North American B-25 Mitchell

North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber, US Army Air Forces (USAAF).

 

Artist painting artwork on nose of a North American B-25 Mitchell bomber.

A B-25 Mitchell bomber takes off from the USS Hornet’s flight deck for the initial air raid on Tokyo, Japan. President Roosevelt had answered a reporter’s question by saying that the raid came from a base called “Shangri-La” in playful allusion to the mythical country of James Hilton’s novel, Lost Horizon. For a year the world knew no more than that. April 18, 1942.

North American PBJ Mitchell, Marine unit, Guam.

Loading practice bombs on a bomb trailer onto a USAAF B-25.

A low-flying B-25 scores a hit on a rail bridge over the Song Thuong River in Indochina.

Key Japanese railroad bridge at Liuchow, China, destroyed by hit-and-run bombers of the Fourteenth Air Force.

North American B-25A Mitchell medium bomber. The B-25A was the first combat-ready variant of the B-25 Mitchell. A total of forty aircraft were built, installed with self-sealing fuel tanks, crew armor, and improved gunner positions. The armament was the same as the base B-25; a bomb capacity of up to 3,600 lbs (1,600 kgs), three defensive .30-cal machine guns (nose, waist, ventral), and one defensive .50-cal machine gun (tail).

B-25 Mitchells of the 321st Bomb Group intercept a formation of Junkers Ju 52 transports over the Sicilian Strait on 5 April 1943.

A B-25 bomber of the U.S. Army 5th Air Force strikes against a Japanese ship in the harbor at Rabaul, New Britain during an air raid on the Japanese-held air and naval base. November 2, 1943.

North American PBJ-1H Mitchell on the flight deck of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Shangri-La (CV-38) during tests of the airplane's carrier suitability, 15 November 1944.

A North American B-25 makes a bomb run on a Japanese destroyer escort off Formosa in April of 1945.

B-25 "Doodle Jr."

B-25 "All Alone - And Lonely".

North American B-25 Mitchell medium bombers in production.

Experimental staff at the North American Aviation plant in Inglewood, Calif., observing wind tunnel tests on a model of the North American B-25 Mitchell.  October 1942.

North American B-25 Mitchell at North American Aviation being hauled along an outdoor assembly line. Kansas City, Kansas. October 1942.

Led by its Commanding Officer, Colonel Chester A. Coltharp, North American B-25s from the 345th Bomb Group head out for the China Sea in search of reported northbound Japanese convoy. Squadrons fly formation to and from target for mutual protection.

North American B-25 Mitchells on the assembly line.

North American B-25 wooden wind tunnel model.

North American B-25s of the 12th Bomb Group, Eastern Air Command, head into the clouds over the China hills on a mission that paved the way for ground forces in the drive on Mandalay. Height of the clouds makes it necessary to go “on instruments” as long as two hours on many occasions. Coming monsoon weather in the India Burma Theater will increase this kind of flying.

Led by its Commanding Officer, Colonel Chester A. Coltharp, North American B-25s from the 345th Bomb Group head out for the China Sea in search of reported northbound Japanese convoy. Squadrons fly formation to and from target for mutual protection.

Bullet holes in the fuselage of a North American B-25 after a mission that ended in a forced landing on one wheel at its base in China. 12 December 1942.

B-25s attack a Japanese merchant ship during the battle of the Bismarck Sea.

B-25Bs, 17th Bomb Group, being readied for the “Special Air Project” (Doolittle’s Tokyo Raid).

General Doolittle addresses North American workers after the Doolittle Raid. B-25 Mitchells in background.

View from the bombardier's position in the nose of a B-25 Mitchell during a low level flight over the desert.

North American B-25D-20-NC Mitchell (41-30534; "WhirMaid") in foreground, 42nd Bomb Group, 13th Air Force, April 11, 1944

Colonel A.J. Harvey (left), one of the most experienced American ferry pilots, is talking to the pilot of a B-25, an unknown American lieutenant and Major Robert W. Maupin, the commander of the Fairbanks airfield. 4 September 1942.

B-25C Mitchell bombers in low-level flight over North African desert, c. 1942-1943.