B-26 Nose Art of the Korean War

Old Able - Lady - What Shabolians - Little Sheba
Oscar, Old Able & Charlie - Garden State Express - Maiden USA - The Wheel
Hell's Belle - Brown Nose - The 7th Chadwick - State Side Dream
The Wench - Mattress Mary - We Go Pogo - My Mary Lou
Sioux City Sue - Heart Breaking Kasha - The 6th Chadwick - Sophisticated Sherry

KOREAN WAR NOSE ART Some of the most beautiful and most exciting nose art ever created appeared on USAF B-26 light bombers during the Korean War. The youthful devil may care attitude of the crews was depicted on the noses of the planes with reckless abandon. The 13th Bomb Squadron planes often had Oscar, the Devil's Own Grim Reaper on one side of the nose and a half naked pin-up girl on the other. Sometimes the squadron chaplains would have the crews cover up the bare naked ladies that adorned the planes, but if one of the crew was quick with a camera, the uncensored version of the nose art would survive if only on film. Garden State Express was one such plane. My illustration depicts the censored version of Garden State Express after the chaplain had his way with her.

*NoteThis is an ongoing project to illustrate as many Korean War B-26 Nose Art designs as possible. While most of the planes are 13th birds, I am willing to do illustrations of any USAF B-26 squadron's Nose Art. If you have any photos or information, please drop me an e-mail at: machenry@verizon.net

A special thanks to Charles Hinton and the members of the 13th Bomb Squadron Association for providing reference photos, books and inspiration for these illustrations.

Back to the 13th Poster Page

For more information on the 13th Bomb Squadron, please visit their web site at:
13th Bomb Squadron Association

-----------------------------15089442493114 Content-Disposition: form-data; name="userfile"; filename=""