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Painting Plastic Pieces: Polly S’ Catalog of Paint for Plastic Models and Model Railroading

The catalog below – for Polly S water-base paint for plastic models and model railroading – probably dates from the mid-1970s, and gives a “flavor” – albeit, a non-petroleum based flavor (!) – of the kind of paints available for modelers during that time.

As I recall… Along with Polly S, the “mainstays” of paints for plastic models in the ’60s through the mid-’70s were Testors, Pactra, Floquil, Humbrol, and Imrie-Risley.

Certainly Testors and Pactra then seemed to have the largest market share in respect to the hobby of plastic modelling. Their paints seemed to be ubiquitous: available in specialty hobby shops, department stores, hardware stores, and toy stores. Really, most any venue where plastic models – even of a very limited selection – were sold.

While Testors and Pactra were very easily obtainable (Testors morseo), and sold in screw-topped bottles of similar capacity, Testors’ paints had a far greater consistency and quality (higher quality, at that) in terms of what makes paint, well, er…uh…”paint” (both vehicle and filler)…than those manufactured by Pactra. The results from one bottle of Pactra to the next, were never quite the same, the same at all, or even identical. Or so it seemed… Not so for Testors.

Humbrol? Fantastic selection. Superb quality, easily exceeding Testors or Pactra. But, those “tinlets,” as they were dubbed by the company’s advertisements in hobby magazines… Easy enough to pry open the first time, but, due to the difficulty of maintaining a reliable and air-tight seal between the lid (metal) and container (also metal) – without any kind of flexible gasket (even a cardboard gasket) between, the shelf-life of Humbrol, once opened, was frustratingly; agonizingly short.

Then, in the very early 70s, I came across Polly S. Far larger capacity bottles than Testors or Pactra; a more tolerable smell (not that much of a smell, at that!). Above all, the quality and ease of use of Polly S was far beyond anything I’d previously used. The paint was “just right”: not too thin; not too thick; irregularities from brush strokes rapidly dissipated; the paint “attacked” polystyrene more gradually than petroleum based paints, yet eventually produced a finish of equal if greater durability.

It was, overall, a better concept and a better product.

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The Polly S catalog below is a memento from those years…

Models from Monogram II: Monogram Models’ Pocket Hobby Catalog

From the late 60s through the early 70s, Monogram Models had a very astute and sensible way of marketing their plastic models: Included with each of their kits – whether of aircraft or military vehicles, or, their smaller variety of ships, boats, and spacecraft – was a “Pocket Hobby Catalog” intended to promote interest in Monogram’s entire line of plastic models.

In pamphlet format, the catalog showed a single image of each model in the company’s inventory – that image appearing as a simplified form of the kit’s “box art” – and, the kit’s retail price (the 1969 price, that is!), accompanied by Monogram’s “P”-prefixed product number for every kit.

By virtue of the catalog’s small size and horizontal layout, specific information about the kits could not be presented on a “one on one” basis. Instead, models were grouped by scale or general category, with a general “blurb” above each section.

For example, Monogram’s line – in effect, its mainstay – of 1/48 WW II-era aircraft was described as follows: “Most popular continuing scale series of airplane models ever produced. Extra fine detailing. Most kits have working action – folding wings – retractable landing gear, etc. Authentic decals.” Or, with their “Combat Models” (Monogram’s relatively small number of American, and, WW II German military and armored vehicles), appeared the text, “Vehicles and figures of army personnel are all one scale and may be formed into fascinating military groups.” (“Fascinating military groups?” Well, that phrase leads to all manner of humorous memories…!)

Corporations, like people, are products of their time, and importantly, the time that came before. In that sense, the subjects chosen by Monogram for its kits – primarily combat aircraft and military vehicles of WW II, and to a lesser extent the Cold War, and, Viet-Nam War – were a natural and direct reflection of the decades immediately subsequent to the Second World War. In this, the company was quite similar to Revell (then, its main competitor) of Venice, California, and to a lesser extent, Aurora, Lindbergh, and Hawk.

For those who remember Monogram, the emblem atop the catalog’s first page (where appears the company’s 1/24 “Phantom Huey”) – showing a modeller holding a 1/48 P-38 Lightning, alongside the text “MONOGRAM – quality hobby kits” – is quite significant. Just a few years later (I think in the early 1970s) the company was acquired by Mattel. Monogram’s distinctive emblem disappeared forever. Fortunately, in the late 1970s the company underwent a tremendous revival, in terms of the scope and particularly the physical size of its models, the latter especially through the release of 1/48 kits of WW II American medium and heavy bombers (B-17G, B-24H, B-25G and J, B-26B, and B-29) of the Second World War.

As for myself, years ago, even before that time, I acquired and built each the 1/48 kits shown in this catalog (at least once…) as well as the company’s “Combat Models”, and a few other kits, in 1/72 and “various” scales. Of all, my favorites were – and will always remain – the company’s P-38J / P-38L Lightning, OS2U-3 Kingfisher, and P-51B Mustang. The 1/48 Lunar Module (not featured here) was also a superb kit, of an obviously different sort, commemorating another, much grander, and meaningful moment in time…

So, enjoy this glimpse of the past, from the past.

Models from Monogram I: The Design and Manufacture of Plastic Model Kits in the 1970s

Years ago, I wrote to Monogram Models, in Morton Grove, Illinois, asking for information about the design and manufacture of plastic model kits. I was hoping that Monogram possessed “in house” literature and promotional material, with a specific focus on the creation of models of military aircraft, and, military (armored and “soft-skin”) vehicles. Of particular interest was the “origin” – as it were – of such kits as Monogram’s 1/48 P-38 Lightning or P-39 Airacobra, which, in terms of quality, detail, and options, embodied major advances over plastic kits produced only a few years before, whether by Monogram itself or its competitors.

Monogram’s customer relations department soon replied, sending me a reprint of an article from – to my surprise and disappointment – Old Cars magazine. (“? – !”) Rather consistent with its title, the article covered the creation of car kits, rather than models of planes, tanks, warships, or spacecraft. (“Let down!”)

Though my curiosity wasn’t satisfied – at least directly – the reprint I received was nonetheless interesting, for its description of the design and manufacture of model cars was equally and entirely relevant to the creation of plastic kits of other genres.

Certainly; obviously, the world of plastic modelling has enormously changed since the 1960s and 70s. Monogram (as well as its competitors – Revell (Venice, California), Aurora, Hawk, Renwal, and Lindberg) no longer exists, the company’s Morton Grove headquarters / manufacturing facility having been demolished years ago. I would not be surprised if the buildings that once housed the corporate headquarters and manufacturing facilities for the other above-mentioned companies likewise remain only as memories. Another, altogether unsurprising change: Contemporary kits of military aircraft or automobiles – in most any scale – are no longer quite available for – ahem! – $3.50.

In that sense and spirit, the Old Cars article presented below provides a glimpse of a world that has largely – albeit not completely! – “gone by”.

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Old Cars

The Twice-Monthly Newspaper of the Hobby

April 16-30, 1974

Old Cars readers who spend many relaxing hours absorbed in building faithfully reproduced scale models of their favorite cars sometimes probably marvel at the detail and accuracy of the tiny replicas.

They didn’t get that way by accident. The planning, tooling, and manufacturing of the little model you purchased at the local hobby shop for $3.50 or so in some cases involves as much thought, accuracy, and time as their full-sized counterparts.

That’s what we found out when we recently visited one of the nation’s largest model manufacturers, Monogram, in Morton Grove, Ill.

Except for being locked into the styling of the car as it was produced, the production of a model takes on many of the overtones of an auto manufacturer planning a new car. In the case of a scale model classic or antique car, the vehicle is decided upon and the real article located to serve as a model for the model. Monogram design people are dispatched for an extensive photo session with the car, then return to the workshop where a prototype is hand-built.

Once the prototype is completed, there are discussions on the feasibility of marketing the model. If it gets the nod, three-view drawings of the car are carefully rendered and cost estimates for production are submitted. Then it’s go or no-go, based on what total production costs will be. Like we said earlier, it has all the overtones of Detroit planning a new car.

Monogram, with its 1/24 scale, is somewhat of a maverick in the model-making industry. Other companies use a 1/25 scale for their products, but Monogram’s original models were done in 1/24, and the company simply chose to stay with this figure.

Detroit needs its dies and stamping to bring out a new model, and Monogram must have intricate molds to build the component parts of their cars. This is an internal operation, too, and a visitor sees skilled tool and die specialists working carefully with micrometers and pantographs, adjusting to the thousandth of an inch, so that hubcaps all conform to the same size and shape, and the plastic tires carry symmetrical tread.

Instead of molding one piece at a time, though, the model company plans their mold-making so a number of similarly-colored pieces can be produced in one pressing. Complicating the mold-making is the need for adequate water passages, just as in an engine block, so the mold and the plastic won’t distort, warp, or overheat during manufacturing.

Development from raw blocks of metal to finished mold takes from 16 to 18 weeks, Monogram officials said, and the final process of polishing the mold to a mirror-smooth surface is done with diamond dust. A set of molds for a single kit can cost more than $50,000.

Sometimes they can cost even more. One of Monogram’s latest models, the Mack Bulldog stake truck, required molds that cost nearly $75,000 for the complete set. For the Duesenberg SJ town car Monogram recently introduced five molds were required: a white model for the whitewall tire inserts, black and green styrene, a clear mold, plus a mold for the tires.

Depending on the size and intricacy of the parts to be pressed, the polystyrene plastic used in Monogram models may be subjected to as

Color chips used for molding the parts are very critical. Monogram custom-mixes some colors in their own small cement-style mixers to assure consistent color. Just one off-color chip among thousands, a Monogram official said, will change the hue of the entire color batch, with disastrous consequences to production of model kits using that color of plastic.

When the kit parts come out of the press, they are checked for consistency and quality, then passed on to the kit assembly line.

Situated in a large, clean, cheery room, the assembly line is nothing like those in Detroit. It’s quiet, with an air of humming efficiency, rather than frantic activity, and the ladies who staff the line work smoothly and quietly at their tasks. But the pace is deceptive, for we were told that an average of 2,000 kits per hour were packed, wrapped, and dispatched on each of the 3 production lines every working day.

That adds up to a potential of 50,000 to 75,000 completely-packaged kits per day when all the lines are in full operation.

Quality control is a personal watchword, too, and each packer acts as a check on the work of the employee preceding her on the line, making sure each kit contains the proper components when it reaches her station.

If it doesn’t, the line stops, the missing part is put in the kit, and off the line goes again. Naturally, the responsibility for the completeness of a kit increases as the line nears the end, and humans being humans, mistakes and omissions sometimes will happen. That’s why Monogram plucks a random sample of 10 kits off the line each hour to check and see that they are complete.

But what if a kit comes to a customer with a missing wheel, or tire, or bumper, despite all these precautions? No problem, says Monogram. The customer should simply write the factory and tell them what’s missing. Monogram will send the missing part pronto, no questions asked.

Monogram will be celebrating its 30th year of model manufacturing in 1975. The company’s first products were balsa-wood ship models. After their initial success with the ships, the company branched into airplanes, then cars, and has recently introduced a 1/32 scale World War II armor troop and vehicle series. The company has enjoyed an impressive number of “million-seller” models, with a sample of each on display at their home office but, strangely, none of their classic car series have yet reached the magic figure.

Scheduled for introduction in July is a variation on the Mack, a Bulldog AC Texaco gasoline tank truck. This particular model could possibly become a significant piece of Americana, reminding us of the days when gasoline was plentiful.

In June, Monogram will introduce their new Special Interest Car series. The first three models in this group will be the ‘58 Thunderbird convertible, a 1930 Ford cabriolet, and a 1930 Ford 5-window rumble-seat coupe. We’ve seen them, and they’re authentic enough to pass muster at a national meet.

Model-builders have every right to marvel at the detail, intricacy and authenticity built into their economically-priced kits. There are some dedicated people in Morton Grove, Ill., who work very hard so you’ll do just that.

The Age of Advertising: New York Telephone Company (1944 – 1945)

Electronic communication, circa 1945: An advertisement for the New York Telephone Company, from The New York Times in 1944 or 1945.

Of note: The early style rotary phone.

Of note: Manufacturing. That is, physical manufacturing! “And when the factories that make switchboards – now busy producing war communications equipment – resume peacetime production, it will take time to manufacture the quality needed, and still more time to fit the new switchboards to existing central offices.”

Of note: The reference to the Red Cross, consistent with the tenor of the (war) times.

Of note: Could Mr. New York Telephone be a distant cousin of Reddy Kilowatt? (!)

(More ads to follow.)

The Age of Advertising: Announcing the New 1946 Ford

Not aeronautical, not military, but certainly technological…

Announcing the NEW 1946 Ford! (For 2017? Oh, well!)

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This advertisement appeared in The New York Times some time in early to mid-1946. It was found, at random, while reviewing that newspaper – “to see what I could see” – for news articles and casualty lists* for the Second World War.

As then – in the pre-digital-age – as now; as always; advertisements give a symbolic and indirect glimpse into the technology, communication, and way of thinking of an era.

Besides, they look interesting.

More newspaper advertisements from the 1940s (and even earlier?) will appear in future blog posts.

*The “last” official Army casualty list appeared on May 21, and the “final” Navy casualty list was published on June 9.

Technology, Work, and The Future I: The View From The New Republic, 1947 – The Past As Prologue

“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” –

– “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Akin to my earlier post about discovering photographs of the ditching of Julius Brownstein’s F4F Wildcat, the following article – from 1947 – was also found by chance: While randomly perusing – on 35mm microfilm – issues of The New Republic from the 1940s.

Written almost seventy years ago, the article by Thomas Whiteside – covering the introduction and effect of what were then “new”, if not revolutionary, technological changes – FM radio, advances in typesetting and television broadcasting, and even a remarkable intimation of fax and email – upon long-existing methods for the production, communication, and distribution of information, is as relevant today as when it appeared in December of 1947.

The article is transcribed verbatim, and appears below, including reproductions of two cartoons in the original item. One depicts a farmer leisurely riding a tractor, on which is mounted a video monitor via which he can view live entertainment – 1947 style wifi? The other is an allegory on technological displacement, showing a fully autonomous linotype machine (1947 style AI?) perched atop a forlorn trio of businessman / typesetter / beret-wearing, black-clad, bongo-less “beatnik” musician.

Though he provides a very clear; very lucid account of the technological nature and effects – potential, and very real – of advances in information technology, Whiteside only devotes his three final paragraphs to possible solutions for the “human” effects of this technology on those whose lives were long-dependent on the creation, production, and distribution of text and music: Technological and vocational obsolescence; collaboration between government and the private sector, in a search for solutions to the effects of such changes; retraining.

Perhaps this brevity should be respected, for the solutions to such issues were, and perhaps have always been, far more easily addressed in words and proposals; plans and ideas, than concrete solutions.

There was something quaint and fascinating about this article on first reading. Then, something more was apparent, eerily and movingly relevant to its “core” idea: How can man (“man” as an individual; “man” as a community or nation; “man” as an abstract concept) adjust to and keep pace with the inevitability of technological change, in a world where he very much defines himself by his dependence on, use of, and adaptation to that technology?

The fundamental and underlying topic of this article – What is to become of people? – is as relevant now, in 2017, as it was some seven decades ago. (Well, it has always been relevant.)

If not more.

For if technological change is a given, two other aspects of that “change – possibly unforeseen in 1947 – are the accelerating pace of that change, and, the realization that technological change can be generated and perpetuated by that technology itself, in the form of artificial intelligence. Though it as impossible as it is naive to draw a “straight line” – a historically straight, deterministic, line of inevitability, that is – from the present to the future, or, let alone congruently “map” the present onto the events of the past, it would seem that our world has been undergoing a revolution – a cognitive and social revolution, at least – that has the potential to be as wrenching, in its own quiet way, as was the “first” industrial revolution.

Perhaps it is well that we do not know the outcome – if there is to be an outcome.

And so; and then; on second reading, I was reminded of notable articles and essays, and some academic papers about this topic, that have appeared in the past few years. The authors and titles of these items (44 items by 38 authors, all with links) are listed following Whiteside’s article. You may heartily agree with some of these items, vehemently disagree with others, and ponder more than a few. (On occasion, one can find gem-like insights – here and there – in the talk-back strings to some of these writings.)

Regardless, they’re all provocative.

Communications Revolution

Thomas Whiteside

The New Republic
December 15, 1947

Petrillo’s record ban and the Typographer’s strike fit into the pattern of an industry facing job-shaking changes.

FOR A NICKEL, the American juke-box not only plays music, but also glows, bubbles and changes color. At the present time, the crowned heads of the jukebox industry are undergoing not dissimilar facial transformations. The cause of their chafer is the decision of James C. Petrillo’s American Federation of Musicians (AFL) to stop making recordings after December 31, when Petrillo’s present contracts with the recording companies expire. Without new records, the country’s 600,000 jukeboxes gradually will be silenced – a severe blow not only to the high schools of America but to me whole complex jukebox economy, from Wurlitzer Hall to Joe’s Diner.

But important though it be, the dislocation of this jumping $500 million business is symptomatic of a technological crisis now spreading through the entire communications industry, from music and radio to photoengraving and typesetting. For the public, the revolutionary new techniques will open an era in which, for instance, newspapers will be circulated by radio and in which common mail may be carried electronically by a special television process. But for the 500,000 people now employed in the mass-communications industry, these same techniques will mean widespread unemployment and the need to turn to entirely new skills.

Perhaps the most widely heralded indication of this looming crisis, and one which will be used here as the first of several examples, has been the dire predicament of James C. Petrillo.

In the current American language, the very word Petrillo has become so enriched with connotations as to be used to frighten small children. Petrillo himself is comparatively oblivious to the catalogue of abuse which has been compiled by the press to describe his motivations. He sees only one problem, overwhelming and immediate: the job protection of his 225,000 union members. He sees no reason why he should encourage the development of a system whereby a musician is replaced by a lump of wax.

This stern philosophy has previously led him to prohibit – in the absence of what he considered proper pay – the services of his musicians over two efficient and rapidly expanding media of communication, FM and television. His decision to ban the making of new recordings by members of his union will cost him dearly. In the first place, his 6,000 recording artists stand to lose $5 million annually in wages. Second, Petrillo’s union will lose a considerable part of record royalties previously paid into his $2 million annual welfare fund. (The latter loss, however, is directly due to the Taft-Hartley Act, which prohibits employer contributions to union welfare funds except under conditions unacceptable to most self-respecting unions.) Petrillo’s long-range risk is more serious, for the sale of records in America has had much to do with the growing American appetite for music, good and otherwise.

Such over-all considerations, however, have little effect on Petrillo, or many another union leader in a similar spot. Petrillo intends to maintain full, profitable employment for what he fondly calls “my boys,” even if the process involves a fight against new technology. Under present conditions, there are simply too many musicians for available jobs. Petrillo himself recently predicted that unless a halt were called on recordings, the phonograph needle would gouge many thousands of musicians out of the industry within a few months.

But the ups and downs of the man with the fiddle in the worn black case affect a whole industrial complex which he can hardly oversee. In point of fact, Petrillo’s decision to stop recordings may save the jobs of many musicians, but it will also probably affect the livelihood of some thousands of people in the recording and related companies, many of them war-born. A shortage of recordings could cut into the radio-phonograph industry, the 12,000 record shops now existing in the country and, to some extent, the plastics industry.

Petrillo and FM.

In view of Petrillo’s insistence on “live” performances by his musicians, his recent decision to prohibit the duplication of network programs on FM stations is looked on by many FM broadcasters as a technique of cutting off his nose to spite his face. The more forward-looking of the FM broadcasters, who realize that they have a medium ideally suited for operation by the small businessman, argue that if Petrillo helped FM, he would also help break up the quasi-monopoly now enjoyed by the major conventional radio networks. They point out that the development of FM – there are currently about 350 FM stations on the air – will also mean the employment of more musicians.

At present, the structure of AM, or conventional radio, with its imperial system of high-powered, unobstructed, clear-channel stations, makes the creation of further national AM networks, and thus the employment of additional staffs, a virtual impossibility. The introduction of FM, the wonder medium of staticless, high-fidelity radio transmission, opens the door for the building of as many as 3,000 new radio stations in the country, and possibly 20 new networks employing some 50,000 people. More important, it gives the listener new opportunities to hear kinds of programs seldom broadcast by the conventional networks.

The opportunity for employment of many hundreds by promoting classical music over FM is a good example. The grand vizier of conventional radio, Hooper, to whom all account executives bow low, so far has given the big networks a discouraging report on classical music. Beethoven’s Hooper is not generally high enough to warrant serious consideration by such determinants of popular culture as the makers of Ex-Lax, Kix or Serutan, even were his name to be spelled backwards. Numerically, however, the audience for good music is large. Within two or three years it would be economically quite feasible for an enterprising group to establish an FM network specializing in classical-music broadcasts.

FM broadcasters point out that there are many other minority interests which can be reached, to the profit of public and musicians alike, by the new medium. But the entire development of FM is now being retarded by the fight between Petrillo and the networks. Apparently Petrillo feels that too many FM frequencies have been grabbed up by conventional radio interests and that to allow his musicians to broadcast over FM would in effect strengthen the power of his network enemies. Unfortunately, the FM groups to suffer will not be the wealthy entrenched interests but the groups of veterans who have ventured into FM with high hopes and slim purses. According to the Frequency Modulation Association, 95 percent of all FM stations are losing money. Well established AM stations can afford to operate their FM outlets at a loss. The small, independent operators, on the other hand, who find themselves completely at the mercy of “the natural flow of economic forces,” are bitter at what they consider Petrillo’s shortsightedness in failing to consider their problems and, in the long haul, his own.

Old versus new.

But the Petrillo affair is only the beginning of the kind of strife into which the entire communications industry is likely to be forced as a technological revolution sweeps in. Every industry in America, of course, faces dislocations of employment and of skills as new labor-saving machinery is invented and produced. But the communications industry has a status and importance peculiarly its own in that it carries or produces not mere goods but the words and symbols on which a democratic people heavily relies for its social and political decisions.

If an iceman discourages trade in refrigerators, the housewife along his route will suffer, at worst, inconvenience. But if a printers’ union blocks a new system of printing without linotype machines, it may deprive hundreds of small towns of a cheap, efficient and hitherto unavailable news service.

Almost every facet of the communications industry is facing just this kind of problem. An inkling of developments around the corner came to the public eve in the recent strike of the Chicago Typographical Union against six Chicago newspapers over conditions of employment. A few years ago a similar strike would have completely crippled the newspapers. Actually, as the strike progressed, newspaper circulation in Chicago was scarcely affected. The newspapers called in batteries of office girls who typed out the news columns on ordinary paper. The typed sheets were pasted together and photo-engraved without need of linotype operators.

A similar system has been employed for several months by John. H. Perry (see the NR, November 17) to produce some of the newspapers in his Florida chain. Perry by-passes the linotyping and stereotyping processes by photo-engraving and the use of self-justifying typewriters which space out an even, full line. Perry also uses girl typists rather than linotype operators. The finished photo-engraved newspaper differs little in appearance from the standard product. There is not the slightest doubt that the extension of this new, cheap and efficient printing system would cause widespread unemployment among linotype operators.

Teletype and facsimile.

The lino-typists face considerable trouble, too, in the introduction of the teletypesetting machine, which automatically sets type by remote control from a master machine many miles away. In a newspaper chain, for example, every tele-typesetting machine installed will tend to replace a linotype operator. Another threat to the typographical unions comes from the rapid development of facsimile reproduction, familiar to all newspaper readers in the form of wirephotos. The potential achievements of facsimile were dramatically shown in the spring of 1945, when the New York Times facsimiled special editions by wire to the West Coast during the San Francisco Conference. Again the basic process was photoengraving. The typographical unions are expected to fight hard against the spreading of the facsimile system.

As a hedge against unemployment, the International Typographical Union recently appropriated a rumored $300,000 to found and operate its own newspapers, thereby providing work for linotype operators displaced by new processes. Meanwhile, it evidently intends to right development of the facsimile system. Many employers are jittery about using facsimile for fear of offending the powerful printing unions.

An example of this nervousness can be seen in the printing of stock-market reports in three Eastern newspapers. Normally, these stock-market reports arrive in the form of tape, which has to be retyped by girls before being sent to the composing room. This retyping process involves incredibly tedious work and a high percentage of error. To reduce errors, an organization specializing in facsimile suggested that the original texts be facsimiled into the newspaper office by coaxial cable. The facsimile text, it proposed, could then be photo-engraved for insertion in the newspaper without passing through the intermediary stages of copying and linotyping. The companies involved refused even to consider the possibility on the grounds of possible hostility from the unions.

Understandable though the union position is in a situation like this, the fact remains that retarding the development of facsimile will also retard new kinds of employment. Wired facsimile, for instance, is likely to be followed by radio-borne facsimile. Then the owner of a facsimile set could receive printed spot news and features in his own home merely by tuning in to his local radio station. Commercial facsimile is already due to start by the beginning of the year, when 15 of the country’s leading papers will begin transmitting newspapers by radio. Within a few fears, the number of participating stations may run into the hundreds, with appropriate increase in demand for news staffs and skilled groups to handle the self-justifying typewriters on which facsimile news copy will be set.

Television boom.

An even greater promise of new employment is offered by television, now entering a boom period. One television official estimates that within five years the television industry will provide jobs for 300,000 people. Assuming a total use of five million television sets in that period, he estimates that television maintenance, installation and service would bring work to some 85,000 – or three times the number of radio service workers employed today, white at the end of the first full television year the dollar volume of replacement parts would reach fin annual figure of $220 million.”

Another television executive predicted that television will be doing a business involving $6 billion in capital investments, or more than double the total capital invested today in the motion-picture industry. Whether or not these estimates are over-optimistic, they give a good indication of extremely rapid television expansion. Television officials expect immediate demand for new skills. There are very firm indications, for example, that the wire services, such as the Associated Press and the United Press, will barge into the field of television news coverage. The AP already has begun a television newsreel service for broadcast over Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York television stations. There are also indications that major papers will take steps to begin their own newspaper television networks.

Video networks.

Opening of microwave relay stations between New York and Boston to carry television programs marks the start of a nationwide microwave network. Such a network will throw wide the radio spectrum to almost every conceivable type of communication. The invention of a new technique of broadcasting, known as Pulse-Time Modulation, will allow dozens of programs to he carried on the same radio frequency simultaneously. It will mean that perhaps within 15 years an Iowa farmer may tune in his radio to choose not one, but any of 20 AM, FM or television programs relayed simultaneously over his local radio station. Yet within the same period, Pulse-Time Modulation may also reduce almost to obsolescence the standard land-line telephone system used today, and thus dislocate thousands of conventional telephone workers.

The development of another new device for radio transmission, known as Ultrafax and combining the principles of television and motion-picture photography, brings possibilities for the transmission of written material at the extraordinary rate of a million words a minute. Should Ultrafax live up to its potentialities as shown in laboratory tests, it could revolutionize the whole post-office system by making possible a vast electronic V-mail Service.

Promise and threat.

Such is the promise – and to unions, the threat – of new means of mass communication in the coming era. The transition will be hard, perhaps chaotic. Realization of the revolutionary nature of the devices involved is causing a good deal of speculation by labor specialists in the industry as to the manner in which orderly progress into the new technological age will be made. Some of them feel that it is time for the formation of an over-all commission composed of every segment of the communications industry and of government.

Such a commission, they believe, should provide the facilities to teach workers thrown out of jobs by one machine to use another, to provider proper unemployment relief for those no longer employable and to steer young workers into the most rapidly, expanding fields of employment within the industry.

“A man is apt to get pretty mad when he sees a mechanical man moving in alongside him in a shop,” remarked a communications unionist. “If government and industry can sit down with us and look at the problem as a long-range one, then particularize and help us straighten this thing out in an orderly way, the workers, the industry and the public are going to be a lot better off, and a lot sooner.”

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Man, Technology and the Future

Andreessen, Marc – Why Software Is Eating the World (August 20, 2011)

Appleyard, Brian – Why futurologists are always wrong (April 10, 2014)

Berlinski, Claire – Globalization and the Elite Chasm (December 23, 2015)

Bourdieu, Pierre and Wacquant, Loïc Wacquant – The New Global Vulgate

Carr, Nicholas – All Can Be Lost (November, 2013)

Carr, Nicholas – The Eunuchs Children (May 25, 2014)

Carr, Nicholas – The singularity is always near (December 22, 2014)

Courrielche, Patrick – Stream Ripping How Google YouTube Is Slowly Killing the Music Industry (August 3, 2016)

Drum, Kevin – Welcome, Robot Overlords. Please Don’t Fire Us? (May / June, 2013)

Dunn, Gaby – Get rich or die vlogging: The sad economics of internet fame (December 14, 2015)

Elliott, Stuart W – Anticipating a Luddite Revival (Spring, 2014)

Friend, Tad – Sam Altman’s Manifest Destiny – (October 10, 2016)

Graeber, David – Of Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit

Handley, George – Wealth Poverty and Ignorance (Jul 25, 2013)

Johnson, David V – Do Friedmans Dream of Electric Sheeple? (December 13, 2016)

Kotkin, Joel – Are We Heading for An Economic Civil War? (November, 8, 2015)

Kotkin, Joel – Tech Titans Want to be Masters of All Media We Survey (November 22, 2015)

Kotkin, Koel – The New Masters of the Universe (December 21, 2015)

Lanier, Jaron – The Internet Destroyed the Middle Class (May 12, 2013)

Lehman, Chris – Having Their Cake and Eating Ours Too

Leonard, Andrew – The Internet’s destroying work — and turning the old middle class into the new proletariat (July 12, 2013)

Lepore, Jill – The Disruption Machine (June 23, 2014)

McCurry, Justin – Japanese Company Replaces Office Workers with Artificial Intelligence (January, 5, 2017)

Mims, Christopher – Technology Versus the Middle Class (January 22, 2017)

Mokyr, Joel – The Next Age of Invention (Winter, 2014)

Morozov, Evgeny – The Taming of Tech Criticism

Nelson, Robert H – The Secular Religions of Progress (Summer, 2013)

Packer, George – Change the World (May 27, 2013)

Pein, Corey – Cyborg Soothsayers of the High-Tech Hogwash Emporia

Pein, Corey – Mouthbreathing Machiavellis Dream of a Silicon Reich (May 19, 2014)

Peterson-Withorn, Chase – Billionaire Jeff Greene Says Technology Will Kill White-Collar Jobs, Hosts Conference On Inequality (December 7, 2015)

Pethokoukis, James – Is the internet killing middle class jobs (April 2, 2015)

Pournelle, Jerry
The Centre Cannot Hold (April 25, 2014)
The Future of Work, Continued (1) (April 26, 2014)
The Future of Work, Continued (2) (April 28, 2014)

Rampell, Catherine – It Takes a B.A. to Find a Job as a File Clerk (February 19, 2013)

Rothfeder, Jeffrey – The great unraveling of globalization (April 24, 2015)

Rotman, David – How Technology Is Destroying Jobs (June 12, 2013)

Rushkoff, Douglas – How Technology Killed the Future (January 15, 2014)

Salzman, Hal – What Shortages? – The Real Evidence About the STEM Workforce (Summer, 2013)

Staw, Barry M – Why No On Really Wants Creativity (1996)

Storey, Benjamin – Tocqueville on Technology (March 24, 2014)

Thompson, Derek – A World Without Work (July, 2015)

Yudkowsky, Eliezer – The Robots, AI, and Unemployment Anti-FAQ (July 25, 2013)

The Missing Photos: Photographic Images in Missing Aircrew Reports

We live in a visual world.

In terms of photographs pertaining to the WW II United States Army Air Force, sources of pictures include the U.S. Air Force Still Photography Collection (accessible at the National Archives by directly researching original photographic images, or digitally via Fold3.com), foreign archives (the National Archives of Great Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, as well as the archival holdings of most any nation which was involved in the war) regional and local newspapers (often only accessible as 35mm microfilm), and – perhaps the best source for “one-of-a-kind” images – the private collections of veterans, their families, and descendants.

Images from these sources have long been featured in publications about the Army Air Force, or World War Two (in general), and the Internet as well, and will certainly continue to do so for the future.

However, there is one small but interesting source of images has long been (ironically!) missing: Photographs in Army Air Force Missing Air Crew Reports (MACRs) of World War Two.

MACRs – referred to in previous blog posts – will doubtless need little introduction for many visitors of this website. However, for those unfamiliar with these records, NARA publication M1380, Missing Air Crew Reports (MACRs) of the U.S. Army Air Forces, 1942-1947, will give you a great start.

The overwhelming majority of the 16,605 MACRs are by nature comprised of documents, and, maps. However, a very small but notable group of MACRs – 58 to be precise – include something else: Photographs…of the aircraft (and in an unusual case, a solitary parachuting airman) covered by these documents.

Of these 58 MACRs, most – 43 – include one photograph, while the bulk of the remaining 15 include 2, 3, or 4 images. Two contain 9 photographs, and one includes 15 photographs. The total number of photographs among all these 58 MACRs is 101.

The MACR photographs appear to have been taken by either 1) automatic, down- or rear-facing cameras, on low-level bomb-runs, or, high altitude bombing missions, or, 2) hand-held cameras, in “air-to-air”, “air-to-ground”, and “ground to ground” situations.

Unsurprisingly, the majority of this set of 58 MACRs – 56, to be specific – pertain to bomber or transport aircraft. One covers an F-5A reconnaissance Lightning, and another a P-40K Warhawk.

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The quality of the MACR photographs is highly variable.

The main aspect of these images is that many – especially the air-to-air and air-to-ground images – were captured by happenstance. Some were taken fortuitously, by a crewman seeing, sensing, and and quickly “snapping” a photograph through the nearest available window – without much time for composition or centering! – in combat conditions. As such, the relative sized of the subject (the aircraft in question) occupying the image is relatively small.

Images of shot-down aircraft “on the ground” unsurprisingly tend to be of much better quality, at least in terms of subject size and framing.

Overall, what these images may lack in resolution and detail is outweighed by their importance as the last reminders – both historically and symbolically – of a conflict and era that is receding into the past. As such, these pictures don’t manifest the photographic composition, lighting, and focus of the stereotypical “official” publicity photo of an aircrew patiently posing beneath the nose-art of their bomber.

But by nature, they do show an aspect of the nature of WW II that cannot be depicted in posed photographs.

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The table below, based on and extracted from a much larger spreadsheet covering WW II USAAF aircraft losses (based on data in MACRs, and, a variety of other sources) presents nominal information about the 58 “photographic” MACRs. Information in the table comprises the number of the relevant MACR, the name and rank of the aircraft’s pilot, the date the aircraft was lost, the aircraft’s serial number, the type and sub-type of aircraft, the total number of photographs contained within “that” MACR, and the manner of photography of the photograph(s) therein.

The information shown “here” is limited in order to simplify and streamline the appearance of “this” blog post. A presentation of this and other relevant information about the 58 MACRs is available in a PDF file here.

Once you open the above PDF, you’ll see the information therein arranged as listed below, with three lines of “data” per MACR:

Line 1
MACR Number
Pilot’s name and rank
Date of incident
Squadron
Group
Air Force
Fate of Crew: “Total number of crew and / or passengers (Total survivors, Total Fatalities)”
Line 2
Aircraft type and sub-type
Aircraft serial number
Squadron Designation (alphabetical, numerical, or alpha-numerical) (if any; if known; in italics)
Nickname (if any; if known; in italics)
General location where aircraft was lost or last seen (with German KU or ME Report number, if relevant)
Line 3
Total number of photographic images in MACR

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A note, and more than a note…

An acknowledgement, and more than an acknowledgement…

It is my understanding that upon their declassification in the early 1980s, MACRs were made available to the public as the “original” documents, but, with the realization of the importance and heavy use of the documents, this policy was rescinded, with the records then being made available in microfiche format – at some time in the mid-1980s – by which they could be purchased from, or directly viewed at NARA. Fiche format MACRs are presently available at NARA, digitally through Fold3.com, and in many and varied websites in PDF, word (transcribed or summarized), or JPG formats.

It was through a review (albeit a lengthy and intermittent review; conducted over some years!) of MACRs in fiche and digital formats that I discovered the 58 particular Reports that are the subject of this post. That review focused on the approximately 14,900 wartime MACRs, and a smaller number of the post-war, “fill-in” MACRs which were created for gaps in wartime coverage, and, pre-mid-1943 aircraft losses.

After I identified this set of MACRs, the National Archives very kindly granted me access to the “original” documents in order to scan photographic images within them.

As a result of their generosity – for which I’m deeply appreciative – I’m now able to bring you this post.

And, I hope to bring you a few of the better images in the future.

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Here are a few examples…

MACR 1087. (Refer to this account at Justin Taylan’s Pacific Wrecks Database.)

MACR 5032. (Refer to this account at the 416th Bomb Group website (maintained by Wayne G. Sayles, Rick Prucha, Chris Adams and Carl Sgamboti).

MACR 8440. (Refer to this account at the 303rd Bomb Group website.)

MACR	Pilot	Date	Aircraft	Serial		Type of Camera
64	Perkins, John H. 1 Lt.	7/14/43	B-17F	42-3049	1	Automatic
150	Flavelle, Brian F. 1 Lt.	8/1/43	B-24D	42-40563	1	Hand-Held
304	Miller, Ralph R. 1 Lt.	8/19/43	B-17F	42-29807	1	Automatic
394	Moore, Don W. 1 Lt.	8/27/43	B-17F	42-29530	1	Hand-Held
489	McDonald, Harry L. 1 Lt.	8/30/43	B-24D	42-40217	3	Hand-Held
614	Boren, William T. Major	9/21/43	B-26B	41-31721	1	Automatic
935	Stookey, Donald L. 1 Lt.	10/16/43	B-25D	41-30561	1	Automatic
1057	Manley, Daniel 1 Lt.	10/9/43	B-25D	41-30363	1	Hand-Held
1087	Smith, Richard F/O	11/3/43	B-25G	42-64850	1	Hand-Held
1146	Gullette, Frank E. 1 Lt.	11/20/43	B-25D	41-30572	1	Hand-Held
1170	Paschal, James M. 1 Lt.	10/19/43	B-25C	41-12631	4	Hand-Held
1416	Meister, Robert A. 1 Lt.	12/17/43	B-25D	41-30661	2	Hand-Held
1423	Smith, George W. 1 Lt.	12/21/43	B-24D	41-24214	2	Hand-Held
1544	Besley, Charles E. 1 Lt.	12/21/43	B-25D	41-30771	1	Automatic?
1620	Unruh, Marion D. Col.	12/30/43	B-24D	41-24186	3	Hand-Held
1629	Morse, Roger W. 1 Lt.	1/3/44	B-24D	42-41205	1	Hand-Held?
2450	Sutphen, Harry S. Capt.	2/22/44	B-25G	42-64779	1	Hand-Held
2578	Ecklund, Robert D. 1 Lt.	12/27/43	F-5A	42-13068	2	Recon & Hand-Held
2761	Fletcher, William H. 1 Lt.	2/21/44	B-17G	42-37796	1	Hand-Held (Ground)
3680	Rauh, Theodore A. 1 Lt.	4/2/44	B-24J	42-73150	1	Hand-Held
3971	Rogers, Robert J., Jr. 2 Lt.	4/2/44	B-24H	41-28698	1	Hand-Held
5032	Gullion, Allen W. 1 Lt.	5/27/44	A-20G	43-10206	1	Automatic
5033	Siracusa, Lucian J. 1 Lt.	5/27/44	A-20G	43-10203	1	Automatic
5303	Moran, Bart 2 Lt.	5/29/44	B-17G	42-107052	9	Hand-Held (Ground)
5536	Randolph, Benjamin D. 1 Lt.	6/3/44	A-20G	43-9959	1	Automatic
5628	Jackson, Loren E. 2 Lt.	6/12/44	B-17G	42-31762	1	Hand-Held (Ground)
5982	Burch, Richard W. Capt.	6/20/44	B-17G	42-97892	1	Automatic
6070	Casey, Thomas V. 2 Lt.	6/22/44	B-25J	43-27656	1	Hand-Held
6455	Dunn, Lamar J. 1 Lt.	6/26/44	B-24H	42-50401	1	Hand-Held
6456	Carter, Thomas J. Major	6/26/44	B-24H	42-95451	1	Automatic
6996	Jones, Ellsoworth D. 2 Lt.	7/28/44	B-24H	41-29275	1	Automatic
7419	DeMatio, Donald H. 2 Lt.	7/19/44	B-24H	42-94893	2	Hand-Held
7685	Hoschar, John P. 1 Lt.	8/15/44	B-25J	43-27783	1	Automatic?
8187	Carpenter, Floyd B. 2 Lt.	9/2/44	P-40K	42-9860	15	Automatic
8440	Litman, Arnold S. Capt.	8/15/44	B-17G	43-37838	1	Hand-Held (Ground)
9750	Barnsley, Daniel V. 2 Lt.	10/21/44	B-24J	44-40557	3	Hand-Held
9906	Yaeger, William C. 1 Lt.	9/17/44	C-47A	42-100648	1	Hand-Held
10154	Levitoff, Julius 2 Lt.	11/6/44	B-17G	42-97330	1	Hand-Held
10156	Campbell, Robert G. 1 Lt.	11/2/44	B-17G	43-38670	1	Automatic?
10303	Alleman, James E. 2 Lt.	11/5/44	B-17G	43-38363	1	Hand-Held
11392	McKanna, Ellis J. Capt.	1/18/45	B-25J	43-27649	2	?
11555	Smith, Edmund G. 1 Lt.	1/27/45	B-29	42-24769	1	Automatic
11574	Eisenhart, Oliver T. 2 Lt.	1/13/45	B-17G	43-38689	1	Automatic
11576	Statton, Roy F. 1 Lt.	1/10/45	B-17G	42-97861	1	Hand-Held (Ground)
11577	McGinnis, Martin S. Capt.	1/13/45	B-17G	42-107099	1	Hand-Held
11713	Murchland, Robert K. 1 Lt.	1/18/45	B-25J	43-4069	2	Hand-Held
12050	Bierwirth, Herman L. 1 Lt.	2/8/45	B-24L	44-41470	1	?
12092	Figler, Roman H. 1 Lt.	2/13/45	B-25J	43-27670	1	Hand-Held
12130	Ross, Charles D. 1 Lt.	2/5/45	B-25J	43-36098	1	Hand-Held
12680	Smith, Jay B. Lt. Col.	2/22/45	B-26C	42-107745	3	Hand-Held (Ground)
13419	Kreiser, Joseph R. Capt.	3/24/45	C-46D	44-77582	1	Hand-Held (Ground)
13421	Phillips, Moorhead 1 Lt.	3/24/45	C-46D	44-77595	1	Hand-Held (Ground)
13422	Hamilton, Gerard E. 2 Lt.	3/24/45	C-46D	44-77512	1	Hand-Held (Ground)
13431	Barton, Junior R. 1 Lt.	3/24/45	C-46D	44-77474	1	Hand-Held (Ground)
13515	Bauer, Christian C., Jr. 2 Lt.	3/6/45	B-25J	43-36150	2	Hand-Held
14351	Custer, Glenn R. 2 Lt.	5/4/45	B-24M	44-42058	1	Automatic
14408	Larsen, Leonard G. 1 Lt.	5/10/45	B-25J	43-36149	1	Hand-Held
15098	Norton, Charles E. Capt.	9/24/42	B-17E	41-2420	4	Hand-Held (Ground)

References

NARA Publication M 1380: Missing Air Crew Reports (MACRs) of the U.S. Army Air Forces, 1942-1947, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington. D.C., 2005

“B-25G-5 Mitchell Serial Number 42-64850″, at http://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/b-25/42-64850.html.

B-17G Fearless Fosdick, at http://www.303rdbg.com/pp-fearlessfosdick-crash.html. (Website copyright by Gary L. Moncur.)

“416th Bomb Group Mission # 58”, at http://www.416th.com/missions/mission58.html. (Website copyright by Wayne G. Sayles.)

Far Away, So Close: The Fall of a B-24 Liberator off the Coast of Italy – III (References)

References

Books

Birdsall, Steve, Log of the Liberators – An Illustrated History of the B-24, Doubleday, New York, N.Y., 1973
Blue, Allan G., The B-24 Liberator, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, N.Y., 1975
Davis, Larry, B-24 Liberator in Action, Squadron / Signal Publications, Carrollton, Tx., 1987
Rust, Kenn C., Fifteenth Air Force Story, Historical Aviation Album, Temple City, Ca., 1976

Web Sites

Aircraft

Marty the Rubble Maker, at http://www.450thbg.com/real/aircraft/martytherubblemaker.shtml
Marty the Rubble Maker, at http://www.450thbg.com/real/biographies/kostro/kostro.shtml
Marty the Rubble Maker, at http://www.450thbg.com/real/crews/bertling.shtml
Marty the Rubble Maker, at http://www.b24bestweb.com/martytherubblemaker.htm
Satan’s Gal, at http://www.americanairmuseum.com/aircraft/21270.
Satan’s Gal, at http://www.worldwarphotos.info/gallery/usa/aircrafts-2-3/b-24/b-24-leevus-bee-and-satans-gal-ii-450th-bg/.
Satan’s Gal, at http://www.b24bestweb.com/satansgal4.htm.

Crew

J.C. Word crew, at http://www.450thbg.com/real/crews/wordcrew.shtml
S/Sgt. Harry M. Beightol: Chautauqua News and Sherman Advance 6/2/44, 6/9/44; Jamestown Post-Journal 10/21/43, 6/26/44, 10/27/44, 12/7/44, 2/5/49, 2/7/49, 10/28/54; Daly Sentinel (Rome) 3/5/45
S/Sgt. Paul D. Boaz, Biographical information by Jeff Barefoot, at FindAGrave.com
2 Lt. Edward F. Garrett: Albany Times Union 6/16/45; Troy Times Record 6/15/44, 6/19/44, 9/2/44, 6/13/45; Knickerbocker News 6/19/44, 6/12/45
S/Sgt. Gilbert W. Hatfield, Biographical information by Sally Wise (niece), at FindAGrave.com
2 Lt. J.C. Word: The News From Paris, Texas, June 14, 1945; Miami Daily News-Record (Miami, Oklahoma) June 19, 1944

Miscellaneous

Cold Water Survival, at http://www.shipwrite.bc.ca/Chilling_truth.htm
Cold Water Survival, at http://www.ussartf.org/cold_water_survival.htm
Mediterranean Sea Water Temperature, at http://seatemperature.info/may/santo-stefano-al-mare-water-temperature.html
Giannutri Island and Italian coastline, as photographed by Bernard Lafond, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/lafond/3769229709/in/photostream/.
List of Newspapers for Chautauqua, New York, at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nychauta//Newspapers.htm

Far Away, So Close: The Fall of a B-24 Liberator off the Coast of Italy – II

This post presents the three images showing the loss of B-24H 42-52096: Marty the Rubble Maker.

MACR 4836 includes eyewitness statements about the loss of the aircraft by two members of the 722nd Bomb Squadron: 1 Lt. Willoughby J. Hodge and S/Sgt. Glenn K. Platt, the navigator and aerial gunner of B-24H 42-99805, “Madame Shoo Shoo”, Squadron Number 47 (otherwise known as “Termite Chaser II”). (1)

Platt’s account:

On 12 May 1944, our group was on a mission to bomb the Harbor Installations at Port San Stefano, Italy. I was flying as tail gunner in ship #805 in #4 position in the lead box in the lead attack unit. Lieutenant Word was flying ship #096, leading the low left element of the lead attack unit. Approximately two minutes after target time Lieutenant Word was hit by flak which knocked off his left rudder. This caused the ship to go partially out of control. The ship then went into a dive. One man bailed out while it was in the dive. As the ship approached the sea, Lieutenant Word pulled the ship out of the dive which gave sufficient time for the remainder of the crew to bail out. I observed a total of nine chutes before the ship nosed into the sea.

Hodge’s account:

On May 12, 1944, our group was on a mission to bomb the Harbor Installations at Port San Stefano, Italy. I was flying as navigator in ship #805 in #4 position in the lead box in the lead attack unit. Lieutenant Word was flying ship #096, leading the low left element of the lead attack unit. As we came off the bomb run, a burst of flak blew the left rudder completely off of Lieutenant Word’s ship. Lieutenant Word’s ship maintained level flight for about four minutes. It then started to climb, as it turned back towards the target. The ship then rolled almost completely over on its back. As the ship partially righted itself, it went into a steep turning dive. I then saw nine chutes leave the ship. It crashed into the sea at 0906 hours. The Coordinates were 42 16 N, 11 08 E.

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Where was the plane lost?

Using the coordinates and the map within MACR 4836, GoogleMaps was used to generate maps – at successively larger scales – of area of the plane’s loss. These are presented below.

Western Italian coast, Tyrrhenian Sea, and Corsica. Porto Santo Stefano is directly east from Corsica.

Zooming into the Tyrrhenian Sea, between Corsica and Porto Santo Stefano.

Porto Santo Stefano, with Giglio Island to the West, and Giannutri Island (unlabeled) to the south. Google Maps’ red position locator shows the loss location of Marty the Rubble Maker, based on coordinates of 42 16 N, 11 08 E reported by Lt. Hodge, and, shown in the map below, from MACR 4836.

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The photographs?

A review of photographs in the U.S. Air Force Pre-1954 Official Still Photography Collection at the United States National Archives reveals three images of the loss of Marty the Rubble Maker, which are also shown at the 450th BG Website. The original photographic prints are contained in “Box 100” of the World War II series in this photo collection.

The pictures are listed and described below. The “original” USAAF photographic print number is given first, followed by the the corresponding NASM (National Air and Space Museum) Videodisc Frame Number (the “3A” prefix).

62062AC / 3A-24479 – This image shows the B-24 in horizontal flight, seen from starboard rear, with the Italian coast in the distance. This is the image published in Log of the Liberators.

62063AC / 3A-24480 – This image shows the aircraft “standing” on its starboard wing and banking past vertical, before its recovery by Lieutenants Word and Bertling. Visually, the plane is “framed” between the port tail of a nearby Liberator, while to the right is Satan’s Gal, B-24G 42-78231, squadron number 5, of the 720th Bomb Squadron. A nice image of Satan’s Gal appears at the website of the American Air Museum, and another photograph – showing the aircraft in the 450th BG’s late-war “tiger-stripe” yellow and black tail markings – from the World War Photos gallery, appears below.

62064AC / 3A-24482 – This image shows the aircraft in a steep dive, flanked by the wing and tail of B-24s heading west, with the Italian coastline – southwest of Porto San Stefano – in the background. This is the image that appears in Fifteenth Air Force Story.

The three photographs were probably taken in the sequence listed above (62AC, then 63AC, then 64AC), which is consistent with the accounts given by Platt and Willoughby.

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The photographs, in sequence…

The three photographs are presented below. The first and last images include GoogleEarth 3-D virtual views best conforming to the location and perspective of the photograph, and, a Google Map matching the locality of that 3-D virtual view. (The “second” image of the sequence – 62063AC / 3A-24480 – does not include Google Map or 3-D virtual views.)

62062AC / 3A-24479 – Precisely because of the clarity of this photograph, with the aircraft silhouetted against the sea, and the coast of Italy not far off in the distance – but alas, still too far – this is the most evocative and haunting of the three photographs.

It evokes two words, “If only…”

This is a 2400 dpi enlargement from the original NARA photographic print, enhanced to bring out details. All four engines are undamaged, while the ball turret, with its guns pointed downward, has probably been vacated. The almost completely missing port tail is strikingly evident, suggesting that the flak burst exploded very close to S/Sgt. Whitley’s tail turret. Though probably not visible in your web browser, the aircraft has a two digit tail number, which appears to be 45 or 46.

Due to the subtlety of the coastline, atmospheric haze, and the angle of view, generating a 3-D view matching this image was challenging. However, this 3-D view of the coast of Italy appears to be the “best fit” for the geographic features seen in the above photo. This section of the Italian coastline encompasses a view of Tarquinia, Civitavecchia, and Santa Marinella.

A vertical view of the same area.

A map view of Tarquinia, Civitavecchia, and Santa Marinella.

62063AC / 3A-24480 – This image is testimony to the flying skill of Lieutenants Word and Bertling. The plane has banked well past vertical, and yet they still made a recovery…

This image is a 3200 dpi enlargement from 3A-24480. No new details have emerged, but the picture does stand out more clearly.

62064AC / 3A-24482 – The last of the three pictures, with the diving Liberator silhouetted against the western coast of Italy. In Lt. Hodge’s words, “It then started to climb, as it turned back towards the target. The ship then rolled almost completely over on its back. As the ship partially righted itself, it went into a steep turning dive.” This photograph was probably taken just at that moment.

A 3200 dpi enlargement from the above image. Obvious is just how closely to the tail position the anti-aircraft shell exploded; virtually nothing remains of the port empennage. It appears – from the bright glint of sunlight off the starboard fin – that the plane’s de-icer boots have been removed, similar to the wing of the Liberator in the left side of the photograph.

A 3-D view of the coast and nearby area in 62064AC / 3A-24482. The geographic features in the image (coastline, roads, farmland, forested areas, and a lake paralleling the coastline) are identical to those visible in the photograph. In the original image, Marty the Rubble Maker is visually superimposed against forested area just to the left (northwest) of Sgrillozzo. The image shows the Italian coastline with Spacco della Regina to the northwest, Capabio Scalo in the center, and Lago di Burano just inland from shore.

Assuming the accuracy of the location reported in the MACR, the crew parachuted over the Tyrrhenian Sea just over one mile northeast of the island of Giannutri. However, going by this image – alone – it appears that the crew parachuted and the aircraft crashed closer to the Italian mainland. This discrepancy may actually be due to the perspective from which the photograph was taken.

A vertical view of the area seen above.

A map view of Spacco della Regina, Capabio Scalo in the center, and Lago di Burano.

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What happened?

Nine parachutes emerged from an aircraft carrying ten men.

None returned.

The tenth man? He could have been the tail gunner, S/Sgt, Whitley, perhaps mortally wounded or killed by anti-aircraft fire.

He could have been Lieutenant Word, who remained behind to give his crew a chance to escape.

The tenth man could – in actuality – have been any of the other eight men aboard the aircraft (except for Sgt. Beightol, whose body was eventually recovered and returned to the United States). (2)

Lt. Hodge’s account suggests that Lt. Word, realizing the predicament of his plane and crew, may have been attempting to reach the Italian mainland to allow a bail-out over land. They bailed out when the plane when out of control. They landed at sea, somewhere between the Italian mainland and Giannutri Island. They were almost certainly within sight of both as they descended in their parachutes.

A distance of about ten miles separates the western coast of Italy from Giannutri.

Ten miles is not far – “as the crow flies”.
Ten miles is a short distance – on a map.

But, a clearer impression of the nature of their situation can be seen in this remarkable photograph showing Giannutri Island, with Porto Santo Stefano and the Italian coastline in the distance. The image, from Bernard Lafond’s flickr Phostream was taken in 2009, and gives a striking impression of this section of the Tyrrhenian Sea and western Italian coast.

The crew parachuted close to land, but not close enough to land. Without immediate rescue, in water at a temperature of around 60 degrees, burdened by heavy flying equipment, with only a Mae West for flotation, ten miles of water might as well have been one hundred.

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As Sergeant Beightol wrote five days before his final – and 50th – mission, “I haven’t done so much, but in a sense of the word I can say I have done a little something for my country. I hope to be able to do more. Perhaps I’ll get the chance.” It is more than ironic – but then again, life in general is often ironic – that he did far more than he could ever have imagined.

His name, and the name of his nine fellow crewmen, would become part of the total of over 407,300 American war dead of the Second World War, and would pass into history.

Perhaps the best we can do, in turn, is remember.

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(1) A photo of Hodge, Platt, and their crew standing before the 450th BG B-24 Termite Chaser I can be found here. That aircraft was ditched in Naples Harbor by 2 Lt. Layman E. Shain (ironically, an original crewman of Marty the Rubble Maker) on May 19, Shain losing his life in that incident. Superb in-flight photos of “Madame Shoo Shoo” – from which they witnessed the loss of Marty the Rubble Maker – can be found at this 450th Bomb Group web page.

(2) More information about this can probably be found in his IDPF, which might clarify similar questions about Lt. Bertling.

Far Away, So Close: The Fall of a B-24 Liberator off the Coast of Italy – I

On May 7, 1944, an aerial gunner in the 722nd Bomb Squadron of the 450th (“Cottontails”) Bomb Group – S/Sgt. Harry M. Beightol – composed the following letter to his mother, Nellie Mae Beightol, of Howard Hill, New York:

“I am getting along fine, Mom, and am trying to be a good soldier and do my part. I go to church whenever I can and I never fail to thank God for bringing us back after each mission.

“I carry my Testament with me on every mission and before we get into enemy territory I read the 91st Psalm. I believe that passage means to me that my fears vanish as dew in the morning sun.

“Some of the boys in our group have finished their missions and are awaiting transportation to the States. I have 45 missions to my credit. Perhaps I’ll get to see you all one of these days soon. I certainly won’t be sorry.

“I haven’t done so much, but in a sense of the word I can say I have done a little something for my country. I hope to be able to do more. Perhaps I’ll get the chance.”

May 7, 1944

Brief and direct; meaningful and sincere, Sgt. Beightol’s letter was shared with the upstate New York newspaper Chautauqua News and Sherman Advance, where it was published just over one month later, on June 9. The impetus for its publication was his parents’ receipt – on June 8 – of a telegram from the War Department notifying them that Harry and his crew were listed as Missing in Action in the Mediterranean Theater of War, on May 12, 1944.

Neither Harry nor his crewmen would return.

To those who knew them, they would become memories. To their country, their loss would become part of both the cost and record of America’s victory in World War Two, an era that imparted and reflected monumental changes in American society, and, the place of the United States in the international arena.

Almost seventy-three years have passed since then. Times have changed; times continue to change.

The impact of the Second World War – personal and cultural; historical and technological – while in many ways having formed and influenced the world we have lived in, is increasingly moving into the past, blending into and merging with the currents of time. Such is the way of human nature; such is the way of history.

The memory and legacy of that era – which might once have seemed near-indelible to its participants, observers, and, their descendants – will, in the fullness of time, like all historical events, consist of memories of memories, words, and, images. (Well, it does already…)

It is the latter – three images – that are the focus of this post: Pictures of Harry’s aircraft, Marty the Rubble Maker, photographed it flew into history.

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An image of this aircraft appeared in publication as far back as 1973, in Steve Birdsall’s Log of the Liberators, where a photograph of the severely damaged B-24 is shown on page 225. The picture is captioned, “Hit by flak over Porto Santo Stefano, this Cottontail stayed in formation for seven minutes with the entire left tail section shot off. The aircraft stood on one wing a couple of times, but the pilot fought it and managed to get her level again long enough for the crew to bail out.”

From the caption’s optimistic tone, it would have seemed – well, then – that the crew survived.

Another photograph of this B-24 was published three years later, in Ken Rust’s Fifteenth Air Force Story. On page 23, an image of a diving B-24 with a half-destroyed tail is captioned, “Liberator was hit by flak on 12 May 1944 after completing its bomb run over Porto Santo Stefano, Italy. After losing part of its tail, the plane remained with its formation for seven minutes, then split-essed a number of times with the pilot recovering control by use of ailerons each time. Finally, after all crewmen had bailed out safely, the plane went out of control and crashed into the sea.”

Porto Santo Stefano? Liberator? The caption was similar in content and tone to that in Birdsall’s book, and it became obvious that the two photographs were images in the same sequence.

The key would be the Missing Air Crew Report (MACR). In turn, the key to obtaining a copy of the MACR (as microfiche; well, this was 1985, years before the advent of Fold3.com, JPGs, and PDFs!) was the date: May 12, 1944. With that information, I received the relevant MACR (4836) from the National Archives. Placing it within a microfilm reader, I discovered that from the plane in question – B-24H 42-52096 – there were no survivors.

What happened?

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Who were the plane’s crew?

Pilot: 2 Lt. J.C. Word (Full first name unknown.)
Mrs. Ava Word (mother), Wright City, Ok.
Commemorated on Tablets of the Missing at Florence American Cemetery, Florence, Italy.

Co-Pilot: 2 Lt. Norbert T. Bertling
Born 1919
Mrs. Agnes Bertling (mother), Cashton, Wi.
According to ABMC website, commemorated on Tablets of the Missing at Florence American Cemetery, Florence, Italy.
According to FindAGrave.com, buried at Moen Cemetery, Cashton, Wi.

Navigator: 2 Lt. Edward Franklin Garrett; On 38th Mission
Mrs. Catherine T. Garrett (wife), 11 Villa Road, Menands, N.Y.
Mrs. John Dobler (mother), 41 Ford Ave., Troy, N.Y.
Mrs. Harry Stufflebeam (sister)
Commemorated on Tablets of the Missing at Sicily-Rome American Cemetery, Nettuno, Italy.
Photograph and missing in action notice from The Times Record (Troy, N.Y.) of June 15, 1944

Bombardier: 2 Lt. John M. Werner
Mrs. Ethel V. Werner (wife), 1122 Voight St., Houston, Tx.
No record at ABMC website
No record at FindAGrave.com

Flight Engineer: T/Sgt. Gilbert Wesley Hatfield; On 50th Mission
Born 9/8/17, Klamath Falls, Or.
Mrs. Elsie Mae (Postma) Hatfield (wife), Jean (step-daughter), Tuscon, Az.
Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Pleasant and Grace Bernice (Jones) Hatfield (parents); Three siblings
Commemorated on Tablets of the Missing at Florence American Cemetery, Florence, Italy.
Photographs and biographical information by Sally Wise, at FindAGrave.com.

Radio Operator: T/Sgt. Morris Spector
Miss Celia Mayer (ward), 487 East 174th St., New York, N.Y.
Commemorated on Tablets of the Missing at Florence American Cemetery, Florence, Italy.

Gunner (Nose): S/Sgt. Harry M. Beightol; On 50th Mission
Born 6/5/20
Mrs. Mary Jane (Wood) Beightol (wife), Route 1, Mayville, N.Y.
Mr. and Mrs. C. Vernon and Nellie Mae (Persons) Beightol (parents); Mrs. Marjorie Shepardson (sister), Howard Hill, N.Y.
Buried at Mayville Cemetery, Mayville, N.Y.
Information from the following New York state newspapers: Chautauqua News and Sherman Advance 6/2/44, 6/9/44; Jamestown Post-Journal 10/21/43, 6/26/44, 10/27/44, 12/7/44, 2/5/49, 2/7/49, 10/28/54; Daily Sentinel (Rome) 3/5/45

Gunner: S/Sgt. James G. Shirley
Mrs. Alice V. Shirley (mother), 180 Sears Point Road, Vallejo, Ca.
Commemorated on Tablets of the Missing at Florence American Cemetery, Florence, Italy.

Gunner: S/Sgt. Paul Dillard Boaz
Born 1/8/23, High Point, N.C.
Mr. and Mrs. Hobart Dillard and Susan Evelyn (Barefoot) Boaz (parents), Route # 1, Cameron, N.C.
Commemorated on Tablets of the Missing at Florence American Cemetery, Florence, Italy.
Commemorative grave marker at Barefoot-Lamm Cemetery, Wilson County, N.C.
Photograph and biographical information by Jeff Barefoot, at FindAGrave.com.

Gunner (Tail): S/Sgt. Lloyd Whitley
Mrs. Ethel J. Whitley (mother), Route #1, Charlotte, N.C.
Commemorated on Tablets of the Missing at Florence American Cemetery, Florence, Italy.

Three photographs of Lt. Word and his crew are also available at the 450th Bomb Group wesbite.

Photos of the fall of Marty the Rubble Maker appear in the next post.

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