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February - March 2018
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boatingonthehudson.com
“Tondelayo”??? Am I going to write this whole article in
Espanol??? Nope: “Tondelayo” is the name of the Collings
Foundation World War II North American B-25 Mitchell.
Let’s talk about World War II airplane names for a bit. I don’t
recall ever seeing, or hearing of a Spitfire or Hurricane with
a name on its fuselage. Same with ME-109’s and FW-190’s:
every once in a while I’ve seen a picture of one with some
kind of dragon or something else scary and/or “fierce” on
the tail, but “names” up front are to me, rare if not totally
absent. Japanese planes also. Seems like we Americans
may have been the only aerial combatants to embellish our
airplanes with names (and, drawings): from my experience
it was unusual for an aircraft
NOT to be named. Good for
the U.S.A.!!!
The names were wildly
imaginative, and, outrageously
original. I have a whole bunch
of Mustang books, and one
has drawings of Mustangs
and info about their pilots and
squadrons, so let’s use these
as examples. We’ll start off with
Major George “Ratsy” Preddy’s
P-51’s—a P-51B and two
P-51D’s—all named “CRIPES
A’ MIGHTY”: he had a liking for
“English colloquial phrases”.
My recollection is the “B” had
a much-less-colorful name at
first... Preddy was the top-scoring Mustang pilot of World
War II, with 25.83 confirmed “kills”. He was THE stereotypical
WWII fighter pilot—a hard-drinking swashbuckling gambler,
with a dapper mustache—and flew with the 352nd Fighter
Group out of Bodney, England: the “Blue Nosed Bastards of
Bodney”. He was killed by “friendly fire”—an American kid
manning quad-50-caliber antiaircraft guns—while low-level
chasing an FW-190 on Christmas Day 1944, near Leige,
Belgium. “The fortunes of war”: What a rotten, rotten shame.
Another well-known Mustang ace was Captain Don Gentile,
and his P-51B “Shangri-La”. He never did fly “D’s”. Let’s take
a quick tour through some other unique Mustang names:
“Big Beautiful Doll”, “Moonbeam McSWINE”, “ALABAMA
RAMMER JAMMER”, “JERSEY JERK”, “Nooky Booky IV”,
“Ferocious Franky”: Point made???
Back to “Tondelayo”: The real B-25 that is now the Collings
“Tondelayo” was built at the Kansas City, Kansas North
American Aviation factory as serial number 44-28932 and
TONDELAYO!!!
by
Ralph J. Ferrusi
was accepted into the Army Air Corps on August 3, 1944,
and served in the AAF Training Command for the rest of the
war, and continued in a training capacity until 1959. 44-
28932 was purchased by Earl Dodge, of Anchorage, Alaska
and flew as a forest-fire fighter in the Pacific Northwest for
the next 25 years (Check out the movie Always).
44-28932 was acquired by Collings in 1984: the first World
War II bomber in the Collings’ collection. After two years
restoration, it became the “Hoosier Honey”, a 12th Air
Force aircraft that served in Italy and North Africa in 1944.
In 2001 it became the “Tondelayo”, that flew in the 5th Air
Force, 345th Bomb Group, 500th
Bomb Squadron “Air Apaches”
in the Pacific against targets in
New Guinea, attacking shipping
and beating off (name-less???)
Japanese fighters. The name
“Tondelayo” was inspired by Hedy
Lamarr’s character in the 1942
movie “White Cargo”!
Fast Forward to Wednesday,
October 4, 2017: in the last several
years, right about this time, a
Collings Foundation light bulb goes
off in my head. Dutchess County
Airport did not appear in an on-
line check of the Collings Wings of
Freedom Tour dates for 2017. But,
a small ad in the previous Sunday’s Poughkeepsie Journal
said they were a’coming October 4th-6th. I called the airport
and was informed the planes would be arriving “between
Noon and 2:00 PM”. I hustled over to the “unofficial” parking
area on Route 376 at the east end of the main east/”NINE
0 NINE” flight (“Boating on the Hudson and Beyond 2016
Holiday Issue”). So we waited, and waited, straining our
eyes for tell-tale specks in the broad blue sky. A few other
people eventually showed up, and we all waited, and waited.
Close to two o’clock, an “official” Dutchess County vehicle
pulled in, and I thought we were going to be told we couldn’t
park where we were, but the driver asked if we were “waiting
for some airplanes”, and said he just heard on a scanner that
they were “in the landing pattern”!
We all jumped out of our cars, and sneaking up behind us
was the B-24 “Witchcraft”, soon followed by the “NINE 0
NINE”, and, the “Tondelayo”. We watched all three roar right
over our heads and land, but, where was the Mustang???
“Toulouse Nuts”
Mustang