A collage image from my father, Lt. Ernest Anders Erickson's copy of the 95th Bomb Group's book, 'Contrails.' An accumulation of a couple dozen nose art graphics that were painted on the front of the fuselages of B-17s from Horham Airfield in England.

Quite a few names are quite familiar, names that I grew up hearing about from my dad. He flew a lot of these ships and it is surprising to see the names together. Most eventually were shot down on missions by early 1945 or were scrapped in the mass graveyards across the states.

The B-17s Lt. Erickson piloted that are depicted in the collage:

Smilin' Sandy Sanchez (42-97290) flew 3 missions aboard.
April 27th, April 28th and May 12th, 1944

Fireball Red (42-31876) flew 1 mission aboard.
April 20th, 1944

The Doodle Bug/What's Cookin'? (42-107047) flew 2 missions aboard.
April 24th and August 3rd, 1944

Paisano (42-102450) flew 1 mission aboard.
June 2nd, 1944

Stand By/Goin' My Way (42-1072014) flew 1 mission aboard.
August 26th, 1944 was his final and 35th mission.

My dad took an in-flight photo (attached below) in early August of 'Ol' Worrybird' (42-102678) on a shuttle mission. The crew was flying with the 334th Squadron aboard the 'Lili of the Lamplight' (44-6085) on missions over France, Poland and Romania. They refueled and re-armed on three landings at Poltava in the Ukraine and Foggia in Italy.

Jim Barnes' father, Lt. John R. Barnes a navigator, flew all his missions aboard the 'Spirit of the Martinez' (44-6838) in 1945. Some of his last flights were Chowhound missions. Operation Chowhound and Operation Manna (RAF) were humanitarian food drops, carried out to relieve a famine in German-occupied Holland, undertaken by Allied bomber crews during the final days of the war in Europe.