Little Friends

[Mark Nankivil]

Greetings All -

I started scanning the European Theater photos for the Prairie Aviation Museum up in Bloomington, IL. Here's a Thunderbolt and a Mustang to enjoy.

Anyone care to guess if it is a P-47C or a P-47D? I'm guessing it's a D-5-RE due to the stars & bars - I've only Cs with the star and yellow surround. Not sure if they'll show on the close up image but the P-47 has 6 kills noted under the canopy rail....

Any help with additional info would be appreciated!

Enjoy the Day! Mark

[Dan K]

P-51D "Small Boy Here" was the ride of Lt. John Kirk III.

Scroll down at the following for more pics and info on Lt. Kirk:

http://www.78thfightergroup.com/history ... nces1.html

[Mark Nankivil]

Thanks Dan for the info and link!

Enjoy the Day! Mark

[Jack Cook]

TBolts are from the 63rd FS 56th FG

[Mark Nankivil]

I got lucky in one of my reference books and there was Bud Mahurin's P-47D-5-RE in essentially identical markings which then gave me the 53FS 56FG too. Still have to figure out who's aircraft it was though....

Thanks! Mark

[Paul Krumrei]

I got lucky in one of my reference books and there was Bud Mahurin's P-47D-5-RE in essentially identical markings which then gave me the 53FS 56FG too. Still have to figure out who's aircraft it was though....

Thanks! Mark

Does it say "Jenny" on her?

[Mark Nankivil]

Hi Paul -

Yes it does and as noted, it shows six kills under the canopy rail. I just took a look at the 56th FG web site and cannot find a reference to it - yet. The search goes on....

Enjoy the Day! Mark

[Dan K]

On the web I can only find references to two aircraft marked "UN-P":

P-47D-5-RE (42-8554) flown by Lt. Harold L. Mathews

P-47D-10-RE (42-75206)

Mark, any chance you can make out (part of) either serial number in your photo? Certainly the Jug in the photo may not even be either of these aircraft.

http://www.littlefriends.co.uk/56thfg.p ... 1#tabletop

[Mark Nankivil]

Hi Dan -

No luck with the photo though I may try to do some funny stuff in PhotoShop to pull it out. Stay tuned...

Thanks! Mark