Show us your stripes!

[Ztex]

"You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade.."

In honor of D-Day show us your invasion stripe pics!

First up a true D-Day veteran.


A period pic...


And some others...








And one for fun.

[CAPFlyer]

While the RV is interesting, it's the other occupants of that hangar that have always interested me.

[spookythecat]

And finally...Gotta love my Dad in the backseat giving the double thumbs up!

[51fixer]

[Dave Lindauer]

Question:

Do any warbirds currently carry invasion stripes that look as if they were hastily brushed on, like they would have been done on the eve of the invasion?

(Please don't let this simple question turn into another debate regarding over-restoration -- I'm just curious to know if anyone has done this.)

[Ken]

The NMUSAF Mosquito has its invasion stripes hastily brushed on and even has a crewman posed with brush and paint can applying the stripes for the display.

The stripes on Happy Jack's Go Buggy may be masked, but I'll give WIXer Mike V great credit for applying the stripes over the existing stencils and markings. Nice touch for authenticity.

Ken

[Pathfinder]

This is Pathfinder C-47 42-93098 CHALK # 1 on the D-Day hop, piloted by my friend Joel Crouch. This plane was painted on June 3rd--in anticipation of the evening of June 4th take-off. Notice the RED tail numbers. At least one other pathfinder aircraft shows up with red tail numbers...that is 096...and I have never been able to determine why this is so. Both came from the same block and were fitted with SCR-717C radar so it might have been a designator from the production line. Other pathfinder planes do not have red tail numbers, but do carry 717C.

I have COLOR close ups of the striping if anyone decides to do a real accurate rendering of the stripes! Also the hand written (and drawn) order regarding the painting of the stripes.

Had some great phone calls today:

Dave Hamilton pilot of PF Plane 14.
Leonard Luck navigator on PF Plane 5.
Hal Sperber co-pilot of PF Plane 4 (ditched in Channel)
Francis Lamoureux PF paratrooper (Eureka radar man) PF Plane 18 (82nd)
Bob Sechrist PF Paratrooper (Holophane light man) PF Plane 7 (101st)



096 is hanging from the ceiling of the WW2 Museum in New Orleans. They had the chance to do the stripes correctly--but opted for the typical million-dollar NASSCAR pinstripe job!

[Dan K]

The NMUSAF Mosquito has its invasion stripes hastily brushed on and even has a crewman posed with brush and paint can applying the stripes for the display...

Ken

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1329/132 ... e8ee96.jpg

[AHancock51]

Our D-Day Vet in Geneseo...



- Austin H.

[Steve Nelson]

One of my references says that some B-24s ended up with red serial numbers, because someone misinterpreted the specs. There's at least one pic of a C-47 with yellow bars on the insignia, because they were added in the field by someone who didn't quite understand the tech order.

The photo of the guy "striping" the Marauder is interesting. Note that he painted the black stripes first. It appears he painted the inboard-most stripe black, got about three-quarters done, then realized "Oh crap..that one's supposed to be white!" So he painted a complete black stripe next to it, in the correct location.

As mentioned, the NMUSAF Mossie has "rough" stripes, including a mannequin with a big brush and a bucket under the wing. Their C-47 also has brush-painted non-masked stripes.

SN

[Lynn Allen]

And finally...Gotta love my Dad in the backseat giving the double thumbs up!

Great group of stripes Al. Is that Stan "the Man" Musick flying with your dad?

[TAdan]

[JDK]

Show us your stripes!

Well, you asked! One you won't see again.



The Royal Navy Historic Flight's Fairey Swordfish LS326.

The scheme's a mess of different eras, the striped added over an earlier era scheme for the 1984 anniversary of D Day, IIRC. The aircraft's now in a much more original version of its own wartime scheme, as far as is known.

And yes, Swordfish wore those stripes for real, in battle.

[JDK]

Do any warbirds currently carry invasion stripes that look as if they were hastily brushed on, like they would have been done on the eve of the invasion?

I'm not aware of any flying warbirds with 'June 6' style stripes. plenty with July style tidy stripes.

The IWM's Thunderbolt in the American Air Museum has slightly rough stripes:

[Dave Cheeseman]

Cheers Dave C