Smokey’s Lucky Witch & Other Fantastic Images

Smokey’ Lucky Witch – Grumman F4F Wildcat

You’ve got to love nose art and warbird photos. Great photo thread on Mission4Today forum.

Photo thread on Mission4today

More on Smokey’s Lucky Witch: Information obtained from NavSource Online at: USS GAMBIER BAY (CVE-73)

Ensign Darrell C. Bennett, A-V(N), USNR, stands beside his plane, a General Motors FM-2 Wildcat fighter, on board USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73), 1 August 1944. Note pinup art and nickname “Smokey’s Lucky Witch” adorning the engine cowling; what appears to be a Composite Squadron Ten (VC-10) insignia below the cockpit windshield; plane numbers (“27”) in white on the wing leading edge and in black under the lip of the cowling; and Ensign’s Bennett’s flight gear and .45 caliber M1911A1 pistol carried in a shoulder holster.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives (# 80-G-243864).

Doug Bennett comments: “Ensign Darrell C. Bennett had an older brother stationed on the St. Lo. Both were stationed on their ships when they sank AND both are still alive [as of May 2009]! They are my uncles.”

Discovery Channel’s: Wings – F4F Wildcat and F4F Hellcat

Dogfights: The Zero Killer

Wiki: Grumman F4F Wildcat

Research your own WWII family history. Records section of the National Archives for World War II.

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