Invation stripes

[Guest]

After some googling to find specs re invation stripes for my ICM P-51 and P-47 I found some interesting data that some might find usefull.

On single engine planes they were 18" wide and started 6" inbord of the roundal and 18" infront of the tailplane leading edge.

It was applied to a few planes that were then flown over the invation fleet to show the AA gunners what not to shoot at!

The order to paint was issued on the 3'rd of June 1944.A couple of thousand planes were then very hastely painted.

Theuns

[ATTACH]21459.IPB[/ATTACH]

[stona]

Exactly right Theuns. It was the short amount of time that caused some fairly shabby paint jobs.The units would not have known that D-Day would be postponed until the 6th. Also the stripes were never intended to be permanent.A couple of thousand may be conservative,don't forget all the gliders and transports. There was an argument raging a while back as to whether the Americans applied their stripes more neatly than the British! Utterly pointless as I'm sure it varied widely from unit to unit, irrespective of nationality.

Steve

[spanner570]

Exactly right Theuns. It was the short amount of time that caused some fairly shabby paint jobs.The units would not have known that D-Day would be postponed until the 6th. Also the stripes were never intended to be permanent.A couple of thousand may be conservative,don't forget all the gliders and transports. There was an argument raging a while back as to whether the Americans applied their stripes more neatly than the British! Utterly pointless as I'm sure it varied widely from unit to unit, irrespective of nationality.Steve

Boys, have a look at the invasion stripes in the 1/48 P51 Mustang thread....lol

[Guest]

The order to remove the upper stripes came a month after D-day to give the aircraft a little more blending in capability.

I found the "invation" markings of the Lufftwaffe just as interesting! The red and white underside on the F190's of the airfield protection sqn's.

Theuns

[stona]

That would be the "platzschutzstaffel" of JV44. Formed by Galland to protect his Me262s as they took off and landed. Flying over airfields made them vulnerable to their own flak hence the bright markings. The red/white stripes are well known. After the war they became known as the "Papagei Staffel" or parrot squadron.

The top five "experten" in JV44 had more than 1000 victories between them.

Steve

[Guest]

Exactly like that!

In Afrikaans ( my mother toungue) parrot is "papagaai" quite similar to the German.

I read on the same wikipedia site that the invation stripes were used in Suez and even Korea aswell.

Theuns

[stona]

They were Theuns but I believe (without checking) that they were a different colour combination at Suez. My dad flew a helicopter from HMS Theseus to land 45 commando of the Royal Marines at Port Said as part of that campaign and I can assure you that the R.N. helicopters did not carry any stripes. I believe both British and French fixed wing aircraft did.

Cheers

Steve

If you'll excuse me going way off topic here are the relevant pages from his log book.

[Guest]

Cool piece of history there!

The Suez invation collours were yellow and black and were only 12" wide I think

I do recall reading a review of a P-47 in french collours that had invation stripes aswell.

Theuns

[stona]

On a thread I can't find I sais I would ask my mate and P-47 authority,Nige, what paints were used for the Overlord invasion stripes. Neither of us can get to our books at the moment but he reckons that U.S. units used any paint they could get their hands on.They certainly begged British stocks which at least one unit had difficulty applying ,describing it as too thick. Sounds familiar,maybe they didn't thin it properly!. One unit ("the 404th F.G") painted their aircraft overnight only to find that the rain had washed them off by morning.

Steve

[Guest]

"used anything they could get their hands on" having been in the military for a good few years thet sounds so farmiliar!

If the rain washed them off, I would recon it must have been a water based PVA of sorts.

Theuns

[stona]

It's a good job the invasion was postponed! At least it gave the poor lads from the 404th F.G. time to get them on again. All the evidence points to the markings being applied in a hurry and often only approximating the dimensions laid down in the orders. Units had had time to obtain stocks of paint. They were ordered to apply the stripes on the evening of June 3rd but SHAEF issued Operation Memorandum 23, the imaginitively titled "Distinctive Marking - Aircraft" as early as April 18th 1944. This stipulated the type of stripes to be applied. Incidentally RAF bomber command moaned about the stripes compromising their night camouflage and on the 11th May ammendment 1 exempted night bombers ,unless detailed to daylight ground support operations, from applying the stripes.

The lads from the 404th F.G. obviously didn't get issued with proper aviation laquer,so it's anybodies guess what they were using.

Here are some more dodgy stripes. I'm not sure what's going on in this picture as those men look American to me!

Cheers

Steve

[stona]

I've checked those guys out and they are American. They ,and that Spitfire,were part of VCS-7 based at Lee-on-Solent. They were spotting for the fire support ships on D-Day.

Steve