The 41st Bombardment Group is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with the Seventh Air Force stationed at Manila, Philippines. It was inactivated on 27 January 1946.
A World War II medium bomber unit, the 41st was cited for extraordinary heroism in action against the enemy Japanese forces during the Okinawa Campaign, from 4 April 1945 to 14 July 1945. Bearing the burden of land-based aircraft bombardment missions, the 41st Bombardment Group began the first sustained medium bombardment strikes against the main islands of Japan. It established its facilities and operated its aircraft under the most hazardous field conditions. Undeterred by either the constant rain during April and May or by heavy enemy artillery shelling and repeated day and night aerial bombing of the air strips, the unit succeeded in carrying out highly effective aerial operations against the enemy from Kyushu to the southern-most island of the Ryukyu Group,flying reconnaissance and search missions, escort missions, day and night bomber strikes.
This is another image from my recent visit to the Mid Atlantic Air Museum’s 24th annual World War II weekend. The B-25 Medium Bomber “Panchito” was one of the airframes on site. And while I didn’t get much time to check out this airframe on the ground I did manage to catch some pictures of it in flight. This aircraft from what I saw has been beautifully restored as were all of the other airframes on site. If you have never been to an airshow that features WWII aircraft it is something you should put on your bucket list.