Blue Nosed Basrds of Bodney A-2

[Estevan]

Guys and Gals,

Gust received my jacket back from Eastman Leather. It was there getting some repair work done. New cuffs and a new Crown installed. This jacket is really neat, the original owned installed inside pockets made out of canvas so he could carry maps etc. I was lucky enough to get this jacket from a collector who bought it from the vet some years ago. The original owner was a P-51 Pilot for 8th AF 486th FS with The Blue Nosed Bastards of Bodney, His P-51B was named the H.M.S. Hellion. Many of you know the famed quote from Hermann Goering, who headed up Germany's Luftwaffe, he once said: "I knew the war was lost when I saw the 'Bluenosed Bastards of Bodney' over Berlin." This pilot was also the pilot of a P-47 which he bellylanded previously. He was a Lt. and had one confirmed kill under his belt. I feel very fortunate to have such a piece of history.

 

[John Lever]

Great jacket and a very important piece of history.
John

 

[Feraud]

What an amazing jacket!
I really like the H.M.S. detail on the chest.

 

[Jacob Dubow]

VERY nice Bronco, Steve! How does that new Crown work....pretty smooth I bet.

 

[aswatland]

Steve, I love the goatskin of your Bronco. I pressume it is a size 38 or 40? It's nice to see an original Blue Noser with the canvas pockets-a rare find indeed. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

 

[Estevan]

Thanks fellas, yes, it's an important piece of history and I really don't want to wear it to much for fear of wearing the art work away. Funny thing, the 38 Broncos are too small for me as I said before, they run very trim. The only thing is the sleeves are quite long as it quite common with this maker. The goat is amazing and had a very cool deep russet color. The Crown ELC installed is very nice and does in fact run very smoothly.

 

[Riley Dee]

Congrats!

That is a stunning jacket (mouth agape)!

 

[Smithy]

Lovely jacket, a real piece of history

 

[Estevan]

Worn...

 

[PADDY]

The picture of a man on Cloud Nine!!

Spectacular!:eusa_clap

 

[BellyTank]

Very.

Nice one Steve.
Congrats on that one.

M
a
r
t
i
n

 

[Estevan]

Ahhhhhh....

M
a
r
t
i
n

Didn't know...Well, that explains things.

Boy, am I slow....

Cheers,
Ears.......

 

[BellyTank]

Oh?
Haven't we been communicating here...?


B
T

 

[Estevan]

Oh?
Haven't we been communicating here...?


B
T

Didn't know it was you ole' chap. Now I do. Glad I finally found you....

Cheers!

 

[Estevan]

UPDATE!

Wow, I contacted Bob 'Punchy' Powell, he's the Editor/Historian/Pilot of the 352nd FG Assn. Blue Nosed Bastards of Bodney. I received some stunning scans of LT Donald Y. Whinnem. “Red” and his P-51B! This is by far one of my best finds. Hey, it pays to research. Here are a couple. I have some his-res ones coming in the mail. Enjoy!

 

[Estevan]

The story grows!

I received even more information from a friend of Red's....Wow, this is becoming a treasure trove of information and documentation to accompany thing wonderful jacket. Please read the following from one of his friends:

From: Marc Hamel [mailto:bodneytower@xxxxxxx.xxx]
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2007 1:30 PM
To: Robert H Powell; senicko@gmail.com
Cc: noahbjr@xxxxxxxx.com; ssox3@xxxxxxxxxx.com; tgivie1@xxxxxxxxx.com
Subject: Re: Looking for information on LT Donald "Red" Whinnem 486FS / 352FG

Hi Steve,

Only have a short minute here to reply before work. I knew Red before he died, and he has been in several of my articles. I also have lots of photos of Red. He was a swell guy. If your jacket is the real one, it should have a pair of painted pilot wings on the front, and "HMS" in gothic lettering. Yes, we have shots of Red in that jacket, as well as one of my pal Bud Fuhrman wearing it. The HMS referred of course to his plane HMS HELLION. I was wondering where that jacket went when Red died of MS, and somewhere around here I have a photo of Red in it he sent me before he died, so I knew it survived. As an aside, Red flew in that Jacket on the three-way June 21st, 1944 Russia Shuttle Mission. More to come.....

Marc

From: Marc Hamel [mailto:bodneytower@xxxxxxxx.xxx]
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2007 1:35 PM
To: Steve Nickodemski; Robert H Powell
Cc: noahbjr@xxxxxxx.net; ssox3@xxxxxxx.com; tgivie1@xxxxxxxxx.com
Subject: RE: Looking for information on LT Donald "Red" Whinnem 486FS / 352FG

Steve, If you e-mail me a shot of the front, I can confirm if that is Red's jacket. The inside pocket's look like the rubberized canvas Mac McKibben described as being in his, so it appears to be a real 486th jacket. Michael "Sandy" Sandorse, 486th Parachute Rigger, sewed those inside pockets into the 486th jackets. In the 486th it seems the convention was to put the escape pack in one side and the stack of 2 or 3 silk maps in the other side. God Bless, Marc

 

[Feraud]

Thanks for adding these amazing updates regarding the jacket!

 

[Estevan]

Another pic in better lighting.

Thought I'd try to get a better picture, a very bright day out so I tried to shoot one on the balcony.

 

[fishmeok]

WOW!!! That is incredible Steve! Provenance is everything...
Cheers
Mark

 

[PADDY]

This thread is just getting 'better and BETTER..!!!'

Can you believe this Steve? Xmas has come early on this one:eusa_clap And the fact that you even get the little story behind the internal pockets!!! Try and get an original escape pack and the silk maps he would have used at some point.
So much history just in that one jacket Steve, it's the sort of thing all us vintage flight jacket enthusiasts dream of. And the condition of it too is just unreal.

As you get more info and developments, keep posting, I cannot wait for the next installment of this amazing story.

I wonder if the old airfield still survives in some shape or form (I must do a quick WWW search here).