Pat’s Victorie finally landed back in Belgium

:”It is not the end. It is not even the

beginning of the end. But, it is perhaps the
end of the beginning”. (Winston Churchill
1942)

On Saturday May 27th, 2006 the North

American B-25 J Mitchell of the project “A B-
25 Mitchell Back to Belgium team’s” finally
arrived in Belgium from the UK.

The aircraft to be restored to static display

will commemorate the memory of Wing 139
medium bombers crews of the Royal Air
Force who operated Mitchells above and from Belgium in 1944 and 1945.

The project is born in the late nineties when members of the Brussels Air Museum
Restoration Society meet relatives of Belgian crew members of 139 Wing. They
projected to find a Mitchell to be displayed in Brussels, the base of 139 Wing from
September 1944 to April 1945. Then a long quest started all over Europe to find a
suitable aircraft for the project.

In December 2004, a member of the BAMRS discovered in Flypast news, a B-25

stored near Hull was on sales after demise of the Imperial Aviation Group.

A small project’s team was created and studied the possibility to raise funds for the
project, to convoy the aircraft to Belgium, to find a place to store the aircraft during
the restoration and a definitive place for display.

Just before the New Year 2005, the Brussels Air Museum Fundation (BAMF) gave her
formal approval to house the administrative and financial aspects of the project. In
January, the board of directors gave the official approval.

The Curator of the Brussels Army Museum, the best and prestigious place the
project team found as final destination for the aircraft, was informed in February
2005. It was a logical place with some of the team members active in the Museum
since 20 years. The Museum is located in the heart of Europe just a few km of the
former of the Wartime 139 Wing base of Melsbroek. The Museum already house a
world renowned collection of aircraft.

After this important step, the Belgian aviation history community was officially
informed and a web page was created. The first sponsors and volunteers joined the
project.

From the start, the project was designed to permit everyone to have an active part
in the growth of aviation history heritage, any person helping the project becoming a
virtual owner of a small part of the aircraft, an actor of the preservation of her
history and one of the keeper of the remembrance of the allied crews who flow the
aircraft over Europe.

As 139 Wing was formed from Commonwealth, Dutch and Belgian crews it was also
a good example of the first European cooperation in Defense, a situation which is
common today.

From April 2005, international cooperation started with warm contacts with the Duke
of Brabant Air Force in Netherlands, the Jet Alpine Company in Switzerland, both
operating flying B-25’s and the Medium Bomber Association. In typical 139 wing
spirit (where Commonwealth, Dutch and Belgian crews flow together), historical and
technical documentation were exchanged permitting to amass more than 1000
pages about operations of the 139 Wing, 98, 180 and 320 Squadron. This way, each
partner has now a whole documentation about 139 Wing operations since January,
1st 1944.

Local Belgian aviation historians started to work on an accurate list of all the
Belgians who flow on B-25. Contacts were also taken with the last surviving
veterans. Theses contacts conducted to the preservations of pictures, logbooks and
testimonies of theses airmen who sometime lived odysseys to come back to free
their country.

In June 2005, the team visited Le Bourget Air show in quest of sponsors and the first
payment was done.

From September 2005, the team started to work on the transportation plan and the
group in charge of historical researches started preparing the publication of the list
of Belgian 139 Wing crews.

A first advanced party visited UK to pick up the small parts and study how to pack
the aircraft for the final journey. As soon as the parts arrived in Belgium, restoration
started, for example on the rudder.

In January 2006, the BAMF published the booklet “2nd Tactical Air Force, 139 Wing
Belgian airmen 1944-1945“. This publication leaded to the creation of a group of
historians dealing with the history of Belgians who served with the RAF and the
SAAF.

In November 2005, the last payment was done ending the step one of the project.

From February 2006, the Brussels Air Museum Fundation started the last
negotiations with the Royal Army Museum for the storage of this aircraft. The final
agreement was reached on May 23rd.

In March 2006, the intensive work on the final details for the transport started.

On May 25th, a small party of the team left Belgium to be in Doncaster, where the
aircraft is stored, when the trucks will arrive. The aircraft was loaded on one truck
who arrived at the Royal Army Museum depot in Vissenaken (near Tienen) on May
27th.

The second phase of the project came then to an end. A B-25 is back to Belgium.

The BAMF and the project team is already working on the next steps. Raising 40.000
Euro to restore the aircraft to the same high standard BAMRS already achieved with
aircraft exhibited in the Museum in Brussels and find partners to perform the
restoration.

Everyone is still welcome to join the project to take an active part to the
preservation of this part of our history.

We need you !

Do not hesitate to contact the project team. (email bamf.bamrs@gmail.com )

Press kit and copyright free pictures of the arrival in Vissenaken

available at
http://www.esnips.com/web/AB-25BacktoBelgiummaterial
(save as to save documents)
More pictures on the project in
http://b25inbelgium.fotopic.net/c971542.html

http://b25inbelgium.fotopic.net/
The aircraft is named Pat’s Victorie in reference to a picture found by Eric
Dessouroux and showing a B-25 coded NO-V from 320 Sq bearing this name and
pictured in Melsbroek (Brussels) in August 1945. For the team members this aircraft
is typical of 139 Wing melting pot. NO-V appears in some Belgian airmen logbooks,
the name of the aircraft suggest a Commonwealth crew and 320 was a Dutch
squadron. Any information about this aircraft or her crew is welcome.

The Royal Army Depot in Vissenaken is located 30 km east of Brussels and house the
extensive reserves of the Museum as well the Tank restoration workshop. The depot
is located near the former airstrip used by the Fairey Foxes of the Belgian
Aeronautique Militaire squadrons during the May 1940 campaign.

Royal Museum of the ArmyBrussels Belgium

www.klm-mra.be/

The Brussels Air Museum Foundation

www.bamf.be

The Brussels Air Museum Restoration Society

http://users.skynet.be/BAMRS/BAMRS.htm

http://www.benevoles-aviation-bruxelles.be/index.php?lang=en

http://www.bamfbamrs.be/B25/B25-en.htm

http://www.bamfbamrs.be/RAF/index.htm

http://www.esnips.com/web/AB-25BacktoBelgiummaterial
Illustrations at http://www.esnips.com/web/AB-25BacktoBelgiummaterial

027_Coll_de_gobert.jpg, 028_Coll_de_gobert.jpg from the album of Jean de Gobert,

navigator with the 320 Sq, 028 depict Mitchell’s operating from Melsbroek
818343.jpg : From Ian Howat collection (Airliner.net) Pat’s Victory in a previous live
as Gorgeous Georges Ann for the movie “Hannover Streets”
ABA01010.jpg : A B-25 from the Fighter Collecting taking off from La Ferté (France)
by André Bar
B-25 Bombing up (1) NO-x .jpg : Bombing up a B-25 of 320 Sq in the Summer of
1944 (Jean de Gobert Album)
B25-NOVsoftside2small.jpg : Profiles of NO-V “Pat’s Victory by Yves Duwelz
EDS120002.jpg : Pat’s Victory in Melsbroek in August 1945 en route to the UK,
Collection Eric Dessouroux.
Image1, Image2, Image3 : From the logbook of Jean de Gobert, missions on NO-V
Image22, Image 23 : From The Royal Army Museum, Aeronautical Section
Jas1177 : From the Peter Arnold collection (Airliner.net) Pat’s Victory in a previous
live as Gorgeous Georges Ann for the movie “Hannover Streets”