Bashful
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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.

Service Record

  1. First mission on record 25 August 1942 Corinth Canal
  2. 43 missions flown
  3. Shot down over Romania during the Ploesti raid; six crew lost, three POWs 1 August 1943
Fate
Shot down over Romania during the Ploesti raid; six crew lost, three POWs
Date
1 August 1943

Journey

Home base Confirmed crash location

Known mission list

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