B-25C Mitchell Balls O' Fire
310 BG o/s original Capt Phillips
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- January 1, 1986
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Balls O' Fire 310BG B-25C 41-13074February 19 2008 at 10:08 PM Phil Marchese (Login philmarchese)
from IP address 71.203.114.46
BALLS O' FIRE
"Fun Helped Them Fight" declared a
January 1948 National Geographic article
with several color plates of World War
II nose art. One of the aircraft featured
is a B-25 and it's aircrew shortly after the
first air attack on Rome. The plane is
named "Balls O' Fire" and her nose is
covered with an attractive cartoon of an
allied soldier dragging Hitler from a
rifle bayonet and numerous bombing mission
symbols. The 50 missions listed by the
navigator's station end with a bold "Rome."
Although ESCI has reproduced the nose art
in 1/72 scale, little has been published
about the plane or its crew. .. Ready for
takeoff!
History. The flight echelon of
the 310th Bombardment Group (Medium)
departed Walterboro, N.C. in late
August, 1942 and assembled at Westover
Field, Mass. There the Group received
54 new B-25Cs of the 3,000 series
(41-13000) before departing the U.S..
Among these planes was an aircraft serial
numbered 41-13074.
In September, the Group began ferrying
these planes across the North Atlantic route
in staggered flights. By December, 1942, all
the planes had reached England and some headed
south to the North African Theater of
Operations. The Group entered the Tunisian
Campaign from French Morocco with an advance
echelon at Maison Blanche, Algeria. The
detachment flew seven missions between
December 2 and the time they rejoined the
group at Telergma on December 21. The reunited
group entered combat on December 30, 1942.
The first group mission was a successful
raid on a railroad roundhouse and marshalling
yard at Sfax. Lt. Carl Phillips of the
381st Bomb Squadron participated in this
mission flying his B-25C, 41-13074. It
was the first for he and that bomber.
Over the next several months, the group
flew sea search missions and attacked
harbors, landing grounds and airfields.
As the missions continued, casualties
were inevitable and replacements began
arriving.
Lt. Joe Carver was among the replacements reaching the group in
March 1943. Joe flew his first combat
mission, a sea search, on March 27;
however, his combat career was cut
short.
Joe lived in a pyramidal tent shared
by Carl Phillips and five or six others.
The tent was heated by a stove improvised
from a 55 gallon drum and fueled by
aviation gas. Early in April,
several fellows gathered around the
stove shooting the breeze and joking
with each other. Shortly before
Carl Phillips joined the gathering, the
stove's fire had been put out. Coming
in from the cold, Carl poured gas into
the hot stove. Flames roared up to the
fuel can in Carl's hands. He flung the
flaming can into the air. The fireball
landed in Joe Carver's lap. Joe
sprang from his cot and dashed from
the tent. Joe ran about 100 feet
before he dropped to the ground and
rolled to smother the flames. Carl,
having run to Joe's aid, beat the
flames with his hands. Before the
flames were out, Carver suffered first,
second and third degree burns on both
lower legs. He was hospitalized for
several months and never returned to
the 310th BG. Although his hands were
badly burned, Carl Phillips did not
require hospitalization. He recovered,
made captain as a flight leader, and
continued to fly missions. His plane was
"Balls O' Fire."
The Group flew its last mission
against African targets on May 8, 1943.
Thereafter the group was committed to
the neutralization of Pantelleri and
support of the invasion of Sicily. The
success of these tactical strikes
provided the AAF an opportunity to plan
a major strategic attack. The objective
was to deprive the enemy all rail
communications running south to Rome
from the north. The maximum effort began
on the morning of July 19, 1943 with
hundreds of AAF heavy bombers attacking
major rail yards at Lorenzo and Littorio.
That afternoon, the 310th contributed
72 planes to the effort bombing the
Ciampino airdome on the outskirts of
Rome. The 381st squadron commander,
Maj. A. W. White flew the mission in
41-13074. The air raid was one of the
most significant of the Italian Campaign.
Besides the strategic achievement, the
mission was the first AAF bombing of the
Eternal City. Apparently, this was also
the 50th mission for "Balls O' Fire."
The plane was being prepared for a bond
tour of the States when photographed
shortly after the Rome Raid. But plans changed.
A replacement crew flew the plane for a dozen and
a half or so more missions. Then it was sent to
the depot to be modified before being returned
to the Group for a second tour with a
different squadron. It crashed soon
afterwards due to battle damage and was scrapped.
Meanwhile, Captain Phillips had completed his
combat tour and rotated stateside. While
returning to Italy for a second tour, Carl
was killed in a landing mishap.
Choosing the Kit. You will want
an early series B-25 which has the
dorsal turret at mid-fuselage as
opposed to an H/J series with the
turret forward of the wing. Injection
molded kits of the early series B-25s
are available in both 1/72 and 1/48
scales. The decals are only available in 1/72,
thus this project is better suited for 1/72 scale.
Testors/Italeri and Monogram 1/72
scale offerings from the late '70s
are generally available while the
earlier Frog/AMT kit is not as easily
found. Both newer kits are good.
Completing the Frog and Monogram
Snap-Tite kits to current scale
modeling standards will require adding
details or kit bashing parts.
The overall shape of the Monogram
kit is excellent and many of its
detail parts are very fine - the
main wheels for example. The kit
is compromised by its snap fit
engineering and by the simplification
or elimination of some detail parts.
For example, the clear parts for
the rear fuselage windows are omitted.
No alternate parts are given so kit
bashing will be required to produce
the C-1 version for 41-13074. If
you use the Monogram kit, you will
need to add an astrodome and a lower
turret. These can be taken from spares
or vacuformed from masters. You will
also need to add a fairing to the tail
skid since the kit's skid is exposed.
The Frog kit also has very good
fuselage shape and seems to have
influenced the Monogram molding,
but it lacks the finesse of the later
offerings, especially in the thickness
of its control surfaces. It does,
however, accurately represent the C-1
version except for the exhaust system.
The Italeri molding is finely
detailed and includes many optional
parts needed for this project. The
fuselage contours are much different
than any of the other kit manufacturers'
interpretations of the B-25. Compare
various cross sections and the depth
of the nose. The fuselage windows
are oversized and too angular
throughout. Still, many of you will
find this kit your best choice.
Modifying the Kit. No kit
contains the proper navigator's
windows or exhaust system for the
particular version of the B-25
portrayed in this article. Some
modifications to the rear fuselage
windows are needed for each kit.
These are the only true modifications
required. This section outlines the
steps for these modifications and
some minor additions and improvements.
The exhausts are neither the early,
single pipe type or the later individual
cowl stacks given in the kits. Rather
the exhausts should be multiport
collectors.
These narrow diameter ports exit
behind the lower cowl flaps to the
exterior of each nacelle. These can
be fashioned from wire insulation
or other small diameter tubing.
The navigator's windows are not flush
with the fuselage like those in the
kits, but are bulged. The kit windows
should be replaced by forming bulged
windows from plastic film that has been
heat-formed over a hemisphere. At the
rear of the wing root there should be
three horizontally set oval windows and
two round fuselage windows. Compare these
to the kit you choose. Rather than cutting
the windows to shape, an alternate
method is to insert clear rectangular panels,
then scribe and mask the window shapes
before painting the adjacent skin.
This method can also be used to correct
the Testor/Italeri kit. Add a fixed gun
to the starboard side of the nose.
Modeling details such as air vents,
antenna lines, red escape hatch markings
and a turned nose wheel can add realism.
Researching the Aircraft Markings.
The search started with the color
picture in the National Geographic.
The first objective was to isolate
"Balls O' Fire" to a particular bomb
group. The mission list painted by
the plane's cockpit showed targets in
the Mediterranean area. Five AAF
bomb groups flew the B-25 in the Med.
The earliest of these, the 12th and
the 340th, arrived in North Africa with
sand colored Mitchells. In contrast,
the 310th had olive drab planes originally.
The 321st came later with many sand
finished planes and still later, in the
fall of 1944, the 319th BG converted from
B-26 Marauders to Mitchells.
The color photo clearly shows the
plane as olive drab with grey undersides.
Enough of the data block stencilled by
the cockpit can be read to distinguish
the plane as a B-25C. Although the
serial number is not readable in the
published prints, the presence of a red
propeller warning stripe suggests an
early production block. Later planes
rarely had the warning stripe.
These facts do not absolutely place
the plane with the 310th BG, but were
enough to convince me to concentrate
my search within that Group.
Another clue to the identity of
"Balls O' Fire" is the crew names
stencilled on the plane. Visible in
the photo are the names of the
navigator/bombardier - Lt. Myers -
and the pilot - C. A. Phillips.
Checking the unit history of the
310th BG at the Office of Air Force
History, I quickly found several early
mission reports listing aircraft 41-13074
piloted by Phillips with Myers as Navigator.
Bingo! "Balls O' Fire!"
The group and serial number thus
confirmed, the next step was to establish
the plane's markings at the time of the
Rome mission. The Rome mission was
traced to July 19, 1943 using the "Saga
of 54"; the plane's painted mission
list and the unit history mission
reports. No overall photo of the plane
could be found, so the markings were
established by collaborating several
photos of the 310th aircraft and
reference sources describing the
group's markings for that period. The
markings are described below.
Finishing "Balls O' Fire." The only
commercial nose art for "Balls O' Fire"
that I have found are included, oddly
enough, on the ESCI 1/72 Short Sterling
sheet (#57). Even these provide only
the nose art. The art work is accurately
sized and colored. The composition is
acceptable, being only slightly tighter
than the original. This can be improved
by sectioning the decal if so desired.
I believe that two mission symbols
and ship victory should be added to
the upper left corner of the scoreboard.
No mission list is given. For 1/72,
any yellow one-inch block lettering
can be used to "Greek" in the missions
so long as the double-sized Rome is
added to the end of the list.
Markings for the 310th BG's
Mitchells during the Summer of 1943
included yellow surrounds to the
national insignia in four locations
and yellow horizontal tail bands.
Several decal sheets have the
national insignia with the yellow
surround. Choose those with the
narrower surrounds. The stars'
dimensions are 45-inch in all four
positions. The tail bands are 12
inches wide and can be painted or
cut from yellow decal. Check the
location relative to the trim tab
and hinge.
Factory markings for the B-25C
include a scale nine-inch high yellow
call number (113074) on the tails and
the three-inch prop warning stripe
behind the cockpit. These markings
are available commercially on several
decal sheet.
Notice that the underside camouflage
wave pattern on this aircraft undulates
severely with the troughs nearly below the
horizontal line of sight when viewed in profile.
The Ducimus Camouflage and Markings, number 22,
is a helpful reference for this part of the
project.
REFERENCES
B-25 Mitchell, Koku Fan Famous Planes
of the World, No. 58, Bunrin-Do, Japan,
Feb. 1975.
Craven, W. F. and Cate, J. L.; Army
Air Forces in World War II, Vol II,
Europe - TORCH to POINTBLANK; USAF
Historical Division, Univ. of Chicago
Press, Chicago, IL., 1955.
Freeman, Roger; "North American B-25
Mitchell in USAAF Service 1941-1945,"
Camouflage and Markings #22, Ducimus
Books Ltd., London, England, circa 1973.
Hair, Charles A.; "The Saga of '54 and
More - The Story of the 310th Bombardment
Group (M)," Robinson Typographics,
Anaheim, CA 1987.
Jones, Stuart E.; "Fun Helped Them
Fight," National Geographic, Vol. XCIII,
No. 1, Jan 1948.
McDowell, Ernest R.; "B-25 Mitchell in
Action," Squadron/Signal Publications,
Warren, MI, 1978.
Maurer, Maurer,; "Air Force Combat Units
of World War II," Office of Air Force
History, Washington, D.C. 1961, Reprint
1983.
Rust, Kenn; "Twelfth Air Force Story,"
Historical Aviation Album, Temple City,
CA, 1975.
Scutts, Jerry; "USAAF Camouflage of
World War II," Airfix Modeling Guide
#18, Patrick Stephens, Ltd., Ber Hill,
England, 1976.
Unit History of the 310th Bombardment
Group, Reel B0229, USAF Historical
Research Center, Maxwell AFB, Ala.
Wagner, Ray; "The North American
B-25A to G Mitchell," Profile #59,
Profile Publications, Ltd., Surry,
England, 1965.
This message has been edited by philmarchese from IP address 71.203.114.46 on Feb 19, 2008 10:09 PM
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