YB-40/Best Years of Our Lives

[NickV]

Greetings,
In the "graveyard" scene near the end of "The Best Years of Our Lives," you can catch a glimpse of a YB-40 with U-95 in very large letters below the serial number. Of course, the serial number is obscured by the wing of the aircraft in the foreground, and therein lies the root of my question.

Using the Roger Freeman/David Osborne book "The B-17 Flying Fortress Story" and looking at the record cards, it appears that 13 TB/YB-40s went to Cal-Aero Field (Ontario AAB) for scrapping, and some were captured on film for "The Best Years of Our Lives."

I've seen a photo of YB-40-VE 42-5741 at Ontario with U-48 on the tail shot by Emil Strasser. You can find this photo in Joe Cupido's book "Chino."

Does anyone have any TB/YB-40 photos, in particular any of U-95 or any of the other Yuma gunnery trainers? Is there any way to match the serial number to the "U" numbers?

Thanks in advance for your help.
Nick

[Steve Birdsall]

Nick, I might have this entirely wrong but I thought that this photo of 42-5995 might be of interest. It's a typical Stateside training shot of one of the Vega B-17Fs and I was struck by its "YB-40-ish" features.

[Dan Johnson]

Do the parents of those kids know they were out pretending to be bomber crewmen? Wow! They look really young.

[Steve Birdsall]

The Best Years of Our Lives is a wonderful movie that reminds us what "values" are really all about, and I'm glad this thread prompted me to take another look at it. Here's Dana Andrews walking past 42-5742, U-44 . . . one of the original YB-40s assigned to the 92nd Bomb Group and named Plain Dealing Express.

[aerovin2]

Can't help but add this plug for this webpage on the movie:
http://www.aerovintage.com/bestyrs.htm

[gary1954]

Do the parents of those kids know they were out pretending to be bomber crewmen? Wow! They look really young.

They were.....

Oh how I thank them nearly every day