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Highly Desirable, Identified World War II USAAF 491st Bombardment Group B-24 “Ain’t Bluffin’” Painted A-2 Flight Jacket - This World War II A-2 flight jacket was worn by Staff Sargent Benjamin T. Kelly, assigned to the 491st Bombardment Group, 853rd Bomb Squadron. The jacket is a size 40, was manufactured by Cable Raincoat Co., and has a Talon zipper. The left chest carries Kelly’s leather name tag. The back serves as the leather canvas for fantastic painted artwork: “Ain’t Bluffin’” inside a banner above a B-24 Liberator along with a grouping of falling bombs
and the 8th AF insignia in the background. Below the B-24 is a tally of 17 bombing missions. The tail of the B-24 is green with white horizontal stripe, the paint scheme of the 491st BG. The 491st BG was based at Metfield and North Pickenham, England, during World War II and was part of the 8th Air Force, participating in the air offensive against Nazi Germany from 1944-45. SSGT Benjamin T. Kelly of Louisville, Kentucky, is listed as serving with the 491st BG on the online source www.8af.org (https://www.8af.org/kelly-benjamin-k9484-491bg.cfm). 491st BG mission records
for September 13, 1944, provided a detailed account of the dramatic last moments of Ain’t Bluffin’: “The Group also lost two the following day, the 13th, when AIN’T BLUFFIN’ (44-40246, Lt. Kenney) took a direct flak hit in the #2 engine and fell off to the left and down. As it did so, its left wing pierced the fuselage of TIME’S A-WASTIN’ (44-40234). Kenney had absolutely no chance of regaining control of his aircraft but six of the crew, including the pilot and tail gunner, Martin Leibenhaut, a veteran of 76 missions, managed to get clear of the falling plane. All were taken prisoner. The score was worse in TIME’S A-WASTIN’. After stabbing into #234 at about the right waist window, the wing of the other plane ripped back through the fuselage, tearing off most of the tail section. The plane headed straight down.