Jane

Jane and her pet dachshund [Fritz] became the girlfriend of the British Army, the mascot of the Royal Navy, and the pin-up, nose art, pet of the Royal Air Force in World War Two.

She began her modest career as a “Bright Young Thing” in the 1932 comic strip by Norman Pett, printed by the Daily Mirror newspaper. When war came to England, her tendency for shedding all her clothes helped to boost British morale in the dark days of 1940.

Artist Norman Pett soon turned her talents to entertaining the troops, and when the news turned bad the editor kept up morale by keeping Jane’s clothes off. The cartoon heroine soon became a tremendous success, appearing on hundreds of aircraft in the Royal Air Force, RCAF, and American 8th Air Force.

 

On 21 June 1942, a RAF Wellington bomber was shot down by German night-fighter pilot Prinz Lippe-Weissenfeld. The German fighter unit cut the nose art from the crashed bomber “J for Jane”, and kept her as a victory trophy.

(Photo-George Petersen)

 

This photo was taken by F/L Harold Lindsay at No. 41 Group High Ercall in spring of 1945. Halifax Mk. III, serial MZ731 was named “U’ve Got “It” Jane”, and she survived the war only to be scrapped. The Halifax was delivered to No. 640 Squadron RAF on 3 June 1944, and flew until 30 August 44, sent to No. 1658 HCU until 2 December 1944, then sent for disposal at No. 41 Group on 9 April 1945. Scrapped 16 April 45.
No. 106 [Newcastle’s Own] Squadron, was a WW I RFC unit, disbanded and re-formed in RAF 1 June 1938. During World War Two the Squadron flew 496 night operations and 46 day ops., with the loss of 187 aircraft. Don Meredith was a pilot with 106 Squadron, assigned Lancaster ZN-E [E for Easy] serial PB248. The Lancaster featured nose art of a fully nude Jane in the act of removing her pink panties. From June to September 1944, Don and crew flew most of their 30 operations in “Easy” based at Metheringham, Lincolinshire. Don recalls photography in the squadron was strictly prohibited, and the crew followed orders, never risking a snapshot of their beloved “Jane”. The squadron disbanded on 18 February 1946, and the Lancaster PB248 was scrapped 25 May 1947. Jane was gone for good.

Ex-pilot Don Meredith, Lancaster “E” for Easy, PB248, holds Jane once again.

Thanks to the efforts of friend Steve Oakley, a commissioned depiction of the original nose art was painted by Clarence Simonsen on original Canadian Lancaster Mk. X skin panel.