"Sarinah" before she was "Lotys"

Hi
Thanks for the updates! I was out for some weeks. Info is available via www.dbaf.org or send me a message.
Will send FXST a private message
Many thanks again!
Coert

I have all of my father’s flight logs (in storage), I need to look at them to answer the question with any authority. But from what he told me, he crewed the aircraft from 1946 until 1950. It was based at Maxwell Field (after Jan. 13, 1948, Maxwell Air Force Base). My father enlisted in the Air Corps at Maxwell in 1938. He was 27 years old and had prior service. His first assignment was in the base shops as he was a carpenter by trade (lots of wood on aircraft at that time). During the War he was on B-17’s at Lockbourne Field in Ohio. In 1945 he went to India and was a line chief on C-109’s and C-54’s. After returning to Maxwell after the War, he was assigned as crew chief on a B-25. His description of it was it had been converted to a VIP transport, airline seats inside and as he said it, ‘plush’. When Gen. Anderson became the first commandant of the Air War College in June 1946, the Air Corps would not let him keep the B-17 he brought with him as his personal aircraft. He picked my father’s B-25 for his use.
You want more ‘war stories’ let me know.

Website is not down and text is Dutch and English. E-mail: [email]office@skhv.nl[/email]

Hi Arjan,

Thanks for the addition, the website wouldn’t load when I tried it, I knew the address was right so figured it would be something temporary. Good thing that there’s an English section on the site now.

FXST,

Thanks for that, the history of the aircraft as it is known now does include a couple of strange stories, I guess this fits in quite well. Coert knows more about that, he’ll turn up here eventually I guess. Do you have any more background info perhaps, where was the aircraft based? With which unit? What timeframe was this?

Umm, I don’t know too much about the photo itself. The crew chief pictured is my father. The little boy is unknown to me, I’d love to know who he is. He’d be about 70 by now. I have heard some stories from my father about trips and antics with that aircraft. Buzzing his father’s house in Walhalla SC comes to mind. The ‘mission’ (and I say that very tongue-in-cheek) the day of the picture, well the aircraft had just returned to Maxwell from a ‘liquor run’ to Puerto Rico. Weren’t things a lot more simpler in the old days?

Indeed that is the one.

FXST, could you tell a bit more about that photo? You mention on the page that it came back from a special ‘mission’ when that photo was taken, could you let us in on the secret? 😉

The B-25 is part of the Royal Netherlands Air Force Historical Flight, which has a website here: http://www.skhv.nl Last time I checked it was all in Dutch, but you should be able to find an e-mail address on there.

Actually, I’ve just checked and the website seems to be down.:cool:

Website is not down and text is Dutch and English. E-mail: [email]office@skhv.nl[/email]

The B-25 is part of the Royal Netherlands Air Force Historical Flight, which has a website here: http://www.skhv.nl Last time I checked it was all in Dutch, but you should be able to find an e-mail address on there.

Actually, I’ve just checked and the website seems to be down.:cool:

Many thanks for the info

The B-25 is part of the Royal Netherlands Air Force Historical Flight, which has a website here: http://www.skhv.nl Last time I checked it was all in Dutch, but you should be able to find an e-mail address on there.

Actually, I’ve just checked and the website seems to be down.:cool:

[QUOTE=Archer;1299784]Indeed that is the one.

Thanks Archer – do you or Coert know if the operators have a web-site?, the crew were very friendly when at Shoreham and even arranged for my wife who was on crutches at the time and myself to look inside Sarinah which was an amazing experience and we want to forward some photos that I took to them.

Hi Coert

Is this the same B25 that was at Shoreham airshow a couple of weeks ago?

Mark

Indeed that is the one.

FXST, could you tell a bit more about that photo? You mention on the page that it came back from a special ‘mission’ when that photo was taken, could you let us in on the secret? 😉

Hi Coert

Is this the same B25 that was at Shoreham airshow a couple of weeks ago?

Mark

Here is a link to a picture of the aircraft when it was in active U.S. Air Force inventory.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8754511@N04/2850834315/
My father was the aircraft crew chief.

That’s many moons ago, WW #14…

In Warbirds Worldwide an article about the acquisition and story how to get her to Holland was published. It also had photographs taken during the voyage. IIRC the nose glazing was “smoked” to keep out the sun.

Cees

Two photos from the ‘Lotys II’ period, with and without invasion stripes. This scheme was applied pretty soon after arriving in Holland. During the ferry flight she was still in her previous grey/green scheme with the name ‘Cochise’ on her nose. As such she spent quite some time parked at Baton Rouge, Lousiana, and before that the story gets muddy!

So who has some old slides that he/she took Stateside showing this aircraft???