Warbird Information Exchange

Was watching Band of Brothers today (first one "Curahhee") anoticed the invasion strips on the C-47. What do they mean and could only planes that were in the invasion wear them?

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The conquest of space is worth the risk of life. - Gus Grissom

They were applied for the D-Day invasion and meant to give visual ID foir Allied planes in the air. According to my friends who jumpoed that day, they wee appiled in a haphazzard manner with brushes and rags being used to apply them. They were onl;y temporary and applied immediately before as not to tip off the enemy. Next time you see one of the immaculately painted C-47s with them, note that the planes of 6/6/44 did not have the same neatness to the stripes.

There is a famous picture of the troopers painting each others faces (Clarence C. Ware & Chuck R. Plauda from Regimental HQ demolitions platoon 506th PIR ,101st AB) before boarding the plane. They are Clarence C. Ware and Chuck R. Plaudo. two of the famous "Filthy 13" The basis for the movie the Dirty Dozen. They are using paint from the freshly painted wing stripes, according to Jack Agnew from the same unit.

They were only painted on gliders, twin and single-engined aircraft, as the B-24 and B-17 were readily identifiable and the Germans didn't have a lot of four-engined aircraft flying around. They were to aid in visual identification so that Allied gunners would not shoot at friendly aircraft. Many kept their stripes throughout the war, but usually only on the under surfaces.
To bad no one's restored an aircraft these days with an authentic set of "messy" invasion stripes. They were painted on so fast that many used mops just to get all the aircraft painted as quickly as possible. If you look at the photos. They are not very neat looking.
Jerry

Just a form of identification for Allied troops, so they wouldn't try shooting down every aircraft they saw. You have to remember that the U.S.A.A.F. was dealing with hundreds of thousands of people with guns, that didn't know the difference between a P-51 and a Bf-109, or a P-47 and a Fw-190.

High altitude bombers generally weren't given the stripes because the troops wouldn't be able to see them anyway.

The stripes were applied the night before the landings and although they were suppose to be temporary, they pretty much stayed around until the end of the war. And while the larger aircraft had their stripes applied in a somewhat sloppy manner, the smaller aircraft were marked with a lot more care.

I have seen photos of a Ju-88 with the stripes, and can only assume that it was an attempt at trying to get away with some low level bombing before anyone figured out it was a German.

IIRC, the Mosquito at the USAF Museum had "messy" stripes.

Thanks. Where would they be placed? And how messy are we talking?

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The conquest of space is worth the risk of life. - Gus Grissom

Anyone have any original fighter pics on the ground with the stripes?

It would be refreshing to see a fighter restored authentically and weathered to an actual combat look.

"On the 3rd June 1944 commands issued orders that on D-day minus one,
all allied aircraft flying on these operations were to carry 3 white and two black alternate stripes painted 6in. inboard from the upper wing roundels and 18in. forward of the leading edge of the tailplane on the fuselage....
Each stripe was to be 18in. wide and extent completely around wing and fuselage......."
Camouflage & Markings RAF Northern Europe 1936-45 Hawker Typhoon & Tempest.

Of note is the fact that the D-day stripes came from 1942-43 Typhoon underwing stripes.Although these were a 3 white 4 black configuration.

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Regards,
R.J.Mitchell

The stripes were each 18 inches wide on single-engine aircraft, but on twin-engined aircraft such as the C-47 they were 24 inches wide.

The 20th FG put their stripes on a day early and the ground exec Charlie Salter was reassigned out of the group because of that.

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Don't touch my junk!!

Dang they were taking that really serriosly.

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The conquest of space is worth the risk of life. - Gus Grissom