-bay fuel tanks. The very next scene showed him smoking a cigarette. I don’t think so! In a later scene, when Ted Lawson was ditching his plane in the China Sea - at the end of his mission - he asked his co-pilot to put the wheels down. This procedure, for this type of landing, is less safe (it’s like a human stubbing his toe). We made a crash landing on dry land, a year later, in our B-17. The correct procedure at that time - for the Army Air Corps “crash landings”, was “Wheels Up”. Sully’s safe landing on the Hudson River almost a year ago, was proof that the wheels up technique worked.
I really related to the movie, It was the story of Lt. Col. (later General) Jimmy Doolittle’s Group’s raid on Japan, with sixteen Billy Mitchell - B-25 bombers, on April 18, 1942. (A year later - 1943 -, General Doolittle headed up the Twelfth Air Force in North Africa. Our Second Bomb Group was under his Command.) My interest in this video was sparked because I also flew B-25’s during the latter part of WWII. I could relate to a lot of the scenes in the movie. Our flight Instructors, at the air base in Douglas, Arizona, where I received my Advanced Pilot training, did the flying scenes in the movie. One of the instructors was Robert Sterling, (He was a handsome devil!). He was married to Ann Sothern, the movie actress. (They divorced in 1949, and he married Anne Jeffries in 1951.) Sterling was born a year (almost to the day) before I was - also a Scorpio. Bob died May 30, 2006, after battling “shingles” for many years.
My instructor showed me how they did the flying for the movie. For the short-run take-off - at the beginning of the runway - he applied the brakes, Then, he ran the two Wright 2600 radial engines up to take-off power - still holding brake pressure. Then, he said “Now!”. I started the flaps down to the “full flap” position, as he had briefed me. As the flaps started down, he released the brakes, and the B-25 lunged forward. At the same time, my instructor pulled the yoke back into his stomach as far as he could. The B-25 lifted off, shortly afterwards. The plane was in a nose-up attitude as it “stalled” off the ground. It was a strange feeling, sitting there in the co-pilot’s seat - in a wobbling plane - trying to gain flying speed and altitude. I can still relate to the experience - “déjà vu, all over again”.
The instructors also practiced “Short-Field” landings - to simulate landing back on the carrier after take-off, if need be. He showed me how they did it. On the final approach to landing, He throttled back, and asked for full-flaps, which I gave him. Then, he increased the engine power until we had an indicated air speed of about 90 mph. It was a strange feeling to be going so slow in a nose-up attitude. In a normal landing, the pilot has a good view of the runway with the lowered nose on the approach. As we reached the end of the runway, my instructor chopped the power. The plane stalled at probably 75 mph, and dropped down for the landing. Both the short-field take-offs and landings were unique for me, not being a Naval aviator.
As he taxied back to the flight line, my instructor said, “I never want to catch you trying those.” You can guess what happened among we student pilots! The B-25 was very forgiving of pilot mistakes. I think, that if the plane was set up properly on the final approach, that it could practically land itself.
The two radial engines were very loud! They also had a very distinctive sound - especially if the pilot hadn’t synchronized the propellers. I will never forget the unique sound of the B-25 engines. When the restored B-25’s are touring to and from the local airports, I can be inside when I hear the B-25 approach, and have no trouble identifying the type of airplane. By the sound. The same thing with the Stearman bi-plane and the B-17. From my many hours of listening to their engines, I remember those sounds, too.

Ray L’Amoreaux
January 3, 2010.