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Nose art painted by Sgt Frank Stevens
100th Bomb
Group (Heavy)
Thorpe Abbotts, England
MASON AND DIXON
B-17G 42-31412 351st Squadron
This was a long-serving Fort which was named after two 100BG officers -- pilot Floyd Mason
and navigator William Dishion. The racy semi-nude painted by Stevens made clever use
of the scripted titling to avoid censorship by higher authorities. The plane was severely
damaged while on a shuttle mission from England to Russia to Italy in September 1944.
A flak shell sliced through the wing and narrowly missed a fuel tank.
Name-sake Capt Mason had been shot down in another aircraft in late July 1944 but
"Mason and Dixon" returned to fly many more combat missions well into 1945.
© Ray Bowden
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