They don't come very much more blatant than this one - at least not in the European Theatre of Operations. The title of Cowan's voluptuous rendering of a nude brunette alludes to the going rate for the "working girls" of London's Piccadilly, otherwise known as the "Piccadilly Commandos". How this one escaped the censors when other nose art designs, far less explicit, were given the order to "clean up or clean off" remains a mystery. By the time this B17G landed in England in mid october 1944, much of the more explicit nose art seen in early months of the war had been hurriedly amended, usually with hastily painted underwear or a large "censored" splashed across offending areas. Another survivor of the air war of Germany, this B17 headed back to the USA on 9th July 1945 and ultimate scrapping at RFC Kingman.



 

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© Ray Bowden 11 December 2023