The Pyramidiers' 343rd Bomb Squadron made good use of many of the other characters from the "Snow White" film including Prince Charming, the Witch and, of course, the seven dwarfs. "Bashful" was another of Amos Nicholson's skilful paintings with the figure facing forward, as it did with all his nose arts. It is believed that Amos painted all his first versions of the Disney dwarfs using a traditional shadow script for the titling. "Happy" was an exception to this, it used a shadow sans serif style for the title and the second version of "Dopey" used an entirely different approach to the titling, with multi-coloured, jumbled letters.

The right side of "Bashful" was previously painted by another 98BG artist as "Jersey Jackass". It was another of the B24s which were tragically lost on the daring low level mission to Ploesti on 1st August 1943. Six of John McGraw's crew were killed that day and the three survivors became prisoners or war. The B24D had begun combat flying a year earlier on 25th August 1942 when it was taken to bomb the Corinth Canal by Lt Muehlberg who would fly no less than 25 missions in the plane up to mid-April 1943. A further 15 missions were added by other crews until it was brought down in Romania on the infamous Ploesti mission with the 389BG crew of John McGraw.

Known Mission List

Date	Pilot	Target	Notes
25 Aug 1942	J R Muehlberg	Corinth Canal
29 Aug 1942	J R Muehlberg	Shipping strike	Returned early - aborted - hydraulics + 2 generators out
5 Sep 1942	J R Muelhberg	Candia Bay	Shipping strike
25 Sep 1942	J R Muehlberg	Shipping strike	#2 eng malfunctioned
3 Oct 1942	J R Muehlberg	Navarino Bay	Shipping strike
9 Oct 1942	J R Muehlberg	Benghasi shipping	Lost #4 supercharger, jettisoned bombs
16 Oct 1942	J R Muehlberg	Benghasi shipping	Abortive due to weather, bombs returned
19 Oct 1942	J R Muehlberg	Benghasi shipping	Returned early - aborted - #3 engine out
28 Oct 1942	J R Muehlberg	Navarino Bay	Shipping strike
4 Nov 1942	C C Clinton	Benghasi harbour
6 Nov 1942	Capt J R Muehlberg	Benghasi harbour
10 Nov 1942	Capt J M Kilgore	Benghasi harbour	Returned early - mechanical trouble
23 Nov 1942	Capt J R Muehlberg	Tripoli	Abortive due to weather
28 Nov 1942	Capt J R Muehlberg	Tripoli
2 Dec 1942	G E Groff	Naples harbour	All 4 engines stopped over sea but restarted
28 Dec 1942	Capt J R Muehlberg	Sousse	Aborted just prior to target due to oxygen loss
1 Jan 1943	Capt J R Muehlberg	Tunis harbour	Returned early - tail turret out, landed at Kabrit
8 Jan 1943	Capt J R Muehlberg	Bizerta shipping	rerturbed early -- #1 engine lost oil
15 Jan 1943	J D Harden	Tripoli	Flak damage to nose and wing
24 Jan 1943	Capt J R Muehlberg	Palermo Docks
31 Jan 1943	G R Groff	Messina ferry slipway
3 Feb 1943	Capt J R Muehlberg	Palermo / Messina	returned early -- #2 supercharger out
13 Feb 1943	Capt J R Muehlberg	Naples / Palermo	returned early -- gunner sick
23 Feb 1943	Capt J R Muehlberg	Messina ferry slipway	Lost top and tail guns just after target
13 Mar 1943	J D Harden	Naples harbour
18 Mar 1943	Lt Jorgensen	Naples harbour	Returned early -- #1 and #4 engines out
24 Mar 1943	Capt J R Muehlberg	Messina ferry slipway
2 Apr 1943	Capt J R Muehlberg	Naples harbour	Returned early -- crewman suffered epileptic fit
5 Apr 1943	Capt J R Muehlberg	Palermo
7 Apr 1943	Capt J R Muehlberg	Palermo	Aborted -- lost formation in bad weather
11 Apr 1943	Capt J R Muehlberg	Naples
13 Apr 1943	Capt J R Muehlberg	Catania
15 Apr 1943	Capt J R Muelhberg	Palermo
26 Apr 1943	D S Watt	Bari airfield
28 Apr 1943	D S Watt	Messina ferry terminal	One Me109 claimed destroyed
1 May 1943	D S Watt	Reggio harbour	Abortive due to weather
4 May 1943	D S Watt	Reggio harbour
21 May 1943	D S Watt	Reggio di Calabria	One Me109 claimed destroyed
25 May 1943	C S Looker	Messina	Returned early -- #1 engine feathered, smoking and windmilling
7 Jul 1943	D C Johnson	Gerbini
11 Jul 1943	C W Gooden	Vibo Valentia
17 Jul 1943	L E Murphy	Naples	Hit by flak -- 40 holes, hydraulics shot out
1 Aug 1943	J J McGraw (389BG)	Ploesti	MISSING -- down in Romania, 6 KIA, 3 POW

 

© Ray Bowden 28 November 2021