Warbird Information Exchange

Mustang I AG470 RU-M "City of Sarnia" flown by Flying Officer Hollis 'Holly' Hills of No. 414 Sqn. RCAF, Dieppe, 19 August 1942.
Shot down an Fw 190, the first enemy plane to be shot down by a pilot flying a Mustang.

You can read the story in the link below.
http://aircrewremembered.com/clarke-fred.html





Now that you know a bit of it's history, question is: Has the Planes of Fame's A-36 been repainted recently to represent Flying Officer Hollis Hills Mustang? Looks like it, but when and for what reason? From the photos below it seems to have been given one of those weathered look schemes. Perhaps movie paint? If so ... bravo!!!, it's nice to see the RCAF represented more.
(I'll give photo credit when I find the location of these photos again)

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[Thread title is ridiculous btw]

Mark this is the POF P-51A "Mrs. Virginia". Looks like it has used a similar livery in the past as well. Going off some Instagram posts I have seen the POF Pilatus and one of their P-51Ds has also gotten some livery changes.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BuE1XRxBnwL/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtrKxf6B04I/

oops! yes I mean't their P-51A, not sure why I keep calling it an A-36. I should know the difference by now. As for the Pilatus being painted as a Luftwaffe aircraft? If there's a movie in the works perhaps telling the story, or similar story, of No. 414 Sqn. and the Dieppe mission, I would hope the movie makers would consider the Fw190 (Fluk werk) that's usually based at POF in Chino as well. That would be an excellent start to an interesting movie. IMHO of course.

M

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[Thread title is ridiculous btw]

From the distance the photos of the Mustang were taken, I really like the "aged paint". Maybe from up close, I would not care for it, but she is very pretty as shown.

Word on Facebook is they are filming a movie about the first and last P-51 victories in WWII.

This makes sense. I found this post with more info on the P-51D. Presumably this is the former Spam Can? All credit to original post on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtxEiS5lrPb/

Yes, its "Spam Can" as the last Mustang to shoot down an enemy during WWII.

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remember the Oogahonk!
old school enthusiast of Civiltary Warbirds and Air Racers

According to some info from those at Planes of Fame, the POF Zero and Frasca Fw-190 are being used in the documentary as well, recreating/depicting the two dogfight scenarios (first Mustang/pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft, and the last Mustang pilot to become an ace in WWII). The P-51D "Dolly/Spam Can" has been temporarily repainted into the markings of the Iwo Jima based 457th FS P-51D flown by Abner Aust, the last P-51 pilot to become an ace in WWII. That particular airframe of course fits the bill very well as an Iwo Jima Mustang, as it is one of the last Mustangs produced by North American and actually came from the factory with the "Uncle Dog" antenna setup as factory-stock (dual AS-148/ARA-8 antenna masts on the spine) just like those modified for use on Iwo Jima (though the AN-104 mast, which should be fitted below the engine cowls, had to be removed from the POF Mustang as the mounting was causing issues).

I really love all of the faux weathering on these film jobs/schemes - just excellent! Hopefully they can be allowed to remain like this for a good while to come.

Amazing how quickly this all gets out there!

So I can say that the paint jobs are for a movie, and I was able to help with the Aust and his markings for his P-51 and the 457th FS. They are already 'washed' off and Dolly is back to her yellow tail of the 462nd.

I believe more info on this will be available soon, but that's all I can say for now. Stay tuned!

Brian

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506th Fighter Group Historian
Member of Glidepath Photography

On August 19, 1942, Flying Officer (FO) Hollis Henry "Holly" Hills, an American serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) with No. 414 "Black Knight" Army Co-operation Squadron, took off from Croydon, England in the pre-dawn darkness as wingman to Flight Lieutenant (FL) F. E. "Freddy" Clarke. Flying a reconnaissance sortie at wave-top height the two, in their North American Aviation (NAA) Mk I Mustangs, dodged the searchlights and Anti-Aircraft (AA) fire over Dieppe, France in support of "Operation Jubilee". Over the target area the two were separated, but both safely returned to their English base. The squadron had received their Mustangs only two months earlier and this was their first foray with them into combat.

Originally scheduled for only one sortie that day, Clarke and Hills accepted responsibility for another around mid-morning. The pair observed strict radio silence as they flew across the twenty-one mile width of the English Channel, but neither had any way of knowing that Clarke's radio had failed just after takeoff. As they neared the coast west of Dieppe, Hills spotted a flight of four Fw 190’s to his right at 1,500 feet and on a course that would take the enemy directly overhead of the two P-51's as they crossed the beach. Hills broke radio silence and called his leader twice, but to no avail. Clarke then turned left toward the Amiens Road. This change of direction took them directly under the German fighters which presented the enemy with the ideal bounce. Realizing that Clarke’s radio must be out, Hills swung his Mustang AG470, coded RU-M, wide to his leader’s left.

Clarke and Hills later recalled their thoughts and actions of that sortie.

Hills - "This put me right over the town dusting the chimney tops. I believe the 190's had lost sight of me as I had stayed under them. My plan was to cut off the lead Focke Wulf before he could open fire on Freddy. My timing all went to pot when a crashing Spitfire forced me into a sharp left turn to avoid a collision. That gave the 190 pilot time to get into firing position and he hit Freddy's Mustang with his first burst. Glycol streamed from Clarke's radiator but there was no fire. I was able to get a long shot at the 190 but had to break hard right as his number two was having a go at me. He missed and made a big mistake sliding by on my left side. It was an easy deflection shot and I hit him hard - I knew that he was a goner.”

From my forthcoming series "American RCAF Warriors".

Cheers,

Tom Walsh.

You can follow the progress of this feature documentary film that has been in production since late last year at the American Warhorse Facebook page. We will be releasing the trailer at Flying Legends in three weeks. John Dibbs and I have been hard at work on this film and we hope that it will serve as a fitting tribute to the men who took the Mustang to war. We still have a lot of work to do, but we expect a premier in late summer 2020 with full release around VJ Day. We think this one will be pretty special....