Warbird Information Exchange

Not sure of the history of this photo. It was in an album here.

This was Lt Francis Horne's 352nd FG P-51B PE+S. The name refers to the squadron barber who's name fails me. Note the barber stripes around the a/c Great photo!!!!
The sniper was Sgt Snider I think

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Don't touch my junk!!

Is it me or are those D-day stripes

No No No
Look around the blue nose and on the trim tabs!

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Don't touch my junk!!

Well my eyes ain't what they used to be but all I see is the stripe on the tail you sure that nose ain't red

Art Snyder was the crew cheif of this P-51 and Maj. Preddy's last Mustang.
He was also a barber as Jack stated.
The barber stripes Jack is talking about are on the right side and rudder trim tab.
The nose is blue and if I remember correctly the thin stripe following the nose color was red.
The top of the invasion stripes is of interest ,sprayed over?
Nice photo.

I think it was in 'The Blue Nosed B's of Bodney' that relates the story of the name. It was intended to be 'Snoots Snipper'...but they spelled it wrong...since he was the barber...anyway...nice shot Ken!

jim

Sounds good

A color photo of this Mustang exists, but the interesting part, is that she has a Malcolm Hood and there is no evidence of painted out invasion stripes. If you look closely in Ken's photo, you can see that the antenna mast also has the barber poles.

Okay, with all the talk of stripes....here's an issue that has brought some cranial consternation....

We all have read and seen hastily applied stripes. There has been thorough discussion of the matter. They look to have been mopped on, brushed on with only passing care to detail which is fine. With that in mind, it is no issue mopping these on big planes ....C47, B26, etc. But these little pursuit jobs provide an interesting thought.
Look at the 51 above and the 47 here in Martin's pic....


Now, the boys mopping these stripes on were 1930's era education....readin' ritin' & rithmetic....not much more. How do you suppose they got the stripes halfway close on the gear doors? They certainly didn't take the time to crib the ship up and swing the gear. Nor is it very likely they trig'ed it out. Do you suppose they took one ship swung the gear, painted it and made a template then used that template to do the rest of that type on the base? It certainly was not of great importance that the stripes line up exact, but some gear geometries make it hard to figure where the line would be within 6 inches. If they had used a template for gear door...then the wings had to be a wee bit consistent from ship to ship. There would appear to be a bit more to applying these stripes than first meets the eye....

Jack why do you think the invasion stripes were covered over on the top of the wings and fuselage? glare? ...

If the Huns above you you don't want to make it easy for him by having giant stripes on your a/c.

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Yep, that would make sense, but by the time invasion stripes were applied, weren't the allies looking for huns to destroy? But I do get the point. Thanks Mark

and vice versa. The war had a long way to go and victory was by no means assured. The last dogfight of WWII saw Hellcats getting jumped and a number of VF-88 pilots killed.

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Don't touch my junk!!

I'd love to read about that story Jack, any directions I should take to get the full story? Or can you give me an account. Which leads to several new questions. Shall I author a new post on these questions?