All Things Vintage: Bomber Girls #AprilA2Z

Good morning, kittens and dawgs! I’m glad to see yesterday’s cliffhanger brought you back. In researching today’s topic, I found oodles of interesting links and info, so if you don’t have time to read this then I invite you to bookmark this page for All Things Vintage.

Nose art is painted designs on an aircraft. The Italians and Germans started this art expression in WWI. Somewhere along the line nose art moved from snarling teeth, shooting flames, dragons, and such to provocative images of scantily clad to nude women who are often called Bomber Girls.

Scroll through these images of WWII fighter planes that are literally and figuratively heavenly babes.

Reveille with Beverly
Jean Hays of Reveille with Beverly was asked to be a pin-up model for GI listeners and some of her artwork wound up as nose art. Read Jean’ s interesting story, here.
NightieMissionNoseArt
Nightie Mission/nose art on a Northrup P-61A Black Widow of the 6th Night Fighter Squadron, at East Field, Saipan, Mariana Islands, probably late 1944. (info source: 20th Century Man source)
Little Gem B-29 Superfortress Isley Field Saipan February 1945
U.S. Marine Randall Sprenger putting the finishing touches on “Little Gem”, on a B-29 Superfortress at Isley Field Saipan February 1945. (information borrowed from Pinterest)
Memphis Belle B-17
Tony Starcer was the resident artist for the 91st Bomb Group (Heavy), one of the initial six groups fielded by the Eighth Air Force. Starcer painted over a hundred pieces of renowned B-17 nose art, including “Memphis Belle”. (info borrowed from Wikipedia)
Shoo Shoo Shoo Baby
U.S. Army model B-17 Flying Fortress from WWII
Honey_Bunny_P-38
Lockehead P-381 one of the most beautiful and deadly planes to take to the sky during WWII.
Huckberry_World_War_II_Fighter_Jet_Pinups_2
Don Adams admires his artistic work dubbed “Blondie” according to cleveland.com article.
The Pink Lady B-17 WWII Flying Fortress
The Pink Lady
b25_georgies_gal_angela_02
Georgie’s Gal Angela on a B25J. Image borrowed from William McFadden Photographs.
b25_georgies_gal_helena_01
Georgie’s Gal Helena on a B25J. Image borrowed from William McFadden Photographs.
Yankee Lady B-17 Flying Fortress
Yankee Lady nose art on a B-17 Flying Fortress. Read a little of her history on Wikipedia.
Victory Girl B-29 WWII plane
The Victory Girl nose art originally placed on a WWII B-29.
South Sea Sinner nose art B29 bomber
South Sea Sinner nose art on a B29 bomber. I believe I found this image on Pinterest at this location.
"Hard to Get" nose art on a B26
“Hard to Get” nose art on a B26. Image borrowed from mysightpictures.
Briefing Time nose art
Image source for “Briefing Time” nose art B-25J Mitchell Bomber now resigns at Mid-Atlantic Air Museum.

I’m unsure if this image was actually used on any aircraft or not, but I did find an airplane kit with a similar design and thought you would like to know some history about the type of plane that might have had the “Bombs Away” nose art.

Bombs Away
The B-17 Flying Fortress, a Boeing-manufactured heavy bomber introduced in April of 1938, was chiefly operated by the USAAF in the European Theater during their strategic bombing campaign over Germany. Of the 1.5 million tons of weaponry dropped on Nazi-occupied territory during World War II, 640,000 came from B-17s. More than 12,000 units manufactured and ten remain airworthy as of 2015.

While scouring the net for Bomber Girl nose art, I stumbled across MessyNessyChick. There you will find a few of these photos and a few others I did not include due to the sensitive nature of the images.

I love everything about being a woman and while some think this is demeaning, it makes me euphoric. I understand military men were lonely for their wives and girlfriends and this gave them an outlet to express their feelings, but I think it’s something much deeper than what meets the eye. I believe they see women as treasures or good luck charms or maybe a little of both.

Did you know that Betty Grable (December 18, 1916 – July 2, 1973) was the most popular pinup model during WWII?

bettie-grabe

In the 40s, Grable was one of the top female box office draws earning her $300,000 a year making her one of the highest-paida women in America. Here’s an interesting piece of trivia, Betty Grable insured each of her legs for one million dollars. Think about that now. We’re talking a million bucks for each leg in the 1940s. I used dollartimes.com to convert this for today’s value. Are you ready? 1M dollars is about $16.9M and don’t forget to multiply that by two. It makes perfect sense why Grable (also featuring Marilyn Monroe and Lauren Bacall) starred in the 1953 film How to Marry a Millionaire. lol By the way, this was a fabulously fun movie.

A special thank you to the incredibly gifted A2Z Team who many are now my good friends.

Arlee Bird @ Tossing it Out
Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh
Heather M. Gardner
Jeremy @ Hollywood Nuts
AJ Lauer
Pam @ An Unconventional Librarian
Damyanti Biswas @ Daily Write
Zalka Csenge Virág @ The Multicolored Diary
Joy Campbell @ The Character Depot
John Holton @The Sound of One Hand Typing

Now, I invite you to hop with me in checking out some of the amazing A2Zers playing along this year and I hope you’ll come back on Monday to read Cab Calloway.

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25 comments

  2. This interesting post makes me wonder if my dad had anything painted on his plane. He was already married to my mom, and my brother had been born.

    Love,
    Janie

  4. I always wondered the story behind this Art. I remember the Memphis Belle one, and am sure I have seen many of the others and just didn’t know the context. And I don’t find this demeaning – given the historical context as you mentioned. The outfits might be barely there in some cases, but there is no outright nudity here. Nothing that is gratuitous. I don’t mind men celebrating women being sexy when it’s done tastefully. It’s nice to think we inspire them. 🙂

  5. That is some really cool nose art. I like a bit of the history included.
    One of my favourite scenes from Stalag 17 was when Animal asked the comedic impressionist to do his requested impression. However he received Clark Gable, instead of Betty Grable. LOL

  6. Interesting factoids about Grable. I didn’t think about the art on the planes and that it was a trend before you highlighted it here. That would have broken the sobriety and drudgery that came with being at war in those days.

  7. Men are such visual creatures, and one of their favorite things to visualize is the female body. So, this makes perfect sense. Notice that women of the same era didn’t have half naked men painted on their sewing machines. Just sayin’. ha!

  8. The pilots and crew were all risking their lives and needed a pleasant diversion as stress relief, which these women provided. 🙂 It would only be demeaning if they were coerced in some way and I know that’s not the case. They were all what I would call “great “broads”. Thanks for this interesting, historical post.

    1. Debbie, I agree with you, the beautiful artwork was just that a pleasant diversion and yes, they were all great broads! I love watching old movies where the women are referred to as dames or broads. The modern woman would take offense to that, but I just love it!

  9. I think the bomber girls were great works of art and fun for the men who many would go to their deaths so women should chill if they take offence to it. I think the 2nd one might be Rita Hayworth. Betty Grable was #1 amongst the regular GI’s but Hayworth was also big and more for the senior guys for some reason. Hayworth’s image was on the h-bomb and she was really upset by this because of the great loss of life. In this regard I don’t blame her one bit. I love that picture with Monroe, Grable and Bacall. It really is funny especially Monroe who can’t see a thing without her glasses. Grable was a really great dame who was there for the servicemen any chance she got and had no diva airs. It’s such a shame she died at 56 (I think), from cancer.

  10. As someone born seven years after this war ended, interested in history, I’ve seen some examples of this art, but never to this extent. Some very talented artists. A different time and attitude than today.

    1. Alana, Attitudes were definitely different in those days. I love chivalry of this era, but unfortunately many of the men weren’t nearly as sensitive as they should be toward women. These sorts of extremes caused rebellion and strife between the sexes. I’m sure it was always there to a degree, but in the 20s women took a sharp turn to left. Good, bad, or a little of both I can’t help to wonder if it things would turn out the same in the end with women being where the are today had things progressed differently. Thanks for popping by for a visit!

  13. Hi, dear Cathy!

    This is an inspired topic for “B.” Bomber girl pin-up art was a fascinating phenomenon. In today’s professional, no nonsense military, the practice would probably be considered a distraction and ruled unacceptable. I admire women like you, Cathy, who have the self confidence to see pin-up artwork w/o shouting “BIMBO!” like some woman do. For example, my mother hated Marilyn Monroe for no other reason than her beauty and desirability to the men in the world.

    Thanks, Cathy!

    1. Tom,

      You’re right the military has a different view on this sort of thing today than during this era. I think they might say it was a distraction, but if the truth be told it would be because organizations like NOW would scream something awful. BTW, most of the woman associated with that group (or others like it) are in need of some serious help in the makeup and fashion department. It’s like they hate being a woman or looking like one, whereas I LOVE everything about being a woman and seeing other women in their beauty is reason to celebrate. You hit the nail on the head…self confidence does change a woman’s perspective when she sees or meets attractive women. There isn’t any comparison, except mutual respect and admiration for the care taken to make herself pretty. I think there are more women out there who feel the same as I do, but liberalism keeps them from expressing their hearts desire. These women need to find their inner lion and come apart from the herd of sheep they’ve been following. Thanks for visiting and appreciation my Bomber Girl post, Tom!

    1. Thank you Srivi! I’m glad you enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun. I love stuff like this and think women are beautiful. DH says women are treasures and he certainly treats me like one. 😉

  15. I have long found it slightly saddening that depictions of young women should have been used to adorn vehicles that delivered death and destruction, but can’t fault the quality of the art.

    Keith Channing A-Zing from

    1. Keith, I think the boys who painted women on their planes needed this kind of encouragement to get them through those long, dreary days of war and I think it was a big moral booster for our soldiers. Thank you for visiting today!

    1. Mary, Yay! You’re the first gal to visit today’s post and I’m glad it made you feel empowered, as it should. Bomber Girls and Pinup Girls are a special part of history, but more importantly women should be celebrated! 😀

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