Arms, Armor & Militaria

24x16x9". B-4 Flyer's Bag belonging to Arthur Herman St. Peter, an American B-24 crewman and artist who operated the dorsal turret of his aircraft. One side of the bag is decorated with block letters reading A.H. ST. PETER over his serial number followed by a dorsal turret and weak stencil marks reading M-150/E-131-7. Further stencil marks read FB-333-BJ, the shipment number he was assigned. The design is further surrounded with location names reading SWITZERLAND, ENGLAND, HOLLAND, ICELAND, DOVER, LONDON, DOUTHPORT, Labrador, DUBLIN, WALES, PETERBORO IRELAND, BELGIUM, SCOTLAND, Liverpool, ST. QUENTIN/France. The side opposite is painted with the initials AAF for Army Air Force above an image of a pilot fastening his flight cap and flanked by the the "8" mark indicating the US Army Air Corps' 8th Air Force, and the triangular gear logo of the United States Army Air Corps Engineering Specialist. Included in the bag are a worn copy of Daily Food for Christians: Being a Promise and Another Scriptural Portion for Every Day of the Year Together with a Verse of a Hymn, what appears to be a portion of a bedsheet with the names of the towns and cities that St. Peter bombed and visited written upon it, along with a rendition of the marking for the 389 Bomb Group 567 Bomb Squadron. Also included is a scarf with similar markings including the cities that St. Peter visited marked on bricks, and the targets of his bomber squadron written on bombs, each one numbered in turn for the mission. A dedication in the corner reads June & Art/'44. An envelope labeled ARTS WAR PICS contains a series of photographs including Arthur St. Peter with various comrades in arms, twelve photographs taken during bombing raids, aand a photograph of St. Peter in front of a B-24 with its nose painted in the form of an enormous dragon's head. The bag contains an assortment of loose scrapbook pages with brief handwritten descriptions of all 34 bomb raids that Arthur St. Peter served in, along with a series of postcards sent to his wife, and a photo of his graduating class from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, from which he graduated on June 3, 1949. 

Staff Sergeant Arthur H. St. Peter of Two Rivers, Wisconsin served in the 389th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Corps' 8th Air Force. St Peter joined the 389th in time to participate in the bombing of gas dumps in Strasbourg on August 11, 1944, and flew an additional 34 missions as the dorsal turret gunner on his aircraft. According to an unsigned note left in the folder, he helped paint the nose art for his bomb group, and later taught art in California post-war. The archive contains three cartoons he drew for his wife June, who he referred to affectionately as "Dee".