North American B-25J  "Oklahoma Betsie / Big Jamoke"

Happy modelling to everyone and happy new 2012, this is another 1/72 model I made recently, a NA B-25 J that had for a brief time the markings of "Oklahoma Betsie" and finally (after the photos were made) as "Big Jamoke" 447th BS 321st BG in the MTO.

This unique model with two identities (the first changed quite soon and was soon replaced by the Big Jamoke markings for the lack of decent noseart decals referred to Oklahoma Betsie) was suggested by an article written by a friend of mine about a B-25 J that crashed in the mountainous region of Carnia in northern Italy during the war, and whose story (with a commemorating plaque and pieces of the wreckage) was recalled last year, but that's another story.

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Construction: 
I did not rescribed the upper surfaces of the wings and all of the fuselage like many expert modellers suggest mainly because I consider those details rather good. Sadly like many tricycle gear kits, this one wanted to be a tail-sitter but fortunately Hasegawa complete the kit with a sort of support that sustain the model under the tail crew ladder, there's not enough space for adding weights.

Building the model was quite easy. I added all the guns late in the process because I really hate to break things in handling. No exception was the nose gear which had to be added at the end of the construction despite the instructions say the contrary. I attached most of the clear parts with Modelmasters Glue. The nose cap with the fixed .50 cal was attached with the same cement. 

The following assembly was straightforward. I assembled the wings with engine nacelles, and the tail surfaces before proceeding with the fuselage. I finished off the sub-assemblies by painting and assembling the engines, then attaching the cowlings with their little but precise individual exhaust stacks. I proceeded with the interior painting. The bombardier’s position and the cockpit were done in Humbrol Dull Dark Green, with some Black in other areas.  

The rest was done in Yellow Zinc Chromate, with the various electronic great done with Semi-Gloss Black and the rest in Olive Drab. 

You don’t see this in any detail when finished and the two semi-fuselages of the model are put together, so it's a shame I did spend a lot of time on detailing but before I made some nice pictures.

The bomb bay was left opened with all details and the two 1000 lbs bombs on the bay visible, the details are pretty good.

Painting: 
"Oklahome Betsie" before and "Big Jamoke" after....were both delivered in natural metal and probably remained so until the end of the war, differently from the other aircraft of the same big unit.  I finished my Hasegawa kit with Humbrol 2001 Duraluminum on all surfaces. Since these aircraft were well used, I weathered mine a bit with darkened oil paint around the engine nacelles and the movable surfaces.

Decals:
I obtained some Bomb Shell's decals for "Big Jamoke" and just the serial nr for "Oklahoma" (that was later removed and replaced) the decals set include color photographs as well as color profiles so the choice of paints is pretty complete, the two versions of the same model differs only for the "Nose art" and for the serial nr, for "Oklahoma" nose art was a cartoon but "not available", while for Big Jamoke a nice nude pin up of Alberto Vargas copied directly on the nose plane from the magazine Esquire, by some skilled artist crewmember of the squadron.

The story:
Last April a friend of mine send me this article about the true story of a B-25 J that crashed close were I live during the last months of war:

It was 15.55 on 4th April 1945 when the American bomber B25 “Oklahoma Betsie“ from 340th BG crashed in front of the town of Lovea, in the mountainous Chiarsò Valley, precisely in the locality of "Stavoli di Roncs" (Stables of Roncs). 

On 4th April 2011, at the same time, the local community in memory of that tragedy, has taken steps to discover a wooden plate of aluminum - retrieved from the same plane - in the same place where the plane crashed. 

“We wanted to commemorate this event to try to keep alive the memory of an exceptional fact happened during wartime, a fact that had been forgotten now” - said one of the promoters of the initiative, Guido della Schiava -“therefore during last months we have launched a challenging historical research, until with the help of some aeronautical fans, we were able to retrieve the various American reports and the testimonies collected in the field, which allowed us to know how the whole tragedy happened”.

From the east coast of Corsica two squadrons of American B-25 bombers took off to bomb the railway bridge in Drauburg in Carinthia (Austria). 

During the turn for the return to the base, in the skies over Ravascletto, two B-25 aircraft collided, causing considerable damage to each other.  One of them crashed near the village of “Liariis di Ovaro” and all six crew members died.  The other, the “Oklahoma Betsie”, was trying to maneuver towards the valley of But, three airmen bailed out, one died, others were captured by Cossacks (The Cossacks were caucasians troops that occupied the Carnia region of Friuli and fought for the nazis). 

When the bomber arrived over the Chiarsò Valley two other airmen bailed out, and immediately after the plane crashed in a desperate attempt of landing.  A pilot still managed to survive but then was killed by kicking by the leader of a gang of Caucasians come from the village of Rivalpo. Now everything will be collected in a forthcoming book. 

The Units, 340th and 321st Bomb Group:
The 340th and 321st Bomb Groups were activated on August 20, 1942, and trained on B-25's. 
The units were the last bomb groups to arrive in North Africa, but later following the move to Corsica in April 1944, the 321st and 340th - which had been flying B-25C and B-25D bombers since their arrival in the MTO - were re-equipped with new B-25J bombers.

Flying from Corsica, the 340th and 321st participated in the invasion of southern France that August, and in attacks against lines of communication in Northern Italy from September 1944 to May 1945, during which period the unit effectively took 100 percent losses, which certainly demonstrates why there would be a “Catch-22" to keep aircrew from quitting. During this period, the 340th specialized largely in close support and "bridge-busting", repeatedly hitting rail bridges, viaducts and tunnels, in the Italian Alps and Appenine Mountains to create road blocks.

Happy modelling to everyone

Alex Cimenti

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