Warbird Information Exchange

At least some of the ones assigned to Borden had single-letter codes, examples in the book "Harvard!" including "N", "C", and "R". Some photos show other Harvards wearing two-letter codes, "AA" and "DJ" being two examples. Others wore their RCAF serial in very large sizes on the fuselage sides.

I suspect it varied from base to base as well as over time and that it was as much for easy recognition on the ground and in the air among pilots and instructors as it was to aid civilians reporting buzz jobs. When you had a ramp or a sky full of yellow aircraft, making them easy to identify so you could strap into or form up on the right one would be a useful thing.

Jeff Rankin-Lowe

Mike:

I had a look at the website and the answers posted to date.

I would suggest that it would be unusual....but possible....for the two-digit "buzz number" to be the last two digits of the aircraft serial!!

For example, the Hurricanes used at No. 1(F) OTU at Saguenay(Bagotville) and its subsidiary ATTD(Advanced Tactical Training Detachment) at Greenwood used numbers with no connection to the s/n, which has been a frustration, because many pilots recorded the 2-digit number in their logbooks and the unit diary also did likewise at times, especially later in the war. Maybe it "confused the enemy", but it does likewise for researchers!!

Another variation, rarely seen except perhaps on Cornells, was the displaying of the aircraft serial with the first two digits small and the last two digits quite large, as seen in the attached photo taken of the Tiger Moth that Bob Laidlaw flew in California and subsequently flew across Canada and donated to the Toronto Aerospace Museum. The aircraft had served at the EFTS at Souris, Manitoba. The serial on the starboard side of the tail was painted as 7438, which Bob was advised as being correct by a previous long-time owner of the airframe.

Another variation, used by the Kittyhawks attached for Fighter Affiliation work with No. 5 OTU, Boundary Bay, used large two-letter codes on the nose, eg: "PN" was the nose code for RCAF 867, now N1226N with the Commemorative Air Force. See profile attached. I have postwar photos of this aircraft at Boeing Field, that Peter Bowers gave me, but they are not scanned.

The Liberators and Mitchells at 5 OTU carried similar two-letter "buzz" codes.

By the way, Harvard "46" is a warbird, probably one of your own photos shot at Tillsonburg, while "28" appears to be an authentic WW II photo. There is no way of telling if "46" was ever painted that way in RCAF service, although it does appear from the s/n presented in the paint scheme to be a wartime vintage model. With warbird paint schemes, who can tell??

Jerry Vernon
Squadron Leader - no B. S, and proud of it!!