By Randy Malmstrom
North American B-25J-25/27-NC Mitchell, s/n 44-30254, N41123. This particular airworthy aircraft was part of Block 25 built at the Kansas City plant and delivered to the U.S. Army Air Forces on December 28, 1944, but did not see combat. It was sent to Air Transport Command in Mobile, Alabama and was operated by various military units as one of 117 B-25’s modified to carry a Hughes E1 fire control radar for training purposes as a TB-25K. It then served with the Royal Canadian Air Force under the designation Mk 3AI until it was sold as surplus in 1961 and became firebomber #337 for Cascade Drilling Company out of Calgary and was painted yellow (see photo). Following its firefighting service, it was privately owned by Jeff Thomas of Vintage Wings and housed along with a group of aircraft including a Polikarpov PO-2 and French-built Fi-156 Storch in a former WWII hangar on the Arlington airfield in Washington state.
On weekends, they were pulled out of the hangar for public viewing, but cost prohibitions kept them from being flown. It, along with the Polikarpov Po-2, the engine from the Fieseler Fi 156 Storch, and an F-8 Crusader, was acquired in 1998 by Paul Allen or an entity of his and in 2004, ownership was transferred to Vulcan Warbirds Inc., which he formed that year, and it was ferried to Chino, California, where it was restored by Aero Traders. It was flying out of Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum (FHCAM) on Paine Field in Everett, Washington; but as is now common knowledge, the collection was acquired by the newly formed nonprofit Wartime History Museum, so it may be assumed or hoped it will also fly under the new auspices. It is restored as aircraft #810 (nicknamed “Buster”) of Captain Edward L. Tengler, MOS 748 (Aerial Engineer Gunner – top gunner), Edward L. Branning, and armorer Edwin C. ‘Ed’ Schmidheini of the 490th Bomb Squadron (Burma Bridge Busters, with “Winged Skull” squadron markings with 116 missions). That aircraft crashed on its final mission on March 30, 1945, while strafing the Xincheng (Sincheng) Bridge in China, killing the entire crew. My photos (except historical) and my YouTube links are below.
The “J” versions of the B-25 were produced at North American’s Kansas City plant (aircraft manufacturers built or moved their plants inland during the war in an effort to avert attack along coastal areas). Powered by two Wright R-2600-92 Twin Cyclone 14-cylinder air-cooled radial engines with short exhaust stacks. The twin tail fins on multi-engine aircraft like the B-25 not only provide redundancy in the event of damage to one tail fin, but also spread out the vertical rudder area (rather than on one large tail fin); they also put the twin rudders directly in the propeller slipstreams for enhanced control (particularly at reduced airspeeds and while taxiing).
The J generally had a crew of 6: pilot, co-pilot, navigator/bombardier/nose gunner (in a greenhouse nose), engineer/top turret gunner, radio operator/waist gunner, tail gunner. While there were a number of field modifications, armament generally consisted of four forward-facing Browning .50 cal. machine guns in pairs of cheek blister packs (these were initially placed too far forward, disturbing the plane’s center of gravity, but were moved behind the cockpit to offset the weight and steel blast plates were added to the outside of the fuselage); three additional forward-facing .50 cal. guns in the greenhouse nose, one of which could either be aimed and fired by the bombardier/nose gunner (with the clothes line tether shown) or attached to a monopod and fired by the pilot (the gun on this aircraft is attached to the monopod – see photos); a single-mount .50 cal. in waist positions; twin-mounted .50 cal. machine guns in a dorsal electrically powered turret (with automatic cut-off of cams and switches to prevent shooting through the propeller arcs or the twin vertical fins); and a pair of .50 cal. machine guns in a hydraulically powered tail mount.
The guns on this aircraft are not replicas; the bullets are inert. The bombardier can control not only the release of the ordnance but also its sequence by shackle. The greenhouse bombardier’s nose has an emergency escape panel on the port side (note the red release handle), but this is only practical on the ground since the left propeller is right there. The J model included armored seats for the pilot and copilot (nicknamed “coffin seats”) surrounded by 24-ST Dural Burst Plates, an N-3C reflector gunsight (as well as a backup ring and post gunsight) for the pilot, an astro-compass for the copilot/navigator; the gun camera was also to his right. Aircraft large enough to carry a navigator had trailing antenna wires – the wire was attached to an antenna mast with a weight on the end, protruding out of the fuselage behind the bomb bay and was attached to a spool or reel inside the aircraft. The antenna was deployed as needed while the aircraft was in the air, anywhere from 50-300 ft., for radio communications (the pilot’s pre-flight checklist included making sure the antenna was retracted). The bomb racks and bomb bay doors were now all electrically operated.
About the author: 
Randy Malmstrom grew up in a family steeped in aviation culture. His father, Bob, was still a cadet in training with the USAAF at the end of WWII but did serve in Germany during the U.S. occupation in the immediate post-war period, where he had the opportunity to fly a wide variety of types that flew in WWII. After returning to the States, Bob became a multi-engine aircraft sales manager and, as such, flew a wide variety of aircraft; Randy frequently accompanied him on these flights. Furthermore, Randy’s cousin, Einar Axel Malmstrom, flew P-47 Thunderbolts with the 356th FG from RAF Martlesham Heath. He was commanding this unit at the time he was shot down over France on April 24th, 1944, and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner of war. Following his repatriation at war’s end, Einar continued his military service, attaining the rank of Colonel. He was serving as Deputy Wing Commander of the 407th Strategic Fighter Wing at Great Falls AFB, MT, at the time of his death in a T-33 training accident on August 21, 1954. The base was renamed in his honor in October 1955 and continues to serve in the present USAF as home to the 341st Missile Wing. Randy’s innate interest in history in general, and aviation history in particular, plus his educational background and passion for WWII warbirds, led him down his current path of capturing detailed aircraft walk-around photos and in-depth airframe histories, recording a precise description of a particular aircraft in all aspects.
