PILOT’S GOT IT MAID IN THE SHADE
Retired B-25 pilot Gerry Regehr gets up close and personal with a Second World War B-25J Mitchell christened ‘Maid in the Shade’ at the Villeneuve Airport on Friday. The bomber dropped in as a promotion for the Edmonton Air Show, Aug. 19-20.
The metal sheet lining the fuselage shuddered as both engines of the B-25J Mitchell bomber, nicknamed Maid in the Shade, roared to life Friday, just as it had when it flew 15 missions during the Second World War.
“This thing wasn’t built for comfort; it was built for freedom,” said John Roberts, a member of the Arizona Commemorative Air Force who was operating as the flight load master for a fly-along at the Villeneuve Airport on Friday. “This was a business machine, this was a war machine. There was no coffee being served.”
One of just 34 B-25Js still flying out of 10,000 manufactured, among even fewer with wartime experience, this bomber rolled off the line in Kansas City in 1944 before flying 15 missions based out of Serragia Airbase in Corsica, 13 over Italy and two more over Yugoslavia, for the United States Army Air Force.
Deafened by the grumbling of the engines as the austere interior fills with the stench of burnt oil, stories of the fear and bravery experienced by those young men who flew these planes over enemy territory become all the more real.
“You think about what that felt like, being an 18- or 19-year-old kid in the back of these things going into battle, it’s an emotional experience for everybody,” said Roberts.
Gerry Regehr, a retired Royal Canadian Air Force pilot who flew for 38 years and logged 1,700 hours of flight time in the cockpit of B-25s, described the plane as powerful and fast, taking off at 185 km/h, with a cruising speed of 320 km/h.
It was armed with a dozen .50-calibre machine guns and was able to carry 3,000 pounds of bombs.
Back in a B-25 for the first time since he last flew one in 1958, Regehr was overcome with a sense of nostalgia as he imagined grabbing hold of the controls once more.
“It’s what we’d call quite a hot aircraft for its time,” Regehr said.
This specific bomber was retired in 1958 and used to spray crops. It was bought by the Arizona Commemorative Air Force in 1982, which began a 27-year process to restore the plane. The non-profit Commemorative Air Force (CAF), based in Texas, restores and preserves vintage combat aircraft. The Arizona group, based in Mesa, Arizona, is the largest unit of the CAF.
Flying into the Villeneuve Airport as part of the Flying Legend of Victory Tour ahead of the Edmonton Air Show on Aug. 19-20, Roberts said keeping the plane in the air is about honouring the memory of the men who put their lives on the line for the rights and freedoms of others.
“Our mission is to honour the people who flew these things, who gave their lives for everybody else all over the world,” Roberts said. “It’s an honour to be here and just wipe the oil off the thing.”
Inscribed inside the bomb bay doors are signatures from veterans with a connection to the planes, including two veterans who flew in the Doolittle Raids in 1942 — a U.S. bombing mission over Tokyo in retaliation for the attack on Pearl Harbor — and “Rosie the Riveters,” women who helped assemble the aircraft.
The bomber will be at the Villeneuve Airport on Saturday and Sunday, with members of the public welcome to tour the plane.