Strana 45
B-25J-27, 44-30866, 1/Lt. Thomas Evans, 82
nd
BS, 12
th
BG, 10
th
AF, Fenny, India, spring 1945
B-25J-10, 43-28136, 71
st
BS, 38
th
BG, 5
th
AF, Luzon, Philippines, 1945
This aircraft was purchased thanks to the
fundraising campaign conducted by employees
of the Oak Ridge (K-25) plant in Tennessee.
The plant was part of the Manhattan Project,
and when each employee donated their two
Sunday overtime pay checks, $250,000 was
raised - enough to buy one Mitchell. Factory
representatives then christened the plane
with a bottle of champagne at McGhee Tyson
Airport in Knoxville on March 18, 1945, with the
name "Sunday Punch". This name referred to the
Sunday punch card paychecks. After shipment
to India, the aircraft was assigned to the
82
nd
BS, where the staff added a drawing of
a scantily clad girl to the lettering. And when
one of the pilots, 1/Lt. Thomas Evans, learned
that the ship had been purchased thanks to
the campaign conducted in his home state, he
requested her assignment. By the end of the war,
Evans had flown 14 of his 28 combat missions
with her. One of these was the May 27 attack
on Takli Airfield in Thailand, when they made
a total of 2,580 km (1,600 miles) flight and the
subsequent attack in poor weather conditions.
This Mitchell originally served with the 388
th
BS,
312
th
BG where it received a drawing of
a pink heart with a naked girl. At that time, it had
a glass nose. In mid-June 1945 the ship was
transferred to the 71
st
BS “Wolf Pack”, part of the
38
th
BG, and subsequently underwent conversion
to a solid gun nose. The nose was then decorated
on both sides with the unit's emblem, a drawing
of a wolf's head. The aircraft was not assigned to
any particular pilot, and, interestingly, there are
no records of operational flights for either the
312
th
BG or the 38
th
BG. It is therefore possible
that it served as a liaison aircraft for the needs
of the staff. There is, on the other hand, a record
of an accident in 1946. By that time, however,
the aircraft had been stripped of both the wolf's
head and pink heart artwork.
KITS 03/2026
INFO Eduard
45
March 2026