Steve, thanks for the pic of the engine hoist, I was down at Duxford last year, must have missed it, I guess I was too busy dribbling over their b-24 amd p-47's!
Paul, ahhh there they are, thanks for the link and your patience, there are some belting pics, I think it's going to be a late night tonight studying these!! Best get a nice pot of tea on the go.
Thanks again fellas for your help, it really is appreciated.

My photo was from 1989, during the Memphis Belle filming, but if you look about half way down this page ( http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=40406&start=30 ) of the recent Mary Alice restoration, you'll see the 'A' frame hoist again.

ABE, to answer your question about why does the C109 have Q9 on it, the C109 are flying gas tankers that were issued to the troop carrier groups during late 1944 to help fly gas over to Europe so that the gas supply could keep up with the advance of the Patton's tanks. The northern troop carrier groups in the 52nd Troop Carrier Wing were issued with one C109 per squadron.

That is one hell of an answer, I guess I should have twigged by the name on the Lib! is there anything you fellas don't know? Thanks nightdriver.
Steve nice set of pics, and very nice to see a hoist still in use, thanks for going to the trouble of digging them out.

Abe, thought you might like to see this picture I found on Fold3

Now isn't that just a beauty of a photo, to see a good close up shot of so many groundcrew is superb. It's great to be able to compare each man and to see the diversity in clothing. One of my favourite all time photo's, thanks for posting it nightdriver, I really appreciate it.
The bloke 7th from the left with his hand on the others shoulder, any ideas as to what the hat is he's wearing?

I reckon it has to be a B-2.

Yes, lovely picture. Our next joint venture maybe, Paul?

P.S. Can anyone read the writing under the Federal's hood number? Any chance of a link to the Fold3 pic? It could well be readable from the original, but might take me a week of spare time to find on my own

A few more all from Fold3.com

http://www.fold3.com/image/48253192/

The simplest method is use the "Advanced search" function on Fold3, then enter the original photo ID number from the lower right corner.

And no, the writing on the full-size version isn't readable I'm afraid...

Aha - it's not painted on. What we see is the light reflected on the top surface of something pressed in the metal. It might say FEDERAL in a slightly stylised font.

Apparently there was an instruction (in 1942?) to remove all makers' marks from vehicle (sheet metal pressings, nameplates etc). so this could be an early wrecker truck maybe? The USAAF manual of Jan 42 shows plain hood sides.

Sorry - back on topic now