'Miss Ann' the experimental night intruder ...

[Mark Allen M]

P-38J 'Miss Ann' 7th Fighter Group in an experimental night intruder scheme of OD over black, in the UK, March 1944

[Snake45]

Oh that is just hella cool! Where did I put that old Monogram P-38 kit?

[A68-1001]

That's at "RAF little Snoring airfield " funny name , some info
https://forgottenairfields.com/airfield ... -1470.html

[PropsRule]

Looks like they put flash suppressors on the top two .50s.

[C VEICH]

The P-38 in the background is OD over Neutral Gray and the top color on the featured P-38 does not appear to me to be the same OD as that of the other airplane. I know that the contrast with black can make it appear lighter than it really is but I still do not think the two airplanes have the same top color.

PS - Compare the contrast between the OD and the sky on the background airplane to the contrast between the top color and sky of the featured airplane. Not the same color.

[Dave Smith]

There doesn't seem to have been a 7th Fighter Group, Mark. I have the Little Snoring aircraft as being the 'Intruder Detachment', a unit formed in March 1944 under the command of Major T Gates. Originally, it consisted of one P-38 and two P-51s and became operational on the night of 24/25 March when Gates flew a P-51 to Berlin and back. (Whew!) Nine more flights were made before the end of the month, plus 21 during April. The idea was to assist the RAF's bomber support campaign but it became obvious that single-seat fighters were unsuitable for night intruder work and the detachment was disbanded. Plans for large-scale USAAF help in this direction were shelved as a result. Totally unconnected is the fact that I once landed a Cessna 150 at Little Snoring but my instructor did the take off as the runway was badly broken up and he wanted to get airborne as quickly as possible!

[Mark Allen M]

Correct you are Dave, and that's T Gates standing in the first photo. Interesting history. Thx kindly.

M

[Dave Smith]

Thanks, I wondered if that was Major Gates in the photo. Yet another obscure piece of aviation History revealed.

[Lon Moer]

Looks like they put flash suppressors on the top two .50s.

I noticed that too, but they look more like a flash 'diverter' more than a 'suppressor'.

[mexchiwa]

Could the uppers be PRU blue?

[lmritger]

Could the uppers be PRU blue?

That was my immediate thought as well - and helpfully, there is a factory stock P-38J in the background against which to compare the uppersurface tones.

I am almost 100% certain the uppers are in either PRU Blue or some variant of Haze Blue... it's neither OD or Neutral Grey (also visible on the background ship). What's amazing to me is that Aeromaster released decals for this ship like 25 years ago, but I was never able to find pics of it.

As I still have those decals, I might have to add this one to the "To Do" pile!

Thanks for tracking these down, Mark!

Lynn