Someone at some time viewed this as an outward act of individualism that was thought to counter the "team" approach...forgetting that allowing such actions do more to build as sense of team or family because doesn't everyone have that crazy uncle or rebel kid that still would do anything for their kin??
How about "Leave it to the military "HIGHER"-ups" But I feel ya. As an retired enlisted sailor I can truthfully say, "it's always the tight ass upper echelon (the officers)" that screw it up for the working dogs.
It's mentioned in "Men of the Gambier Bay" that the air unit, CV-10, had nose art on all its planes. Some risque, some not. The ship's first captain took exception to the artwork and ordered it removed from all the aircraft. Someone noticed that the captain never left the bridge during flight operations and never visited the hangar deck. So the noseart was painted over on the planes' starboard sides but left on the port side. The captain never knew. (Apparently the Gambier Bay's second captain, an aviator himself, turned a blind eye to the issue.)
"We train young men to drop *fire* on people, but their commanders won't allow them to write 'f*ck' on their airplane, because its obscene." - Colonel Kurtz, Apocalypse Now
Often, some of those who enjoyed the art we did on our Navy Helicopters in the 1980s-2000 (it was on a removable panel that was painted, and could be replaced with a "blank" spare panel) - were the Ship Captains and Squadron Commanders... remember that they were once young & feisty pilots too. In fact we had a Squadron Commander in 1988 who started putting the Detachment art on the walls of the Squadron Wardroom after each Det returned from deployment.
Occurred to me, possibly some jealousy and insecurity of the admiral due to their success compared to his on carrier aircraft? Screw regs when the job is to kill the enemy and break his shit, all that matters is making them die for their cause. Shallow ass "leadership "makes me sick. Everyone needs to be jam fed a dose of Jack Nicholson reminding them of how the sausage is made and they can't handle the truth 🤬I love peace as much as anyone, however when bullies and terrorists attack, all they understand is your deadly, overwhelming response. In olden days, someone started shit and you defeated them, you took their shit, spoils if you prefer. That is a deterent. Nowadays the forever wars and post war rebuilding of your enemies by "industrialists "ensures we will not have "civilization " God, this is so simple if not for fallen man's ego and greed. Let God sort it out, I'm needing to mark and watch Jack scene haven't seen in years. God help us 🎅🤠🙏
I am sure the higher-ups saw the artwork on the Enola Gay, but they still allowed it to fly one of the most important missions in American aviation history, hundreds of years from now that artwork will still be recognized. I think the Navy was a little extreme when it came to cracking down on minor violations, I personally think it is good for morale and cohesion
An Air Force General, Army General and a Navy Admiral were sitting around drinking and bragging about how brave their personnel were. All swore that theirs were the bravest, so they decided to demonstrate it. They went to the Air Force base and out to the airfield where the Air Force General stopped a pilot and told him to get in his jet and climb to 30,000 feet, put it is a nose dive and to not pull up until told to do so. "Yes Sir", the pilot barked. Up he went. Put it in a dive and straight into the ground. "Now that's bravery." the General declared. "That's nothing." stated the Army General. So when they got to the Army base, the Army General took them to the tank training area. Finding a soldier in an Abrams, the general yelled to him to drive the tank towards the cliff and not stop until he told him to. "Yes Sir." the soldier yelled back. He turned the tank towards the cliff and roared right off the cliff. "See, bravery." the Army General concluded. "OK, nice, but not the best" the Navy Admiral lamented. Once they got to the Navy base, they all went down to the piers and followed the Admiral onto a destroyer. Up a few ladders they reached the signal bridge, where the admiral promptly gave orders to a sailor nearby. "Petty Officer, climb to the very top of that yard arm." "Yes Sir." The sailor said with a salute. He climbed and climbed. The yard arm must have been 60 feet in the air. Once he arrived at the top the Admiral yelled up to him, "Now jump." The petty officer glanced around, looked down at the admiral and said, "Fuck You!" while giving him the middle finger. The Admiral looked at the others with satisfaction, "Now that is serious bravery."
Nose art was also considered great for morale of the troops which was very important for US servicemen to have! It personalized the vehicle you operated and inspired pride and, in some cases, reminded you of what and who you were fighting for. This was not exclusive to only aircraft. Tanks, jeeps halftracks and other vehicles were adorned with "nose art.'
Agreed! It definitely adds some character to the planes too. For example, the B-29 picture in the first 15 seconds of the video was the aircraft of my neighbor who I grew up next to. Thanks for the comment!
My mom & dad were both in the Army Air Corp in WWII. My dad was on a P38 base in the Aleutian Islands and managed to get a couple rides in one but he wasn't air crew. He has said that the farther you were from the "Big Brass" the less "Official Crap" you had to put up with. I served for 10 years in the Navy during the Vietnam era and that situation wasn't much different in my experience. It was like most other things, each CO you got had his own quirks. Some were great guys; some you just stayed as far away from as possible!!
Was a Naval Aircrewman from 1987-2000 - "art" on your aircraft was ABSOLUTELY forbidden in that time. And in FINE Navy tradition, we found a way around it - the SH-60B Seahawk Helicopter had an aluminum panel that served as a "cover" over our sonobouy launcher if we weren't doing ASW - well, the Structural Mechs would build a 2nd cover, and we would design and paint a detachment logo on the "spare" cover. Some detachments would have logos that were racy, naughty, or NSFW... others had very professional looking and tasteful logos... some did BOTH. ALWAYS amusing to pull the logo panel and replace it with the "blank" panel before any sort of inspection... and then posting it on the Squadron Wardroom wall at the end of deployment.
If only I had known this. Had quite a few of these hovering above our deck during VERTREP operations. while standing below it. But where does this cover sit on the airframe? Is it the same spot as where the sling-load mechanism is? Then it would've been visible to me.
we put art on the bottom of the radome on our SH-2's. or more accurately, we put art on the bottom of other squadron's radomes...swapped them out when no one was looking..and they did it to us. HSL-74 Demon Elves hit one of our aircraft and we honestly didn't find it for months. we just never looked there.
@@DreadX10 the sonobouy launcher would be on the side, opposite the door. we had them on out SH-2's..honestly I think they used the same launcher, why fix what isn't broken. we'd put art on them too but usually it was just with sharpies and the DET number and the ship we were assigned to. it would get erased when they got back to base.
I was in VMFA-531 (see image to the left) during our cruise on the USS Coral Sea. The closest we had to individual aircraft "art" were two jets that had a name stenciled on the bottom of the rudder. One was "HULK", a jet that flew 100 consecutive sorties without a downing gripe. The other was "CATWALKER", a jet that took a little detour off the edge of the flight deck. The jet itself suffered no damage, squashed the centerline fuel tank and broke an AIM-9 is all. One very short lived "edit" was is the plane captains modified the "USS CORAL SEA" on the spine to say "USS ORAL SEX". I think that only lasted long enough for a group picture.
I served as an armor platoon leader in 4-37 Armor at Ft. Riley, which drew its lineage from Creighton Abrams' 37 Armor Battalion from WWII. After each gunnery, the highest scoring tank crew was allowed to paint Abrams' signature "thunderbolt," on their turret, but would have to relinquish it if they were outscored in the next gunnery.
I think there's a big hoo-hah currently about allowing tank crews to paint a name on the gun barrel. Some one suggested only crews that scored over a certain level on their quals would be allowed, another suggestion would be that every crew could put a name on, but the high-scoring crews would use a different color.
@@Mishn0 We were always allowed to name our tanks w/the name on them main gun. They all had to bed in standard size stenciled lettering and the name had to begin with the company designation, i.e., all Alpha company tank names had to start with, "A," Bravo company, with, "B," etc., so it wasn't just a matter of morale, but also one of quick battlefield ID.
@@jayjablunov4697 That's consistent with how things were when I was over in Kuwait summer through winter 2022-23. A PAO caught some flak, because the lead tank for their Delta Co. photo was named 'Daddy Issues'. I was able to snag a photo sitting on the barrel of Alpha Co's tank 'Allegedly', too.
I was on the USS Enterprise CVN65 and down in the Nuclear Engine room. Naval Nuclear Reactors Inc did not allow any art in "their" Reactor powered steam plants. Yet each engine room had a cylindrical shaped moisture separator between the high pressure main and low pressure main engines. In each of the four engine rooms there was a large art piece adorning the moisture seperators. I remember one was an eight ball, another I think was a set of dice , but the grandest was in #4 Main Machinery Room was a large four + foot sailing ship with topless mermaids in the sea and drinking sailors in the rigging and crows nest. Every year we would get ordered to paint it over with white paint but somehow the art still proudly sailed unscathed the whole time I was on board from 1982 to when I left in late 1986.
AHOY SHIPMATE! Former EM14 mechanic here! Four Main went to a lot of trouble to keep the mural on the steam separator a secret. It was a sailing ship with a drunken crew. The crew were caricatures of engine room sailors. It was painted way back when by a guy named Deaville who had since become our Reactor Department master chief. We would have to cover it with plastic and blank canvas whenever there was an inspection of any kind. I don't know if the mural survived the '91 refueling. Did you know Shelton? Wog? Mizer? McNeal? I was in 4 Main for '88 and '89 West Pacs.
My dad served 28yrs in the Navy and was on the Enterprise during Vietnam. This was I believe 64-66. Home base was Alameda NAS where we had housing. He started his carrier as a corpsman in WW2, of course pacific. Went GI bill went through college and Med School and went back into the Navy. When he returned from Nam we went on a dependents cruise on the Enterprise, out of the bay and down the coast and back all day. My best friend, whose Dad was a Master chief on the BigE, and I ran all over that ship. We went on the fantail and stepped around the anchor chains, kept going down decks and got run off by Marine guards who were in front of doors with radiation signs on them. Later Dad was taking me to school and we were passing a bunch of Quonset huts that were just inside the fence all lined up 4 deep and 8 long. I told Dad that we were housed there for a number of months while housing was being sorted out and they were filthy when we got there and all the Moms were totally pissed off. He said I should look at Quonset huts with more respect as I was conceived in one. I never get tired of that story as I was 17 just split a gut. God I miss him everyday and I'm 71.
No nose art is more iconic that the shark mouth of the Flying Tigers (and RAF Squadron 112). It’s just perfect, especially the way it compliments the shape of the P40 with its front duct.
And the AVG ''stole'' it from an RAF P-40 squadron in North Africa, whose Kittyhawks had made the cover of Life magazine. N0 112 Sqdn, I think. They stole it from a Luftwaffe Me-110 sqdn who copied WWI German nose art.
@@CheapSushithe a10 is the only us plane with nosw art currently Because its so old some of the nose art got grandfathered in before the new regulations came out in the 80s
In Nam there was a variety of 'Nose Art'. A Combat Engineer company had 3 gun trucks with 'The Judge', The Jury', and 'The Executioner' written on the side with corresponding artwork. Some river-boats had the 'Flying Tiger' teeth on the bow. There was a rumor of a 'pink' Huey, but I never saw that one. There is a pic from the Iraq war with a gun mounted on a truck, written on the shield: 'Pictures taken... look here, smile, wait for flash'.
there used to be a pic of a marine ch 53 or chinook i cant remember, but it had that two tone grey camo on it and if you looked close on each side. one of the darker blobs was the boobie girl from the chrome mudflaps that big rigs have. but from say 20 feet away you really couldnt tell unless it was pointed out to you
I had always thought carrier planes had no nose art because they didn't "belong" to individual pilots nearly as much as USAAF planes. Ship planes under repair sometimes were left at island repair depots and new planes brought on board as replacements much more than land-based planes. But I have nothing to back this up.
I think you’re right on that, I remember reading the book “Payback”, which is about the first 6 months of the war on Enterprise. Pilots/crews had assignments etc. and planes changed depending on availability. For VF-27, most/all the pilots must have been in agreement to have their planes painted up if they had different assignments everyday
Yep, the Navy found it more efficient for damaged or otherwise needing to be refit carrier AC to be swapped out instead waiting for it to be repaired or refitted in the crowded conditions on board a carrier so a pilot may fly one AC one mission then a different AC the next depending on it's condition. This speaks volumes about the different operational conditions between land bases and carriers and how US AC production could allow this. The Military Aviation History channel in fact just dropped a video on this very subject ua-cam.com/video/_b7aazWniEc/v-deo.html
Still true to this day. Planes that have the Rank, Name, and Callsign on the side of the canopy rail are not always the pilots currently inside the aircraft.
Even in the USAAF pilots didn't fly "their" planes too often. In the famous "Bottisham four" photo of P-51s, Urban Drew is flying 'S for Sugar' not "his" plane, the Detroit Miss. Not even bomber cews always had "their" planes.
I was an Army officer. I would take soldiers from other commands that were rebellious. I would let them have their rebellious individualism, and in return I’d get one bad-ass, loyal, hard fighting dog!!
Thanks for the vid! I love learning about small and seemingly insignifact WW2 atories like this. It also serves to remind us that for the most part these members of the "greatest generation" were kids at the time. Like most of us at that age, seizing the opportunity to rebel against authority is quite normal, maybe even required. i can imagine the pilots, on seeing their nose art painted over, grumbling and sulking about not being allowed to have fun anymore.
@@1967250s that was a short lived but awesome insignia that was discontinued way before cancel culture, can you imagine the outrage that will cause today?
Nice video. One addendum: The USS Birmingham, a Cleveland Class Light Cruiser, pulled alongside to fight the fire on the Princeton. The Princeton blew up and killed everyone above deck on the Birmingham. I tell you about this because my father was a Marine AAA gunner (20mm) on the bow of the USS Santa Fe, another Cleveland Class light cruiser. When the Essex Class aircraft carrier USS Franklin was severely damaged in a Japanese air attack, the Santa Fe pulled alongside to fight the fire. My dad, who went ashore at Tarawa and Iwo Jima, said he was never more terrified than at that time because everyone above deck remembered when the Santa Fe's sister ship, the Birmingham, was alongside the light carrier Princeton when it blew. Can you imagine what would have resulted if an Essex class ship had similarly blown up?
Thanks for the extra detail! I did know that Princeton had assistance before she sank and heard about the Birmingham, but didn’t want to slow down the video
Men like your father are my personal heroes from the struggle to save Humankind from utter darkness. I will always be grateful to him and his fellow Marines and all others who fought the Axis for their service.
The USN was primarily engaged with the Japanese Naval and Air arms. The red dot in the middle of the US star along with artwork, especially that containing red, was banned as well for practical identification purposes. When you are looking at a tiny smudged aircraft with binoculars you don't was AAA miss identifying friendlies as hostile because they see a spot of red.
Correct! The early war US roundel was quickly put out of service due to that red dot! If I’m not mistaken mid-1942 onwards sit was a blue insignia and white star until they updated it in 1943
SEAC...South-East Asia Command..mostly Burma/Sth China CBT in other words..but yeah...same deal...2-tone blue on SEAC RAF...blue-white on RAAF@@rossgage9730
Did you know the Naval uniform was changed & the color "Navy Blue" was invented because Japan's sailor dress uniform was very similar. The "Dixie Cup" hat was also born as Japan & the US Navy dress hat were the very similar. Semper Fortis
Officers throwing temper tantrums over such things is so common. "Demanded them to be re-painted that night." OK Admiral, here's a paint can, get to it. Oh, you mean get your enlisted slaves to work through the night to paint over the nose art that's giving you a case of the vapors. It really takes a special kind of person to have the neurosis to rise through the ranks.
Navy veteran here. Navy brass really is that puritanical, probably more so than any other service. I can tell you from experience that Naval Aviators have a little more easygoing attitude, though that's not to say that they're lax.
@@ostrich67I never served in any capacity but I once read that the Navy in the 1940s-60s time period was the most class conscious branch of the US armed forces. I don’t know if that’s still quite the case to this day though.
@@cassidy109 It still is. A lot of the Navy's traditions come from the British Royal Navy and predate our country, so some of ye olde British class system by way of the Northeast Establishment still exists there.
You've got to have you head lodged pretty far up your backside to think and admiral is going to paint the planes instead of having the people under him do it. "enlisted slaves"? Give me a break. You come off as somebody who never served, was kicked out or might have been an Air Force, zero discipline, puke.
@@ostrich67 Wonder if that is why frocking is still a thing? Nothing like earning rank and getting all of the duties and responsibilities that come with it while still being payed the previous rank for half a year.
@@svgproductions72 i think it somehow got on the algorithm's good side, based on the viewer retention graph and the likes. it did however help me find you and i found this interesting :D
Back in 1970's I was attached to VA-146 flying the A7-E Corsairs on the USS Constellation. Like your video covers there was no nose art allowed no matter what it was or size. One night one of our plane captains put a Harley Davidson sticker on the nose of the skipper's plane, it was 3 ft. tall ! When he saw it we figured he go ballistic, but he just stood there and said to our surprise " it looks good, leave it on " ! ( he was an old biker ) . It was the only plane I ever saw with nose art in the navy ! Pilots and deckhands loved it ! It was removed the next day when the admiral on board saw it. It was great while it lasted !
Good job for keeping a short story short. You pushed relevant information without padding by repeating data and still provided a clear picture of an interesting topic. Again, good job!
Apparently these restrictions were lifted after WW2, as we see Navy squadrons with quite elaborate paint schemes in subsequent decades. VF-111 "Sundowners" in particular were famous for having a shark mouth nose art as one of the distinguishing features of their F-4 Phantom and F-14 Tomcat fighters.
This video solved a mystery in my head for many many years, in 1950 off the coast of Korea on the USS Princeton we were there for a year but the squadrons only had to stay six months and I remember seeing many of the aircraft with Nose art so after our first cruise we were offered a cruise book and I noticed none of the aircraft in the pictures had any nose art so thanks for clearing that up😮c
Thanks for sharing this bit of insubordinate history. These guys risked their lives everyday so they should have been allowed to have nose art. Besides, the enemy must have thought “oh crap!” when they saw the Cat Mouth planes after knowing the kill ratio of VF-27.
@@svgproductions72 If I recall right, while not nose art, the sound of the Corsair terrified the Japanese. During a dive the air passing over the oil cooler would make a sort of shrieking sound. Not designed to make that sound it just happened to.
The Navy produces some of the most uptight officers. Most from the USNA. The “ring knockers” were usually the most tightly wound individuals in any ready room. Semper Fidelis SSgt B.
Yup. Always preferred reserve officers. Had one company commander who was a mustang and he was the best CO that I ever served under. He sent me to an "officer only" school when I was a mere corporal because I was doing the job the ring-knocker platoon commander was too stupid to figure out.
Maybe there was some elitism involved as well. They saw the Army Air Corps having nose art and out of spite decided that this disregard of regulations would not happen on their watch.
What a great video! I had no idea about the Navy’s ban on nose art. You presented the material extremely well, with good visuals and a calm, clear read. Well done, and I’ll be looking for more of your posts!
The U-2 Reconnaissance plane was occasionally "decorated" with chalk, during Operation Enduring Freedom. Nose art was like the WW2 P40, big teeth. On the tail they drew a "Snoopy character flying his doghouse."
One of the very obvious problems with that particular "Cat Mouth" nose art is the large area of red. It was already well known that when it came to recognising national insignia in the heat of battle (when the pilot may only get a fleeting glimpse of an aircraft) two features stood out. 1. The shape. The pre-war US circular insignia could be confused with the Japanese 'meatball' especially if the pilot was pulling high-G manoeuvres and was greying out. To combat this, the horizontal bars on either side of the US insignia were added. Even the British added bars to their circular insignia in the Pacific. 2. The colour. The red centre of the US insignia (and of the British roundel) were removed as even a flash of red could be lead the pilot to mistake the aircraft for a Japanese one. Unfortunately, the choice of red for the nose art wasn't very smart and MAY have given the Navy the perfect excuse to get rid of it. In addition, it was probably easier to just say 'NO nose art' rather than drawing up a list of rules which excluded certain colours or shapes because somebody was bound to take the p*ss and this WASN'T a game.
This why UK and Commonwealth aircraft in the Pacific Theatre lost the red centre to the roundel. The British Pacific Fleet went further, adding 'bars' to their markings.
my mother was stationed at Marham in Norfolk England, she was part of the WAF (women's Air Force) and was Post Mistress at the air base, she had her portrait and her nickname "Squibs" painted on the nose of a B17 Flying Fortress I think that this was in 1947
Take a look at the bow configuration of USN Balao class submarine. Triangular openings are cut in the skin of the hull plating covering the pressure hull to allow for water drainage or ballast intake. When certain of those triangular openings are painted, as we did in fall 1969, the design resembled a sharks mouth. Needless to say the skipper received a call from COMSUBPAC just after arrival at Pearl. Narragansett Bay
This is awesome! My grandfather served aboard Princeton, so I grew up familiar with the cat mouth nose art on VF-27s Hellcats. I am always surprised when I see cat mouth Hellcats out in the wild, knowing the story and the little ship they served aboard.
He was the pharmacist mate. As an interesting relation to this topic, he was popular with the pilots because he was in charge of the ships liquor cabinet, and would administer shots of brandy to pilots who returned to the ship shaken up by rough missions or landings.@@svgproductions72
The navy relaxed that rule so much that Ronald Reagan as one of his first and most public announcements (That I remember as a 13 year old at that time) was that the Navy Planes were to be Camo and that's it. The Navy Planes all looked like they were a Acrobatic team by the late 70's, great for model builders. The Allies treat Planes like Uniforms, the Spitfire is a perfect example, the first one painted is exactly the same as the last one painted 7 years later. The tones may have changed but the camo is the same template. The Japanese did not seem to have nose art either but the Germans, every squadron was like a ww1 flying circus with each pilot having a completely different uniform on.
I knew the Cat Mouth scheme was banned but I didn't know it was on the aircraft for as long as it was. I had always thought it was only on for a few days. Thanks, good video.
For a short period of time to boost morale, SAC allowed nose art on their tanker and bomber aircraft. This started in the eighties and was pretty cool as far as I was concerned. There were guidelines as to colors, size, and location. Plus, the artwork had to be approved. Well, there was one that slipped in under the radar. You see, the KC-10A tanker was affectionately nicknamed Shamu after the orca. So, one of our aircraft at Seymour-Johnson AFB 83-0077 had killer whale teeth for a short period of time. It all disappeared overnight due to a visit from some dignitaries. There are pictures of it out with the teeth and later with nose artwork. I have a book with many of the aircraft from that period and a few others. It has the aircraft I crewed as well.
Imagine being so concerned with efficiency that you forget that sailors have pretty shitty lives, and so your crew isn't firing on all cylinders when they're attacked. Morale is the single most important resource in war. There's a reason why things like lobster and steak get served on submarines. A happier crew is more alert, more energized, and more productive. That being said, some officers still agree with you, and the enlisted hate em.
I don't know. I think I disagree with you guys a bit. WW2 wasn't for pussies. Every WW2 veteran I've met has been a badass in his own right. They didn't put up with the hippie shit from their children either. The kind of grit these guys had comes from strict self control. Painting nose cones doesn't seem like that big of a deal. But it's not professional and war is not a joke. The officer didn't get to his role by crying about his morale.
This was a dick move. These guys just lost their ship and their comrades. If anything they should have painted all hellcats like that as a tribute to the Princeton and her crew. Just thinking what it would have done to the Japanese pilots moral. They thought they destroyed the entire squadron but now there's more of them .😳😸
It can't be a coincidence that I'm currently building an RC 1,2m wingspan F6F-3 which I plan to paint precisely in VF-27 paint scheme and this video pops up in my feed. A really cool piece of history, it sucks that the OG had to be painted over, but it's really nice that it's being remembered
@@svgproductions72 I enjoyed the vid, I'm a warbirds enthusiast and I was kinda curious as to why the hellcats have such bland paint schemes as opposed to other US planes with pinups and nose art such as P-40, P-47, P-51, P-38 and so on
I'll never forget what a CWO once told me, they're called Marine Corps orders not Marine Corps suggestions. Just because you don't agree with them, doesn't mean you can disregard them.
It's kind of funny how strict they were in the 40s-50s but in the 60s to early 90s, most planes had unique paint schemes for their squadrons. Most famous is the Jolly Roger's F14 Tomcat paint scheme flying the Skull n Crossbones on their vertical stabs.
One of the squadrons we had onboard my last deployment, VFA-103, would paint a skull and crossbones on the tail of each plane based on the season and holiday. One had a Santa, another had Jason's mask and 2 machetes , and there was also a leprechaun and a Easter bunny.
My CO was simple when it came to painting art. He said: "You can paint any design you like on the ship as long as it is all done with the same shade of navy-gray..." One exception was made when the ship reached 21 years in service. To celebrate her becoming 'mature' a 'boat-tie' in the national colours was painted on the radar-dome.
I have a die cast model of this Hellcat with these same markings. I had no idea about the back story .. I love the plane and definitely love the cats mouth paint job…thank you for the informative video!
My father-in-law was a R.A.F. Lancaster pilot in WW2, as a child my wife asked him what was drawn on his plane, his answer……”nothing, or you’d spend off hours repainting it R.A.F. black!”
Ive been always a fan of warplanes, I will never forget the first time I saw a F6F and a F4U Corsair in real life, I have a feeling that these planes look really tiny in general, books, videos, pictures, videogames, you name it. The planes are so so much bigger I ever imagined them to be it was a shock to me honestly.
My Dad flew 58 missions with the 15th AAF/464th Bomb Group in 1944-45. In his squadron the originally topless "Pistol Packin' Mama" had to have some clothes painted on---while other planes included the names "Free Delivery" and "Middle Digit"
my dad flew a B-24 named Twin Tails with two nude girls on the nose , after an attack by a german fighter there was a bullet hole in one of the girls nipples . It was such a perfect shot they didnt repair the hole but it whistled when they flew.
Moral of the story: when in the military, always strive to be stationed away from the flagpole where the air is cleaner, food tastes better and you'll have more energy than you ever dreamed of.
WOW! I never even noticed that until now. I know I was in at the tail end of Vietnam and the Marine Corps would never tolerate any type of "custom painting" on our Huey.
On knox class destroyers in Vietnam days, part of the carrier task force off the coast we would have "nose art" painted on the broad side of the ASROC launcher up on the fo'c'sle. Navy command structure came out and said no "art" that they consider aggressive could be displayed. They made us remove Yosemite Sam from ours because he was shooting 2 pistols in the air, which was his normal behavior in the children's cartoon. They had to remove Yosemite Sam and paint the approved "art" of the Pink Panther , wearing a top hat and leaning on his cane. nuts...
@@pickeljarsforhillary102 Your little story is amusing and equally as farcical as mine. You remain the World Class expert on underpants ironing, toilet paper folding and sox naming. And yes, microdot spy cameras were in use prior to 1939, using film.
Interesting story and well-told! Thanks, that's something I didn't know about. One thing I'll add about the USAAF nose art, it was obviously allowed for morale purposes during WW2 but at war's end all the nose art had to be removed from aircraft remaining in service. It would be allowed again by the USAF during the Korean War and to a lesser extent during Vietnam.
The whole intelligence angle goes both ways, had admiral left the nose art stay, next mission the enemy would still think carrier is still active . As for the bounty, Erich Hartman had 350 kills in ww2, his bf109 had black tulip painted on nose . I am sure alot of pilots tried to be the one to kill him, and got shot down instead. And others avoided engaging him because of fear.
I’d hoped to hear that some high ranking officer chose to support the squadrons that were kicking ass and let the men risking their lives destress by enjoying the nose art.
When I was in the army, we didn’t want the enemy to see markings because they could use it to track which units were which. I suspect the top navy leaders were concerned with nose art for the same reason. Nose art my tip off an opponent that they were fighting more than one carrier or what size carriers were involved.
When we were allowed to name our trucks soldiers took pride in maintaining their truck. When we were ordered to remove the names, soldiers no longer gave a F about their trucks and it showed.
I highly doubt this was the reason. Beginning around mid 1943, as more carriers began operating in ever larger groups, individual squadrons began using distinct tail markings to identify their aircraft on an ad-hoc basis, mainly to help pilots distinguish between formations when forming up before and after strikes. This led to the Bureau of Aeronautics implementing a mandatory system of geometric markings for each Pacific aircraft carrier to be painted on the tail and on the upper side of the right wing in January of 1945.
I just saw this nose art the other day while playing "Forgotten Hope: Secret Weapon". It was the only plane on the carrier with this art, surrounded by tools and such- probably waiting to be repainted; what a coincidence!
My father was there when the nose art was banned. It was the result of Elleanor Roosevelt's "morale building tour" of the South Pacific. She was offended by the nose art. My dad's pilot named their plane The Vulgar Virgin.
Damn Admirals, always mucking up the fun! If he realized how successful those birds were maybe he would have turned a blind eye. My next model build will incorporate this artwork...
I will never understand why, throughout history, military senior leadership sees soldiers having a modicum of fun and always has to ensure they put a stop to it quickly.
Because a lot of military personnel are the type of people to not just have a little bit of fun. It often can quickly lead to one-upmanship on who can do that most outrageous, most daredevil thing possible. Who can drink the most, who can sneak a phallus onto the admiral's aircraft, who can jump the HMMMV thr highest, etc. It's usually easier to nip it in the bud than to write rules and regulations forbidding the thing that killed Mechanic's Mate Snuffy.
It sucks sometimes, and nobody wants to be thought of as a killjoy, but keeping personnel out of med bay, out of courts martial, and out of other people's marriage beds tends to keep a unit more prepared to deploy and fit for duty.
This shows the short sightedness of the US Navy regulations at that time. The nose art was common to *all* of the fighters in that squadron, being a squadron emblem not any individual's personal emblem, and thus served to engender unit pride and teamwork between the pilots which is amply displayed in their exceptional success. Rather than banning the practice, with this as an example the navy should have encouraged it with the aim of engendering the same teamwork spirit in all the other squadrons. If this one squadron achieved this much success, just imagine if *all* of them had.
There were UNIT markings - which helped with Unit Morale and helped identify which unit a plane was in and some of these markings could be quite elaborate. Tail surfaces were common places for Unit Markings but also the nose. The body of the aircraft usually had the aircraft's number so they could tell which plane that was and who was flying it. The _"Cat's Mouth"_ on these units planes would in fact seem to be a unit marking but may not have been the type of unit marking these officers approved of. .
@@grimheathen That would pre suppose that Japanese intelligence was so good and so up to date that they knew which squadrons were assigned to which carrier at any given time, which would be highly unlikely. It's not like picking up floating trash in a coastal merchant shipping lane and so having a decent guess which submarine might be present - carriers are big ships and usually operate in deep water environments rarely getting close enough to land for fishing boats to pick up any floating trash, assuming the carriers didn't just take it home with them anyway. And said fishing boats would have to be willing to venture out close to American warships at night, with the certainty that the warships will be especially looking for any vessels trying to sneak up and *will* fire if said vessels can't identify themselves as friendly. Of course, being American, that's still no guarantee they won't just open fire anyway.
In the 80s I was in VF 301 we were called the devils disciples our emblem was a red devil with a spear . Some born again members of the squadron didn't like it and wrote their congressman and basically got told to go pound sand .
Often individual cases of art were only on the left side of the plane, where the brass in teh tower would not see it. (Most carriers of the time had elevators mounted in such a way that the plane never turned 180 degrees on board.) The assumption of lazy brass makes me chuckle, though often this wouldn't work as the brass wouldn't be as lazy as hoped.
I didn't know about WWII, but when I was in the USAF (Vietnam era), I was stationed at England AFB Louisiana, home of the 23rd Tactical Fighter Wing "Flying Tigers", whose symbol was the "tiger teeth" with a small eye. To my surprise, however, our squadron of A7D fighter planes only wore their nose art when they were deployed in country. Why? Because (we were told) civilians were very sensitive to military aggression during the Vietnam War (especially after the My Lai Massacre). We airmen thought it was pretty cool, but to keep the civilians from fainting at the sight, it was banned from the aircraft stateside. I kid you not.
I am surprised that the Navy didn't like nose art sense the Navy is considered the most laid back branch of the U.S Military. And I never realized that nose art was banned from the Navy until this video, I always assumed it was allowed in all the branches during WW2. Real cool vid
Wow. Really? Navy most laid back in US? I think in Commonwealth countries, the Air Force is seen to be the most relaxed and I was told, had the highest percent of gay members and Army had the highest rate of domestic violence. The Navy, though possibly this is stronger in UK, had the most old school, traditional, conservative officers. It is, after all, 'the Senior Service.' Which sounds right, on this video's subject, even in America. Royalty tends to serve in Navy - until the latest generation. Though submariners are said to be the most well balanced, easy going and most vetted for psych problems. Don't want someone having hissy fits in a permanently very confined area.
@@phil562 I bet you didnt think the head of the FBI would be a cross dresser either, and you would also be wrong, lol. Democrats have been cross dressing and diddling kids a lot longer than anyone thinks, lol.
@@annelarrybrunelle3570 Worse and already happening. Marines in Pink High Heels doing drill. What cant go on wont go on and this marxist bs cant go on in America.
All history is a great story cause it connects the whole world man. I like this and keep it up!! Incredibly informative as well as the b-roll I think it's called (where you talk over a clip of what you're talking about) was incredibly entertaining and fun. The niche topics are what gets us, the viewer, cause we wanna be unique ya feel and know this niche stuff. (If anyone else reading this comment is that "um achhhyttttuuuualllllyyyy" cmon man). This man is entertaining and I'm drunk. Tomorrow I will not be drunk and this man will still be entertaining. Bonus points to anyone who got that reference.
I was in VFA 151 “Vigilantes” when it was still home ported in Atsugi Japan onboard USS MIDWAY (CV 41) in Yokosuka and some of the pilots talked about the brief history of Navy nose art. By the way, Yokosuka is pronounced YO-KOS-KA, the “U” is silent.
I have the Eduard 1/48 F6F Hellcat scale model in these markings, and I particularly chose this kit because of the iconic markings. I had no idea it was banned. Just how petty-minded can some people get!
The brass-asses in the Navy were not really all that concerned with morale. I honestly have NO respect for much of the upper level brass of that era. Even the legendary Halsey was nothing more than a glory seeking brass ass as demonstrated buy his neglect of Taffy 3 in the battle of Leyte Gulf as he took the entire fleet off chasing impotent Jap aircraft carriers. The Men of Taffy 3 paid dearly for the glory seeking manner of Halsey!
You need strait-laced people to be in charge when there's a bunch of teens on a warship, he knew what worked and didn't want to chance distractions? I'm pretty sure the Admiral had a sound theory about how HE would conduct business on one of the biggest ships in the Navy, drama queen..
I was in what was called the Gator Navy, the part of the 7th fleet that carried Marines and their equipment. I can confirm that as late as 1974 the Marine amphibs (amphibious landing craft) were painted with shark mouths on the bow. Pretty cool 6 wheel "all terrain vehicles".
My take on it is simply this. Interservice rivalry being a thing and organizational culture being real, the Army Air Forces allowed their men to do things like individual nose art because they were much larger and had a far more prevalent "civilians in uniform" ethos along with the direction to not treat draftees like the old prewar professional Air Corps. They relaxed discipline to a far greater extent because that was part of the historic Army's culture in wartime. The Naval air services were much smaller, less reliant on drafted men and more reliant on volunteers, and absolutely determined to make sure that their professionals were not infected with the sloppy Army's ways. Discipline in the great and little things was not to be relaxed, war or no war. Painting big gaudy nose art was what those Army shitbags do, not us. This is not "your" plane, it is the squadron's, the carrier's, the Navy's.
I have always had a fascination with nose art, especially the art on World War II bombers. It's a bit bewildering why anyone would be opposed to nose art. I think pilots have always shared a kinship with their planes and the art helps strengthen that connection which can only be a good thing, especially during a time of war.
Well if the US captains were anything like the English captains they focused mostly on keeping the ship clean and looking good over anything else. So with that reasoning having different nose art on each plane will not look neat and organized.
I was in a helicopter squadron in the US Navy. My squadron was on many ships of both the Atlantic & Pacific Fleets in the 1980s. We had artwork we added to the side door & bottom of the aircraft that was only seen when transferring cargo with the belly hook (called UNREP, underway replenishment). The Pacific Fleet ships were more tolerant of the artwork however the Atlantic Fleet ship commanders went ballistic with this non regulation art work on the aircraft. We had to repaint over the artwork before next day flightops. The only artwork allowed was a 2 color arrow we had on our squadron patch we had on the side of the helicopters. The only artwork allowed was a simplified artwork off the squadron patch.
I can't say i like that noseart...IMO it doesn't fit well in the shape of the plane as did, for instance, the shark mouth on the Bf-110s and the P-40s in Africa first, and in the far east with the AVG later. The F6F looks already more than badass in its '43 three tone camo, especially with those red lined new insignias that were in use during that summer. Anyway, i did like your vid!!!!👍👍👍
Our Navy commanders need to think more highly of their personnel. Especially in light of their successes. They proved that they had higher morale, most likely due to their art. All the successful squadrons in Air History have had flamboyant aircraft. Great work on the story of VF-27.
I wonder this regulation was in place so that the enemy could not deduce what carrier assets were in the area at the time. Ie. You could tie nose art to a certain carrier and then that carrier to a certain task force and then the enemy could deduce the possible strength and composition of said force.
That neglects the fact that most (if not all) aircraft still had some form of squadron marking, and (at least in the early part of the war) fuselage and wing bands to indicate which carrier the squadron was assigned to.
@@DaIssimo True, nose art is a distinctive way to identify a particular aircraft, but in terms of intelligence evaluation, the squadron markings are more valuable. You would need more knowledge than you are likely to have in wartime to tie an individual enemy aircraft's nose art to a particular squadron and/or carrier, while squadron markings tell a bigger story. For example, if you have identified enemy aircraft with 4 different squadron markings (regardless of the exact number of aircraft identified), and know that one carrier will be home to 3 squadrons, you can expect that at least 2 enemy carriers may be present in the area.
I was a maintainer at Tyndall AFB with the 1st Fighter Squadron. The pilots had their patch of Lady Death when they were home and the topless patches of her when they went TDY. I was also with the 67th Fighter Squadron in Kadena, Japan. The 67th were known as the Fighting K-O-C-K-S (misspelled on purpose to avoid ban). The radio call signs were all K-O-C-K-S based, K-O-C-K one, K-O-C-K two, etc. The Commander's call sign was Big K-O-C-K and the deputy Commander was called little K-O-C-K.
As a captain of a carrier, I don’t want any aircraft identifiable to my ship. A situation where the enemy can see the aircraft and be able to identify what ships they are from would be an advantage to that enemy. Keeping all the planes from all the ships uniform denies that. I know some planes in some situations had unit designations painted on them, but that is harder see, identify, and decipher than brightly painted graphics.
Funny thing is they did exactly what you said you don't want as mandatory carrier identification markings, which later because identification letters used to this day
And if white checkerboard with wide yellow stripes across 1/3rd of a wing on a navy blue aircraft is not more visible than a shark mouth on its nose idk what is
I dont think pilots will have anytime trying to identify the enemy based on their nose art. Pilots in combat will be too focused on trying to stay alive rather than looking for identification markings.
You definitely want clear and visible markings for identification. You just need to keep their meaning unknown to the enemy and change them periodically to keep them guessing.
As a former service member, all I have to say is: “Leave it to the military higher-ups to quickly outlaw morale.”
Someone at some time viewed this as an outward act of individualism that was thought to counter the "team" approach...forgetting that allowing such actions do more to build as sense of team or family because doesn't everyone have that crazy uncle or rebel kid that still would do anything for their kin??
the last Post Commander at Ft Bliss when I separated banned the terms "top" and L T. Not a shock, his name was MG COSTELLO. Yes- he was a clown
Thank you for your service.
@@ghand6158 I don't get it. Sorry for being dense.
How about "Leave it to the military "HIGHER"-ups"
But I feel ya. As an retired enlisted sailor I can truthfully say,
"it's always the tight ass upper echelon (the officers)" that screw it up for the working dogs.
It's mentioned in "Men of the Gambier Bay" that the air unit, CV-10, had nose art on all its planes. Some risque, some not. The ship's first captain took exception to the artwork and ordered it removed from all the aircraft. Someone noticed that the captain never left the bridge during flight operations and never visited the hangar deck. So the noseart was painted over on the planes' starboard sides but left on the port side. The captain never knew. (Apparently the Gambier Bay's second captain, an aviator himself, turned a blind eye to the issue.)
Now this is a story I’ve never heard of! So interesting, if I do some reading, you never know if this video may be on my list to make! Thanks Bill
"What issue?"
- Gambier Bay's second captain
Wait you said CV-10? You mean CV-10 Yorktown? Or mean to say CVE-73 Gambier Bay?
Relax..After all you’re in the business of sending people to a fiery death. This isn’t Sunday School
@@MainMite06 VC-10, Composite Squadron 10.
"We train young men to drop *fire* on people, but their commanders won't allow them to write 'f*ck' on their airplane, because its obscene." - Colonel Kurtz, Apocalypse Now
Kopf ab!
@aristo80 Huh?
and yet you self censor…
Blame YT for auto-blocking comments, plus do you know whether the commenter drops fire on people?
@ i’ve seen the film and yes, can confirm
I think the issue was that land based aircraft didn't have captains and admirals to worry about.
Often, some of those who enjoyed the art we did on our Navy Helicopters in the 1980s-2000 (it was on a removable panel that was painted, and could be replaced with a "blank" spare panel) - were the Ship Captains and Squadron Commanders... remember that they were once young & feisty pilots too. In fact we had a Squadron Commander in 1988 who started putting the Detachment art on the walls of the Squadron Wardroom after each Det returned from deployment.
There was always a rivalry between the Brown Shoe Navy (Aviation) and the Black Shoe Navy (all others).
Occurred to me, possibly some jealousy and insecurity of the admiral due to their success compared to his on carrier aircraft? Screw regs when the job is to kill the enemy and break his shit, all that matters is making them die for their cause. Shallow ass "leadership "makes me sick. Everyone needs to be jam fed a dose of Jack Nicholson reminding them of how the sausage is made and they can't handle the truth 🤬I love peace as much as anyone, however when bullies and terrorists attack, all they understand is your deadly, overwhelming response. In olden days, someone started shit and you defeated them, you took their shit, spoils if you prefer. That is a deterent. Nowadays the forever wars and post war rebuilding of your enemies by "industrialists "ensures we will not have "civilization " God, this is so simple if not for fallen man's ego and greed. Let God sort it out, I'm needing to mark and watch Jack scene haven't seen in years. God help us 🎅🤠🙏
Generals and Colonies.
I am sure the higher-ups saw the artwork on the Enola Gay, but they still allowed it to fly one of the most important missions in American aviation history, hundreds of years from now that artwork will still be recognized. I think the Navy was a little extreme when it came to cracking down on minor violations, I personally think it is good for morale and cohesion
An Air Force General, Army General and a Navy Admiral were sitting around drinking and bragging about how brave their personnel were. All swore that theirs were the bravest, so they decided to demonstrate it. They went to the Air Force base and out to the airfield where the Air Force General stopped a pilot and told him to get in his jet and climb to 30,000 feet, put it is a nose dive and to not pull up until told to do so. "Yes Sir", the pilot barked. Up he went. Put it in a dive and straight into the ground. "Now that's bravery." the General declared.
"That's nothing." stated the Army General. So when they got to the Army base, the Army General took them to the tank training area. Finding a soldier in an Abrams, the general yelled to him to drive the tank towards the cliff and not stop until he told him to. "Yes Sir." the soldier yelled back. He turned the tank towards the cliff and roared right off the cliff. "See, bravery." the Army General concluded.
"OK, nice, but not the best" the Navy Admiral lamented. Once they got to the Navy base, they all went down to the piers and followed the Admiral onto a destroyer. Up a few ladders they reached the signal bridge, where the admiral promptly gave orders to a sailor nearby. "Petty Officer, climb to the very top of that yard arm." "Yes Sir." The sailor said with a salute. He climbed and climbed. The yard arm must have been 60 feet in the air. Once he arrived at the top the Admiral yelled up to him, "Now jump."
The petty officer glanced around, looked down at the admiral and said, "Fuck You!" while giving him the middle finger.
The Admiral looked at the others with satisfaction, "Now that is serious bravery."
Ok, I’ll admit, that one’s great 🤣🤣
Faultless. That admiral deserves a bikkie. (The petty officer, an immediate commission.)
Apparently that sailor wasn't on board the Essex.
🤣
This would be better if it ended with "and that ain't no bullshit!" like a true sea story.
Semper Fortis
Had no idea nose art in the Navy was generally against the rules in WWII! Cool video
They were strict, the Marines seemed to get away with it more though!
@@svgproductions72maybe a video on Marine nose art then?
@@NicksOregonRailroading maybe I’ll look around and make something on it!
Still is unfortunately. The navy has always been more strict on nose art
Movies lied again 😑 they Usualy show them on ladders with paint tins, painting the noses ect. I never knew it wasn't allowed.
Nose art was also considered great for morale of the troops which was very important for US servicemen to have! It personalized the vehicle you operated and inspired pride and, in some cases, reminded you of what and who you were fighting for. This was not exclusive to only aircraft. Tanks, jeeps halftracks and other vehicles were adorned with "nose art.'
Agreed! It definitely adds some character to the planes too. For example, the B-29 picture in the first 15 seconds of the video was the aircraft of my neighbor who I grew up next to. Thanks for the comment!
My mom & dad were both in the Army Air Corp in WWII. My dad was on a P38 base in the Aleutian Islands and managed to get a couple rides in one but he wasn't air crew. He has said that the farther you were from the "Big Brass" the less "Official Crap" you had to put up with. I served for 10 years in the Navy during the Vietnam era and that situation wasn't much different in my experience. It was like most other things, each CO you got had his own quirks. Some were great guys; some you just stayed as far away from as possible!!
Same with soldiers in Vietnam and their helmets.
@@connor3284 Great examples of that in "Full Metal Jacket".
@@alecfoster4413 "Sir, it represents the duality of Man, Sir."
Was a Naval Aircrewman from 1987-2000 - "art" on your aircraft was ABSOLUTELY forbidden in that time. And in FINE Navy tradition, we found a way around it - the SH-60B Seahawk Helicopter had an aluminum panel that served as a "cover" over our sonobouy launcher if we weren't doing ASW - well, the Structural Mechs would build a 2nd cover, and we would design and paint a detachment logo on the "spare" cover. Some detachments would have logos that were racy, naughty, or NSFW... others had very professional looking and tasteful logos... some did BOTH. ALWAYS amusing to pull the logo panel and replace it with the "blank" panel before any sort of inspection... and then posting it on the Squadron Wardroom wall at the end of deployment.
If only I had known this. Had quite a few of these hovering above our deck during VERTREP operations. while standing below it.
But where does this cover sit on the airframe? Is it the same spot as where the sling-load mechanism is?
Then it would've been visible to me.
we put art on the bottom of the radome on our SH-2's. or more accurately, we put art on the bottom of other squadron's radomes...swapped them out when no one was looking..and they did it to us.
HSL-74 Demon Elves hit one of our aircraft and we honestly didn't find it for months. we just never looked there.
Awesome response shipmate.
@@DreadX10 the sonobouy launcher would be on the side, opposite the door. we had them on out SH-2's..honestly I think they used the same launcher, why fix what isn't broken. we'd put art on them too but usually it was just with sharpies and the DET number and the ship we were assigned to. it would get erased when they got back to base.
I was in VMFA-531 (see image to the left) during our cruise on the USS Coral Sea. The closest we had to individual aircraft "art" were two jets that had a name stenciled on the bottom of the rudder. One was "HULK", a jet that flew 100 consecutive sorties without a downing gripe. The other was "CATWALKER", a jet that took a little detour off the edge of the flight deck. The jet itself suffered no damage, squashed the centerline fuel tank and broke an AIM-9 is all. One very short lived "edit" was is the plane captains modified the "USS CORAL SEA" on the spine to say "USS ORAL SEX". I think that only lasted long enough for a group picture.
Well done presentation. No silliness, no gratuitous video editing. Eager to see more of your videos.
Thank you! I really appreciate that
It's just nice not to hear a robot voice saying "DID YOU KNOW PLANES ARE PAINTED?"
For some reason I read your comment in a thick German accent.
I served as an armor platoon leader in 4-37 Armor at Ft. Riley, which drew its lineage from Creighton Abrams' 37 Armor Battalion from WWII. After each gunnery, the highest scoring tank crew was allowed to paint Abrams' signature "thunderbolt," on their turret, but would have to relinquish it if they were outscored in the next gunnery.
Thank you for your service! That’s interesting, I’ve never heard of that before!
I think there's a big hoo-hah currently about allowing tank crews to paint a name on the gun barrel. Some one suggested only crews that scored over a certain level on their quals would be allowed, another suggestion would be that every crew could put a name on, but the high-scoring crews would use a different color.
@@Mishn0 We were always allowed to name our tanks w/the name on them main gun. They all had to bed in standard size stenciled lettering and the name had to begin with the company designation, i.e., all Alpha company tank names had to start with, "A," Bravo company, with, "B," etc., so it wasn't just a matter of morale, but also one of quick battlefield ID.
I was a platoon leader at B 4/37 AR and XO at A 4/37 AR. Also Scout Platoon Leader at Fort Riley. 1993-1997. !!!
@@jayjablunov4697 That's consistent with how things were when I was over in Kuwait summer through winter 2022-23. A PAO caught some flak, because the lead tank for their Delta Co. photo was named 'Daddy Issues'. I was able to snag a photo sitting on the barrel of Alpha Co's tank 'Allegedly', too.
I was on the USS Enterprise CVN65 and down in the Nuclear Engine room. Naval Nuclear Reactors Inc did not allow any art in "their" Reactor powered steam plants. Yet each engine room had a cylindrical shaped moisture separator between the high pressure main and low pressure main engines. In each of the four engine rooms there was a large art piece adorning the moisture seperators. I remember one was an eight ball, another I think was a set of dice , but the grandest was in #4 Main Machinery Room was a large four + foot sailing ship with topless mermaids in the sea and drinking sailors in the rigging and crows nest. Every year we would get ordered to paint it over with white paint but somehow the art still proudly sailed unscathed the whole time I was on board from 1982 to when I left in late 1986.
On 77 there was once a Star Wars Mural on the bottom of a DFT. Some digity chief ordered it painted over because he felt it was unprofessional.
AHOY SHIPMATE! Former EM14 mechanic here!
Four Main went to a lot of trouble to keep the mural on the steam separator a secret. It was a sailing ship with a drunken crew. The crew were caricatures of engine room sailors.
It was painted way back when by a guy named Deaville who had since become our Reactor Department master chief.
We would have to cover it with plastic and blank canvas whenever there was an inspection of any kind. I don't know if the mural survived the '91 refueling.
Did you know Shelton? Wog? Mizer? McNeal? I was in 4 Main for '88 and '89 West Pacs.
Little Shelton, Anderwog, Mizer was LPO when I left. Good times great crew.@@kurtpena5462
Thank you for that story. I love hearing about that stuff. It's showing humanity in a robotic, order-driven world. Thank you for your service.
My dad served 28yrs in the Navy and was on the Enterprise during Vietnam. This was I believe 64-66. Home base was Alameda NAS where we had housing. He started his carrier as a corpsman in WW2, of course pacific. Went GI bill went through college and Med School and went back into the Navy. When he returned from Nam we went on a dependents cruise on the Enterprise, out of the bay and down the coast and back all day. My best friend, whose Dad was a Master chief on the BigE, and I ran all over that ship. We went on the fantail and stepped around the anchor chains, kept going down decks and got run off by Marine guards who were in front of doors with radiation signs on them.
Later Dad was taking me to school and we were passing a bunch of Quonset huts that were just inside the fence all lined up 4 deep and 8 long. I told Dad that we were housed there for a number of months while housing was being sorted out and they were filthy when we got there and all the Moms were totally pissed off. He said I should look at Quonset huts with more respect as I was conceived in one. I never get tired of that story as I was 17 just split a gut. God I miss him everyday and I'm 71.
No nose art is more iconic that the shark mouth of the Flying Tigers (and RAF Squadron 112). It’s just perfect, especially the way it compliments the shape of the P40 with its front duct.
Agreed, the P-40 and the shark nose is one of the best combos of nose art. I thought the Hellcat and it’s cat mouth artwork was interesting!
And the AVG ''stole'' it from an RAF P-40 squadron in North Africa, whose Kittyhawks had made the cover of Life magazine. N0 112 Sqdn, I think. They stole it from a Luftwaffe Me-110 sqdn who copied WWI German nose art.
I had no idea the navy didn't allow nose art! That's something I never even thought of.
@@CheapSushithe a10 is the only us plane with nosw art currently
Because its so old some of the nose art got grandfathered in before the new regulations came out in the 80s
oh yeah, that's a good example! I wish it was more allowed still @@garyslayton8340
@@garyslayton8340 To be fair though, what is an A10 without the shark mouth?
In Nam there was a variety of 'Nose Art'. A Combat Engineer company had 3 gun trucks with 'The Judge', The Jury', and 'The Executioner' written on the side with corresponding artwork. Some river-boats had the 'Flying Tiger' teeth on the bow. There was a rumor of a 'pink' Huey, but I never saw that one. There is a pic from the Iraq war with a gun mounted on a truck, written on the shield: 'Pictures taken... look here, smile, wait for flash'.
That last one is clever. Nice
A mythical pink huey in the jungle of Nam paints a funny picture.
Sure does, that's why I said it was a rumor. If a pink chopper came to pick us up from an LZ, I dunno if I'd get on board, LOL@@turtleofpride4572
there used to be a pic of a marine ch 53 or chinook i cant remember, but it had that two tone grey camo on it
and if you looked close on each side. one of the darker blobs was the boobie girl from the chrome mudflaps that big rigs have. but from say 20 feet away you really couldnt tell unless it was pointed out to you
Imagine the VC leader 'splainin' to his higher-ups that they lost a battle 'cuz of a Pink Helicopter. He's now back diggin' tunnels. @@Banthisyoutube
I had always thought carrier planes had no nose art because they didn't "belong" to individual pilots nearly as much as USAAF planes. Ship planes under repair sometimes were left at island repair depots and new planes brought on board as replacements much more than land-based planes.
But I have nothing to back this up.
I think you’re right on that, I remember reading the book “Payback”, which is about the first 6 months of the war on Enterprise. Pilots/crews had assignments etc. and planes changed depending on availability. For VF-27, most/all the pilots must have been in agreement to have their planes painted up if they had different assignments everyday
Yep, the Navy found it more efficient for damaged or otherwise needing to be refit carrier AC to be swapped out instead waiting for it to be repaired or refitted in the crowded conditions on board a carrier so a pilot may fly one AC one mission then a different AC the next depending on it's condition. This speaks volumes about the different operational conditions between land bases and carriers and how US AC production could allow this. The Military Aviation History channel in fact just dropped a video on this very subject ua-cam.com/video/_b7aazWniEc/v-deo.html
Still true to this day. Planes that have the Rank, Name, and Callsign on the side of the canopy rail are not always the pilots currently inside the aircraft.
Even in the USAAF pilots didn't fly "their" planes too often. In the famous "Bottisham four" photo of P-51s, Urban Drew is flying 'S for Sugar' not "his" plane, the Detroit Miss. Not even bomber cews always had "their" planes.
That is a really good explanation... otherwise it just seems like petty jobsworthing. Good to know there is a decent reason behind it.
There are two kind of soldiers in this world.
Those that follow all the rules to the letter and those that gets the job done.
Bullshit… the vast majority of successful military operations were done by soldiers/sailors-airmen who were following orders
I was an Army officer. I would take soldiers from other commands that were rebellious. I would let them have their rebellious individualism, and in return I’d get one bad-ass, loyal, hard fighting dog!!
@@aboutpeopleplacesthings8375 yeah ok 👌🏻. 🤥🤥
@@aboutpeopleplacesthings8375Farrout Man.
There are two kinds of soldiers in this world.
Those that follow the rules and those that get themselves and others killed.
Neat video, cool to hear the stories of little known squadrons and ships. I liked the artwork as well
Thank you! Always knew about the artwork and never the full story !
@@svgproductions72
Yes, but did you know the Germans had shark mouth and other crazy nose art and body work?
Thanks for the vid! I love learning about small and seemingly insignifact WW2 atories like this. It also serves to remind us that for the most part these members of the "greatest generation" were kids at the time. Like most of us at that age, seizing the opportunity to rebel against authority is quite normal, maybe even required. i can imagine the pilots, on seeing their nose art painted over, grumbling and sulking about not being allowed to have fun anymore.
They might not have nose art but the Navy has the best tail art and they still do it. The Jolly Rogers and the Black Aces are both iconic squadrons.
There was a,so the famous black F-14 with the Playboy rabbit on the tails.
@@1967250s that was a short lived but awesome insignia that was discontinued way before cancel culture, can you imagine the outrage that will cause today?
Nice video. One addendum: The USS Birmingham, a Cleveland Class Light Cruiser, pulled alongside to fight the fire on the Princeton. The Princeton blew up and killed everyone above deck on the Birmingham. I tell you about this because my father was a Marine AAA gunner (20mm) on the bow of the USS Santa Fe, another Cleveland Class light cruiser. When the Essex Class aircraft carrier USS Franklin was severely damaged in a Japanese air attack, the Santa Fe pulled alongside to fight the fire. My dad, who went ashore at Tarawa and Iwo Jima, said he was never more terrified than at that time because everyone above deck remembered when the Santa Fe's sister ship, the Birmingham, was alongside the light carrier Princeton when it blew. Can you imagine what would have resulted if an Essex class ship had similarly blown up?
Thanks for the extra detail! I did know that Princeton had assistance before she sank and heard about the Birmingham, but didn’t want to slow down the video
Men like your father are my personal heroes from the struggle to save Humankind from utter darkness. I will always be grateful to him and his fellow Marines and all others who fought the Axis for their service.
Bless those and all personnel lost in the war.
The USN was primarily engaged with the Japanese Naval and Air arms. The red dot in the middle of the US star along with artwork, especially that containing red, was banned as well for practical identification purposes. When you are looking at a tiny smudged aircraft with binoculars you don't was AAA miss identifying friendlies as hostile because they see a spot of red.
Correct! The early war US roundel was quickly put out of service due to that red dot! If I’m not mistaken mid-1942 onwards sit was a blue insignia and white star until they updated it in 1943
Why the RAF removed it form planes in the SAEC (Dark/Light Blue) and the RAAF went White on blue.
SEAC...South-East Asia Command..mostly Burma/Sth China CBT in other words..but yeah...same deal...2-tone blue on SEAC RAF...blue-white on RAAF@@rossgage9730
I really wish you would have explained WHY the nose art was banned, the video feels very lacking without. @@svgproductions72
Did you know the Naval uniform was changed & the color "Navy Blue" was invented because Japan's sailor dress uniform was very similar. The "Dixie Cup" hat was also born as Japan & the US Navy dress hat were the very similar.
Semper Fortis
Officers throwing temper tantrums over such things is so common. "Demanded them to be re-painted that night." OK Admiral, here's a paint can, get to it. Oh, you mean get your enlisted slaves to work through the night to paint over the nose art that's giving you a case of the vapors. It really takes a special kind of person to have the neurosis to rise through the ranks.
Navy veteran here. Navy brass really is that puritanical, probably more so than any other service. I can tell you from experience that Naval Aviators have a little more easygoing attitude, though that's not to say that they're lax.
@@ostrich67I never served in any capacity but I once read that the Navy in the 1940s-60s time period was the most class conscious branch of the US armed forces. I don’t know if that’s still quite the case to this day though.
@@cassidy109 It still is. A lot of the Navy's traditions come from the British Royal Navy and predate our country, so some of ye olde British class system by way of the Northeast Establishment still exists there.
You've got to have you head lodged pretty far up your backside to think and admiral is going to paint the planes instead of having the people under him do it. "enlisted slaves"? Give me a break. You come off as somebody who never served, was kicked out or might have been an Air Force, zero discipline, puke.
@@ostrich67 Wonder if that is why frocking is still a thing? Nothing like earning rank and getting all of the duties and responsibilities that come with it while still being payed the previous rank for half a year.
My father was a crew chief on a B-25 in North Africa and did the artwork on his plane, I have some cool pictures of it too. Thanks for the video!
Thanks for sharing, what was the name of the aircraft? B-25s are my favorite bomber so I’d love to do some digging!
“Form 1-A” was painted along side a pin up girl.
@@basprad1563 I’ll look into it!
snownden and yossarian
Congrats on a successful video :)
Thanks TJ, means a lot to get a comment from you!
@@svgproductions72I’m curious, what was it that got this specific video to 1.1 million views?
@@Av-vd3wk I have no idea to be honest!!
@@svgproductions72I think it’s that you made people think “that’s dumbs and confusing “ In the title, leading to more people clicking the video
@@svgproductions72 i think it somehow got on the algorithm's good side, based on the viewer retention graph and the likes. it did however help me find you and i found this interesting :D
Back in 1970's I was attached to VA-146 flying the A7-E Corsairs on the USS Constellation. Like your video covers there was no nose art allowed no matter what it was or size. One night one of our plane captains put a Harley Davidson sticker on the nose of the skipper's plane, it was 3 ft. tall ! When he saw it we figured he go ballistic, but he just stood there and said to our surprise " it looks good, leave it on " ! ( he was an old biker ) . It was the only plane I ever saw with nose art in the navy ! Pilots and deckhands loved it ! It was removed the next day when the admiral on board saw it. It was great while it lasted !
Good job for keeping a short story short. You pushed relevant information without padding by repeating data and still provided a clear picture of an interesting topic. Again, good job!
Another great episode in the lives of the American Navy and Marine pilots of a bygone age.Thanks for keeping history alive. Colin UK 🇬🇧
Thanks for the comment Colin!
I must admit, as an amateur military historian all my life, I never realized the US Navy forbid nose art during World War II. A fascinating video!
Apparently these restrictions were lifted after WW2, as we see Navy squadrons with quite elaborate paint schemes in subsequent decades. VF-111 "Sundowners" in particular were famous for having a shark mouth nose art as one of the distinguishing features of their F-4 Phantom and F-14 Tomcat fighters.
since the lifting the tails got heavy work compared with the nose- like the checkerboard pattern of the Jolly Rogers
This video solved a mystery in my head for many many years, in 1950 off the coast of Korea on the USS Princeton we were there for a year but the squadrons only had to stay six months and I remember seeing many of the aircraft with Nose art so after our first cruise we were offered a cruise book and I noticed none of the aircraft in the pictures had any nose art so thanks for clearing that up😮c
Thanks for sharing this bit of insubordinate history. These guys risked their lives everyday so they should have been allowed to have nose art. Besides, the enemy must have thought “oh crap!” when they saw the Cat Mouth planes after knowing the kill ratio of VF-27.
I do wonder if it really had a psychological effect on the Japanese
@@svgproductions72 If I recall right, while not nose art, the sound of the Corsair terrified the Japanese. During a dive the air passing over the oil cooler would make a sort of shrieking sound. Not designed to make that sound it just happened to.
The Navy produces some of the most uptight officers. Most from the USNA. The “ring knockers” were usually the most tightly wound individuals in any ready room. Semper Fidelis SSgt B.
The cheif's mess is even worse.
They hold to British traditions/
@@yank-tc8bz....... Ya got that right ..... Some British Royal Navy Officers are so up-tight they couldn't fart if their lives depended on it !!!
Yup. Always preferred reserve officers. Had one company commander who was a mustang and he was the best CO that I ever served under. He sent me to an "officer only" school when I was a mere corporal because I was doing the job the ring-knocker platoon commander was too stupid to figure out.
Maybe there was some elitism involved as well. They saw the Army Air Corps having nose art and out of spite decided that this disregard of regulations would not happen on their watch.
What a great video! I had no idea about the Navy’s ban on nose art. You presented the material extremely well, with good visuals and a calm, clear read. Well done, and I’ll be looking for more of your posts!
Thank you! If you haven’t seen my other videos already be sure to check them out
It's great that you've enabled the subtitles on your videos for those watching on Smartphones with small speakers.
The U-2 Reconnaissance plane was occasionally "decorated" with chalk, during Operation Enduring Freedom. Nose art was like the WW2 P40, big teeth. On the tail they drew a "Snoopy character flying his doghouse."
One of the very obvious problems with that particular "Cat Mouth" nose art is the large area of red. It was already well known that when it came to recognising national insignia in the heat of battle (when the pilot may only get a fleeting glimpse of an aircraft) two features stood out.
1. The shape. The pre-war US circular insignia could be confused with the Japanese 'meatball' especially if the pilot was pulling high-G manoeuvres and was greying out. To combat this, the horizontal bars on either side of the US insignia were added. Even the British added bars to their circular insignia in the Pacific.
2. The colour. The red centre of the US insignia (and of the British roundel) were removed as even a flash of red could be lead the pilot to mistake the aircraft for a Japanese one.
Unfortunately, the choice of red for the nose art wasn't very smart and MAY have given the Navy the perfect excuse to get rid of it. In addition, it was probably easier to just say 'NO nose art' rather than drawing up a list of rules which excluded certain colours or shapes because somebody was bound to take the p*ss and this WASN'T a game.
By 1944 it was easy to tell which planes belonged to the enemy. On fire = Japanese, Not on fire = American.
@@titanuranus 😂
This was why early in the war German planes had yellow painted on the cowling and wing tips. Adrenaline really plays with your vision
@@titanuranus good one 😂
This why UK and Commonwealth aircraft in the Pacific Theatre lost the red centre to the roundel. The British Pacific Fleet went further, adding 'bars' to their markings.
my mother was stationed at Marham in Norfolk England, she was part of the WAF (women's Air Force) and was Post Mistress at the air base, she had her portrait and her nickname "Squibs" painted on the nose of a B17 Flying Fortress I think that this was in 1947
Fascinating. I didn't know that. Years ago I purchased a book of nose art and did not realize that there were no Navy examples.
Take a look at the bow configuration of USN Balao class submarine. Triangular openings are cut in the skin of the hull plating covering the pressure hull to allow for water drainage or ballast intake. When certain of those triangular openings are painted, as we did in fall 1969, the design resembled a sharks mouth. Needless to say the skipper received a call from COMSUBPAC just after arrival at Pearl. Narragansett Bay
This is awesome! My grandfather served aboard Princeton, so I grew up familiar with the cat mouth nose art on VF-27s Hellcats. I am always surprised when I see cat mouth Hellcats out in the wild, knowing the story and the little ship they served aboard.
Glad you enjoyed it! There’s another person in the comments with a grandpa who was on the Princeton! What was his role?
He was the pharmacist mate. As an interesting relation to this topic, he was popular with the pilots because he was in charge of the ships liquor cabinet, and would administer shots of brandy to pilots who returned to the ship shaken up by rough missions or landings.@@svgproductions72
@@sharkterritorio him and head of ship's galley were the two most valuable people on board.
The navy relaxed that rule so much that Ronald Reagan as one of his first and most public announcements (That I remember as a 13 year old at that time) was that the Navy Planes were to be Camo and that's it. The Navy Planes all looked like they were a Acrobatic team by the late 70's, great for model builders.
The Allies treat Planes like Uniforms, the Spitfire is a perfect example, the first one painted is exactly the same as the last one painted 7 years later. The tones may have changed but the camo is the same template.
The Japanese did not seem to have nose art either but the Germans, every squadron was like a ww1 flying circus with each pilot having a completely different uniform on.
I knew the Cat Mouth scheme was banned but I didn't know it was on the aircraft for as long as it was. I had always thought it was only on for a few days. Thanks, good video.
To be honest I thought it was longer before I really dug into the story!
For a short period of time to boost morale, SAC allowed nose art on their tanker and bomber aircraft. This started in the eighties and was pretty cool as far as I was concerned. There were guidelines as to colors, size, and location. Plus, the artwork had to be approved. Well, there was one that slipped in under the radar. You see, the KC-10A tanker was affectionately nicknamed Shamu after the orca. So, one of our aircraft at Seymour-Johnson AFB 83-0077 had killer whale teeth for a short period of time. It all disappeared overnight due to a visit from some dignitaries. There are pictures of it out with the teeth and later with nose artwork. I have a book with many of the aircraft from that period and a few others. It has the aircraft I crewed as well.
Good story, nicely told - and solid video work that was not annoyingly over the top. Relevant, interesting, meaningful.
I appreciate that! I was happy how this turned out!
Imagine your ship being sunk, with men being killed, but the officer on another ship has nose art as his priority.
Imagine being so concerned with efficiency that you forget that sailors have pretty shitty lives, and so your crew isn't firing on all cylinders when they're attacked.
Morale is the single most important resource in war. There's a reason why things like lobster and steak get served on submarines. A happier crew is more alert, more energized, and more productive.
That being said, some officers still agree with you, and the enlisted hate em.
I don't know. I think I disagree with you guys a bit. WW2 wasn't for pussies. Every WW2 veteran I've met has been a badass in his own right. They didn't put up with the hippie shit from their children either. The kind of grit these guys had comes from strict self control. Painting nose cones doesn't seem like that big of a deal. But it's not professional and war is not a joke. The officer didn't get to his role by crying about his morale.
This was a dick move. These guys just lost their ship and their comrades. If anything they should have painted all hellcats like that as a tribute to the Princeton and her crew. Just thinking what it would have done to the Japanese pilots moral. They thought they destroyed the entire squadron but now there's more of them .😳😸
Typical.
It can't be a coincidence that I'm currently building an RC 1,2m wingspan F6F-3 which I plan to paint precisely in VF-27 paint scheme and this video pops up in my feed. A really cool piece of history, it sucks that the OG had to be painted over, but it's really nice that it's being remembered
That’s pretty cool! I’m jealous, love the F6F, good luck with the RC plane. Glad you liked the video!
You can be sure that Gulagle is listening.
@@kirbyculp3449 oh it sure is
@@svgproductions72 I enjoyed the vid, I'm a warbirds enthusiast and I was kinda curious as to why the hellcats have such bland paint schemes as opposed to other US planes with pinups and nose art such as P-40, P-47, P-51, P-38 and so on
Recognition for the content creator 🎬🎥🏅.
Lots of information and no fluff for a short video. Good luck with your channel.
Thank you ! I appreciate the comment!!
@@svgproductions72yeah and this is excellent, I hit subscribe right away
Great story! I love obscure stories like this one.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I'll never forget what a CWO once told me, they're called Marine Corps orders not Marine Corps suggestions. Just because you don't agree with them, doesn't mean you can disregard them.
That was a good military history video with the bittersweetness of reality of service life meeting art.
It's kind of funny how strict they were in the 40s-50s but in the 60s to early 90s, most planes had unique paint schemes for their squadrons. Most famous is the Jolly Roger's F14 Tomcat paint scheme flying the Skull n Crossbones on their vertical stabs.
The video did point out the distinction between squadron insignia and individual nose art.
One of the squadrons we had onboard my last deployment, VFA-103, would paint a skull and crossbones on the tail of each plane based on the season and holiday. One had a Santa, another had Jason's mask and 2 machetes , and there was also a leprechaun and a Easter bunny.
Bloody higher-ups! I absolutely LOVE the nose art. Bet the Nips freaked out when they clocked that flash of red!
My CO was simple when it came to painting art. He said: "You can paint any design you like on the ship as long as it is all done with the same shade of navy-gray..."
One exception was made when the ship reached 21 years in service. To celebrate her becoming 'mature' a 'boat-tie' in the national colours was painted on the radar-dome.
I have a die cast model of this Hellcat with these same markings. I had no idea about the back story .. I love the plane and definitely love the cats mouth paint job…thank you for the informative video!
My father-in-law was a R.A.F. Lancaster pilot in WW2, as a child my wife asked him what was drawn on his plane, his answer……”nothing, or you’d spend off hours repainting it R.A.F. black!”
We did have a good few aircraft with nose art tbf. Even some gulf war jets like mig eater got some noseart in more recent and more strict raf history
Ive been always a fan of warplanes, I will never forget the first time I saw a F6F and a F4U Corsair in real life, I have a feeling that these planes look really tiny in general, books, videos, pictures, videogames, you name it. The planes are so so much bigger I ever imagined them to be it was a shock to me honestly.
Have you seen a TBF/TBM Avenger in person? They are absolutely massive!
@@svgproductions72 Yes I saw one of those at the Intrepid Museum in NYC, they got some nice planes there.
My Dad flew 58 missions with the 15th AAF/464th Bomb Group in 1944-45. In his squadron the originally topless "Pistol Packin' Mama" had to have some clothes painted on---while other planes included the names "Free Delivery" and "Middle Digit"
my dad flew a B-24 named Twin Tails with two nude girls on the nose , after an attack by a german fighter there was a bullet hole in one of the girls nipples . It was such a perfect shot they didnt repair the hole but it whistled when they flew.
@@bluskytoo What a great nugget, thank you!
Thanks SVG. Shows that no matter how big of a fan you are, there is always more to learn. Well done video. Thanks for posting!
Glad you enjoyed it! Be sure to check out my other videos if you haven’t already!
I use this nose art in warthunder, glad I know the history now!
Glad you enjoyed it! I had it as one of my skins as well
Moral of the story: when in the military, always strive to be stationed away from the flagpole where the air is cleaner, food tastes better and you'll have more energy than you ever dreamed of.
WOW! I never even noticed that until now. I know I was in at the tail end of Vietnam and the Marine Corps would never tolerate any type of "custom painting" on our Huey.
On knox class destroyers in Vietnam days, part of the carrier task force off the coast we would have "nose art" painted on the broad side of the ASROC launcher up on the fo'c'sle. Navy command structure came out and said no "art" that they consider aggressive could be displayed. They made us remove Yosemite Sam from ours because he was shooting 2 pistols in the air, which was his normal behavior in the children's cartoon. They had to remove Yosemite Sam and paint the approved "art" of the Pink Panther , wearing a top hat and leaning on his cane. nuts...
Little known facts about Adm Sherman:
1) He ironed his underwear
2) He pre-folded toilet paper.
3) He named all of his socks.
Was he aware that you installed a spy camera in his onsuite toilet?
@@BrassLock They had those in WWII? You are an expert on the subject and I will refer to your vast experience in said matters.
Yep seems like a guy who gets no bi*ches.
@@pickeljarsforhillary102 Your little story is amusing and equally as farcical as mine. You remain the World Class expert on underpants ironing, toilet paper folding and sox naming.
And yes, microdot spy cameras were in use prior to 1939, using film.
Interesting story and well-told! Thanks, that's something I didn't know about.
One thing I'll add about the USAAF nose art, it was obviously allowed for morale purposes during WW2 but at war's end all the nose art had to be removed from aircraft remaining in service. It would be allowed again by the USAF during the Korean War and to a lesser extent during Vietnam.
The whole intelligence angle goes both ways, had admiral left the nose art stay, next mission the enemy would still think carrier is still active . As for the bounty, Erich Hartman had 350 kills in ww2, his bf109 had black tulip painted on nose . I am sure alot of pilots tried to be the one to kill him, and got shot down instead. And others avoided engaging him because of fear.
Thank you for showing the footage in the proper aspect ratio.
I’d hoped to hear that some high ranking officer chose to support the squadrons that were kicking ass and let the men risking their lives destress by enjoying the nose art.
Nah , bro , management are always d!cks.
When I was in the army, we didn’t want the enemy to see markings because they could use it to track which units were which. I suspect the top navy leaders were concerned with nose art for the same reason. Nose art my tip off an opponent that they were fighting more than one carrier or what size carriers were involved.
When we were allowed to name our trucks soldiers took pride in maintaining their truck. When we were ordered to remove the names, soldiers no longer gave a F about their trucks and it showed.
I highly doubt this was the reason. Beginning around mid 1943, as more carriers began operating in ever larger groups, individual squadrons began using distinct tail markings to identify their aircraft on an ad-hoc basis, mainly to help pilots distinguish between formations when forming up before and after strikes. This led to the Bureau of Aeronautics implementing a mandatory system of geometric markings for each Pacific aircraft carrier to be painted on the tail and on the upper side of the right wing in January of 1945.
@@dzapper7 So it was just a matter of suppressing self expression?
I just saw this nose art the other day while playing "Forgotten Hope: Secret Weapon". It was the only plane on the carrier with this art, surrounded by tools and such- probably waiting to be repainted; what a coincidence!
If you like this - cover the F-105s over Vietnam, this will bring the nose art debate on a completely different level… 😂
The F105 is one of my favorites, so maybe it was inevitable... but I really wish I hadn't just googled "F105 Nose Art"
@@potatokilr7789 Aaaw! So a good bush scares ya? Poor thing...
I've been studying World War 2 since 1977 when I was 13yrs old, it's nice to come across something I haven't before so thank you for this.
Glad you enjoyed it!
My father was there when the nose art was banned. It was the result of Elleanor Roosevelt's "morale building tour" of the South Pacific. She was offended by the nose art. My dad's pilot named their plane The Vulgar Virgin.
Thanks for the comment, what kind of plane did he fly?
@@svgproductions72 Well, it wouldn't be a Liberator.
Damn Admirals, always mucking up the fun! If he realized how successful those birds were maybe he would have turned a blind eye.
My next model build will incorporate this artwork...
I will never understand why, throughout history, military senior leadership sees soldiers having a modicum of fun and always has to ensure they put a stop to it quickly.
Because a lot of military personnel are the type of people to not just have a little bit of fun. It often can quickly lead to one-upmanship on who can do that most outrageous, most daredevil thing possible. Who can drink the most, who can sneak a phallus onto the admiral's aircraft, who can jump the HMMMV thr highest, etc. It's usually easier to nip it in the bud than to write rules and regulations forbidding the thing that killed Mechanic's Mate Snuffy.
It sucks sometimes, and nobody wants to be thought of as a killjoy, but keeping personnel out of med bay, out of courts martial, and out of other people's marriage beds tends to keep a unit more prepared to deploy and fit for duty.
If you think that's bad, wait until you see how women demand and enforce the most gratuitous of rules.
It's management over leadership.
Rules over inspiration.
And above all, officers are always scared of what their boss will think of it.
Very useful information! Great video as usual.
Thank you Air Zoo!
Also, I hope I can visit your museum in the near future, I would love to take a tour of your spaces!
This shows the short sightedness of the US Navy regulations at that time. The nose art was common to *all* of the fighters in that squadron, being a squadron emblem not any individual's personal emblem, and thus served to engender unit pride and teamwork between the pilots which is amply displayed in their exceptional success. Rather than banning the practice, with this as an example the navy should have encouraged it with the aim of engendering the same teamwork spirit in all the other squadrons. If this one squadron achieved this much success, just imagine if *all* of them had.
It also would let the enemy know witch carriers are in the area. Not a good idea. I think that is the reason for no nose art.
@@grimheathen Yes, on the other hand, the enemy would recognise the fighter group they were up against and get the hell out of there
True ,I was trying to think of the reason for the ban and this was the first thing that came to mind. We need a vet to chime in. @@bogusmogus9551
There were UNIT markings - which helped with Unit Morale and helped identify which unit a plane was in and some of these markings could be quite elaborate. Tail surfaces were common places for Unit Markings but also the nose. The body of the aircraft usually had the aircraft's number so they could tell which plane that was and who was flying it.
The _"Cat's Mouth"_ on these units planes would in fact seem to be a unit marking but may not have been the type of unit marking these officers approved of.
.
@@grimheathen That would pre suppose that Japanese intelligence was so good and so up to date that they knew which squadrons were assigned to which carrier at any given time, which would be highly unlikely.
It's not like picking up floating trash in a coastal merchant shipping lane and so having a decent guess which submarine might be present - carriers are big ships and usually operate in deep water environments rarely getting close enough to land for fishing boats to pick up any floating trash, assuming the carriers didn't just take it home with them anyway. And said fishing boats would have to be willing to venture out close to American warships at night, with the certainty that the warships will be especially looking for any vessels trying to sneak up and *will* fire if said vessels can't identify themselves as friendly. Of course, being American, that's still no guarantee they won't just open fire anyway.
In the 80s I was in VF 301 we were called the devils disciples our emblem was a red devil with a spear . Some born again members of the squadron didn't like it and wrote their congressman and basically got told to go pound sand .
Often individual cases of art were only on the left side of the plane, where the brass in teh tower would not see it. (Most carriers of the time had elevators mounted in such a way that the plane never turned 180 degrees on board.) The assumption of lazy brass makes me chuckle, though often this wouldn't work as the brass wouldn't be as lazy as hoped.
:45 I believe that to be my old squadron VF11 Red Rippers. Great video. Our sister squadron VF31 is probably the most photographed squadron ever.
I didn't know about WWII, but when I was in the USAF (Vietnam era), I was stationed at England AFB Louisiana, home of the 23rd Tactical Fighter Wing "Flying Tigers", whose symbol was the "tiger teeth" with a small eye. To my surprise, however, our squadron of A7D fighter planes only wore their nose art when they were deployed in country. Why? Because (we were told) civilians were very sensitive to military aggression during the Vietnam War (especially after the My Lai Massacre). We airmen thought it was pretty cool, but to keep the civilians from fainting at the sight, it was banned from the aircraft stateside. I kid you not.
I was also at England AFB (F-4s) and the 23TFW.
I am surprised that the Navy didn't like nose art sense the Navy is considered the most laid back branch of the U.S Military. And I never realized that nose art was banned from the Navy until this video, I always assumed it was allowed in all the branches during WW2. Real cool vid
Wow. Really? Navy most laid back in US?
I think in Commonwealth countries, the Air Force is seen to be the most relaxed and I was told, had the highest percent of gay members and Army had the highest rate of domestic violence.
The Navy, though possibly this is stronger in UK, had the most old school, traditional, conservative officers. It is, after all, 'the Senior Service.'
Which sounds right, on this video's subject, even in America.
Royalty tends to serve in Navy - until the latest generation.
Though submariners are said to be the most well balanced, easy going and most vetted for psych problems. Don't want someone having hissy fits in a permanently very confined area.
Navy: "Nose art is banned."
Also Navy: "A dude in a Dress is now your boss."
Also navy immediatly after the war: your squadron markings is a rising sun with shark teeth and giant script through the middle of the fuselage
I had no idea the navy hired cross dressing admirals in WWII, thanks!
@@phil562 I bet you didnt think the head of the FBI would be a cross dresser either, and you would also be wrong, lol. Democrats have been cross dressing and diddling kids a lot longer than anyone thinks, lol.
Not sure whom you mean. Levine is USPHS. But services getting a bit too woke.
@@annelarrybrunelle3570 Worse and already happening. Marines in Pink High Heels doing drill. What cant go on wont go on and this marxist bs cant go on in America.
All history is a great story cause it connects the whole world man. I like this and keep it up!! Incredibly informative as well as the b-roll I think it's called (where you talk over a clip of what you're talking about) was incredibly entertaining and fun. The niche topics are what gets us, the viewer, cause we wanna be unique ya feel and know this niche stuff. (If anyone else reading this comment is that "um achhhyttttuuuualllllyyyy" cmon man). This man is entertaining and I'm drunk. Tomorrow I will not be drunk and this man will still be entertaining. Bonus points to anyone who got that reference.
I was in VFA 151 “Vigilantes” when it was still home ported in Atsugi Japan onboard USS MIDWAY (CV 41) in Yokosuka and some of the pilots talked about the brief history of Navy nose art. By the way, Yokosuka is pronounced YO-KOS-KA, the “U” is silent.
Thank you for your service and thanks for the comment! I should have looked up how to pronounce it before I recorded. Thank you for the tip!
First I’ve heard of this oddity.
Thank you.
Admiral Sherman = Dead and Forgotten.
VF-27 Nose Art = Legendary and still remembered
Enough said!
I always wondered at the lack of Navy nose art. Thanks for a great and informative video!
I have the Eduard 1/48 F6F Hellcat scale model in these markings, and I particularly chose this kit because of the iconic markings. I had no idea it was banned. Just how petty-minded can some people get!
The brass-asses in the Navy were not really all that concerned with morale. I honestly have NO respect for much of the upper level brass of that era. Even the legendary Halsey was nothing more than a glory seeking brass ass as demonstrated buy his neglect of Taffy 3 in the battle of Leyte Gulf as he took the entire fleet off chasing impotent Jap aircraft carriers. The Men of Taffy 3 paid dearly for the glory seeking manner of Halsey!
You need strait-laced people to be in charge when there's a bunch of teens on a warship, he knew what worked and didn't want to chance distractions? I'm pretty sure the Admiral had a sound theory about how HE would conduct business on one of the biggest ships in the Navy, drama queen..
Got that kit too, for the same reason. Ironic that VF-27 is probably the most recognized of all.
@@mikemulligan5731 And he's definitely sure that a few licks of paint were a serious detriment. Like to see his psychology degree.
I was in what was called the Gator Navy, the part of the 7th fleet that carried Marines and their equipment. I can confirm that as late as 1974 the Marine amphibs (amphibious landing craft) were painted with shark mouths on the bow. Pretty cool 6 wheel "all terrain vehicles".
My take on it is simply this. Interservice rivalry being a thing and organizational culture being real, the Army Air Forces allowed their men to do things like individual nose art because they were much larger and had a far more prevalent "civilians in uniform" ethos along with the direction to not treat draftees like the old prewar professional Air Corps. They relaxed discipline to a far greater extent because that was part of the historic Army's culture in wartime.
The Naval air services were much smaller, less reliant on drafted men and more reliant on volunteers, and absolutely determined to make sure that their professionals were not infected with the sloppy Army's ways. Discipline in the great and little things was not to be relaxed, war or no war. Painting big gaudy nose art was what those Army shitbags do, not us. This is not "your" plane, it is the squadron's, the carrier's, the Navy's.
Even though the mechanics and electricians worked on them, and the pilots, gunner's mates, and aviation ordinance men fought and died in them.
Try calling Chuck Yeager a "shitbag" to his face?
I have always had a fascination with nose art, especially the art on World War II bombers. It's a bit bewildering why anyone would be opposed to nose art. I think pilots have always shared a kinship with their planes and the art helps strengthen that connection which can only be a good thing, especially during a time of war.
I thought it was always a shame that the Navy never officially permitted nose art.
Well if the US captains were anything like the English captains they focused mostly on keeping the ship clean and looking good over anything else. So with that reasoning having different nose art on each plane will not look neat and organized.
I was in a helicopter squadron in the US Navy. My squadron was on many ships of both the Atlantic & Pacific Fleets in the 1980s. We had artwork we added to the side door & bottom of the aircraft that was only seen when transferring cargo with the belly hook (called UNREP, underway replenishment). The Pacific Fleet ships were more tolerant of the artwork however the Atlantic Fleet ship commanders went ballistic with this non regulation art work on the aircraft. We had to repaint over the artwork before next day flightops. The only artwork allowed was a 2 color arrow we had on our squadron patch we had on the side of the helicopters. The only artwork allowed was a simplified artwork off the squadron patch.
I can't say i like that noseart...IMO it doesn't fit well in the shape of the plane as did, for instance, the shark mouth on the Bf-110s and the P-40s in Africa first, and in the far east with the AVG later. The F6F looks already more than badass in its '43 three tone camo, especially with those red lined new insignias that were in use during that summer.
Anyway, i did like your vid!!!!👍👍👍
Thank you! Yeah it’s a bit of an odd scheme and it doesn’t fit too well with the F6F, but it’s still pretty cool!!
The red line insignia was the coolest
Our Navy commanders need to think more highly of their personnel. Especially in light of their successes. They proved that they had higher morale, most likely due to their art. All the successful squadrons in Air History have had flamboyant aircraft. Great work on the story of VF-27.
I wonder this regulation was in place so that the enemy could not deduce what carrier assets were in the area at the time. Ie. You could tie nose art to a certain carrier and then that carrier to a certain task force and then the enemy could deduce the possible strength and composition of said force.
Great Point👍🏾👍🏾
That neglects the fact that most (if not all) aircraft still had some form of squadron marking, and (at least in the early part of the war) fuselage and wing bands to indicate which carrier the squadron was assigned to.
@@bradevans7935 even better point
@@bradevans7935 But those are certainly not as distinctive as nose art.
@@DaIssimo True, nose art is a distinctive way to identify a particular aircraft, but in terms of intelligence evaluation, the squadron markings are more valuable. You would need more knowledge than you are likely to have in wartime to tie an individual enemy aircraft's nose art to a particular squadron and/or carrier, while squadron markings tell a bigger story. For example, if you have identified enemy aircraft with 4 different squadron markings (regardless of the exact number of aircraft identified), and know that one carrier will be home to 3 squadrons, you can expect that at least 2 enemy carriers may be present in the area.
I was a maintainer at Tyndall AFB with the 1st Fighter Squadron. The pilots had their patch of Lady Death when they were home and the topless patches of her when they went TDY. I was also with the 67th Fighter Squadron in Kadena, Japan. The 67th were known as the Fighting K-O-C-K-S (misspelled on purpose to avoid ban). The radio call signs were all K-O-C-K-S based, K-O-C-K one, K-O-C-K two, etc. The Commander's call sign was Big K-O-C-K and the deputy Commander was called little K-O-C-K.
As a captain of a carrier, I don’t want any aircraft identifiable to my ship. A situation where the enemy can see the aircraft and be able to identify what ships they are from would be an advantage to that enemy. Keeping all the planes from all the ships uniform denies that. I know some planes in some situations had unit designations painted on them, but that is harder see, identify, and decipher than brightly painted graphics.
Funny thing is they did exactly what you said you don't want as mandatory carrier identification markings, which later because identification letters used to this day
And if white checkerboard with wide yellow stripes across 1/3rd of a wing on a navy blue aircraft is not more visible than a shark mouth on its nose idk what is
@@michakrupowicz8901 Or paint the tails and wing stripes in a bright color according to the carrier the squadron was assigned to, up to 1940 ...
I dont think pilots will have anytime trying to identify the enemy based on their nose art. Pilots in combat will be too focused on trying to stay alive rather than looking for identification markings.
You definitely want clear and visible markings for identification. You just need to keep their meaning unknown to the enemy and change them periodically to keep them guessing.
I have a hellcat t-shirt with this design but never knew the history until this video. Thanks.
Hope you enjoyed it! That’s definitely a great shirt design!
I think being that it was a moral booster, it was a good thing. Too bad the carrier officers didn't think so.