Steve Birdsall wrote:
Happy to help if I can Mark.
Those photos were taken January or maybe February 1942 by Staff Sergeant Lee Embree, the photographer who arrived in Hawaii in 41-2408 during the Pearl Harbor attack.
Yokohama Express (that plane name has never been confirmed photographically, but comes from reliable sources) was one of three 42nd Bomb Squadron B-17Es shot down on a Shortland Harbor mission on 1 February 1943. Pilot was Captain Harold Hensley. No survivors.
I believe the third photo might be flopped and if so it seems to show 41-2442, 41-2397 and 41-2444.
Steve,
Do you know if the scheme was applied to any of the Martin B-26 Marauders when they arrived? I've not seen this on any of the 22nd or 77th deployed to the west but perhaps the the aircraft that remained in the Hawaiian area? (torpedo integration trials and later deployed to Midway)
I have seen photos of the rudders striped but those where on several airframes reported to be in Townsville.