An aquatic avian has taken up residence at Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum. As the museum looks towards the future, we are excited about improvements being made aboard our ships. The latest update, as described in a previous post, is the restoration of the Mitchell B-25 that sits in the hangar bay of the Yorktown. The plane has now gone from being a turtle to a duck.
Formerly called “The Furtile Turtle,” the B-25 has been rechristened “The Ruptured Duck.” This is part of the ongoing work to convert it from its former life as a private aircraft to a replica of the bombers made famous by the Doolittle Raid during WWII.
An "Audacious" Plan
The Doolittle Raid was an attack on mainland Japan that took place after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It was a show of force by the US military, “They wanted something audacious that the Japanese didn't think would be able to happen,” said Melissa Buchanan, Curator of Collections at Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum. “They thought that the homeland was safe, particularly Tokyo. Our planes didn't have enough range, and the [Japanese] had taken over basically every island that was close enough to Japan that one of our planes could have taken off from.”
Launched from the carrier USS Hornet (CV-8) on April 18, 1942, the Doolittle Raiders successfully hit multiple targets in Japan. Afterward, the crews either bailed-out or crash-landed, with one landing in the USSR due to the fuel limitations of the aircraft. While B-25 bombers never took off from an aircraft carrier again, the Doolittle Raid served as a significant early victory for American morale during the war. The B-25 at Patriots Point never served in the war. So, according to Buchanan, “in the ’80s when it was donated to Patriots Point, everything was left as is, and now we’re converting back to the Doolittle style.”
While in service as private corporate transit, the plane was known as “The Furtle Turtle.” As part of the ongoing restoration, we have renamed it in honor of one of the more storied B-25s of the Doolittle Raid, “The Ruptured Duck.”
How A Duck Got Its Wings
With such an unusual name, there must be a unique story that led to it. The story is from Major Ted Lawson, who flew in the original “Ruptured Duck” as a Lieutenant and author of “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.” As he explained, the name was coined due to a tail strike that occurred during take-off on a training mission. When someone wrote “ruptured duck” on the damaged fuselage in chalk, the gunner of the B-25 gunner Cpl. Rodger Lovelace created the now-infamous image of a disgruntled duck. The image adorned the side of the plane as it flew over Japan on its historic mission.Next time you come to Patriots Point, be sure to be on the lookout for our B-25. To learn more about the unique artwork created by the sailors and service members who served aboard our ships, like “The Ruptured Duck,” make sure you ask about an artwork tour that we plan to launch this spring. You may even be able to climb aboard "The Ruptured Duck" during the tour!