Small Scale Military Headquarters

Hello,
Prior to the D-Day invasion, the Allied high command decided to paint invasion stripes on all of its participating aircraft as a means of reducing losses from friendly fire. The invasion of Sicily, a year prior, sufferd very heavy aircraft losses from ship-based artillery lying off shore.

To the best of my knowledge, the stripes were painted at the rear of the fuselage and across the wing roots. Were there instances where the stripes were painted only on the fuselage and not on the wings? Its sort of a leading question, cause something due out soon caught my eye and I wasnt sure if it was correct or not...

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.net

Take a look at the link I found. It shows a P51 with stripes on the fuselage but not on the tops of the wings. I have seen both versions of stripes on upper and lower surfaces and stripes just on the under surfaces. It seems to me, one would paint the wings before the fuselage, but then again...

Is it possible that what your are researching is a plane with just underside striping? Just as an aside, judging by photos, it is apparent that the stripes were "rolled on" or painted with paint brushes as they rarely have crisp edges often found on models...

TJ

http://www.af.mil/photos/index.asp?galleryID=159&page=3

Lightning,

the stripes were painted just before D-day both on the fuselage and wings, on all surfaces. In the progress of invasion, the color (which was easy to clear out) was removed from upper surfaces of wings and fuselage and stayed only on the bottom surfaces of the wings and the fuselage (or only on the fuselage).

Wieslaw

Hi,
Thanks for your comments. The reason I bring this up is because IXO's upcoming P-47 seems to have stripes on the fuselage and lower wing roots but not on the upper surfaces. Here's the link:

http://www.diecastdirect.com/asp_module ... XJ-2006-09

I would have thought that an edict would have gone out to paint the stripes on all three areas, but apparently some units were told to omit the stripes on the upper surface of the wing. I can only assume that these units were tasked with low-level ground interdiction missions and therefore invasion stripes on the upper surfaces would have made them more visible to German aircraft loitering at higher altitudes.

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.net

D-day or invasion stripes were applied to the upper and lower surfaces of an aircraft before the June 44 landings and were reduced to just the lower surfaces only by August-Sept, by December, they were removed completely..

the stripes on that P-47 are DDay stripes that have been partially removed, as per HW18's description.

As a point of interest, some allied aircraft, particularily British fighters and fighter bombers (most often Typhoons due to their similarity in apperance to the FW-190) had stripes similar to DDay stripes painted on their aircraft in 1943. They were usually more narrow in appearance and greater in number and varied quite a bit in application.

It was to aid in identification when returning from hit and run raids (or 'tip and run' as the British called it) over France, so they wouldn't be shot at crossing the coast or landing at their airfields. They worked pretty well and that is where the idea for the DDay 'Invasion Stripes' came from.

I've heard tell of Fw-190 raiders painted with the same stripes to try to fool British AA gunners but have never seen a picture of one.

Hi,
Thanks for the clarification. I find it fascinating hearing about all the measures and countermeasures used, particularly during the last year of the war, aimed at gaining the upper hand over their opponent.

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.net

aferguson wrote: As a point of interest, some allied aircraft, particularily British fighters and fighter bombers (most often Typhoons due to their similarity in apperance to the FW-190) had stripes similar to DDay stripes painted on their aircraft in 1943. They were usually more narrow in appearance and greater in number and varied quite a bit in application.

Yes, the Typhoons in 1943 had alternately: four narrow black stripes and three large white ones, but only on the lower surface of the wings, not on the fuselage.

By the way, the "proper" invasion stripes were usually painted regardless, the straight borders were rare.

Wieslaw wrote: By the way, the "proper" invasion stripes were usually painted regardless, the straight borders were rare.

This statement is generally right.. Most planes had the stripes painted sloppily with whatever method was the quickest, however, fighter pilots/crew chiefs were usually a little more particular when painting their aircraft..

in my favorite book ever : "The big show" from the French Ace Pierre CLOSTERMANN he told about the painting of the stripes with .... brooms !!!
in a few hours ! so the paint was not well applied !!!!!!

evrything was done at the last minute in a rush to keep the secret !!!!