I had actually noticed my "misleading" date stamp/Blakeslee-was-gone gaff very soon after I had posted the thread, but decided not to bother editing it, figuring nobody would notice -
what the h**l, it's a great unpublished photo ...
However, several folks did indeed notice the incongruity, including a friend of mine who is almost as rabid about the 4th as I am. Here's my response to him:
I just broke out the 4th FG diaries, and Blakeslee
returned to Debden in late October from his extended
Stateside leave. He led several missions before Zemke
went POW on 30th October. Blakeslee flew a mission
that day, and was grounded upon return from the
mission.
To add to the "you just never know" aspect of things,
here's a closeup of the name panel on the photo I
posted. Notice the pilot's name.
Now, as you well know the "books" tell us that based
on the red nose markings the date is sometime in Dec
44, but two scenarios are readily apparent:
First, the apparent date of the photo is wrong, as in, the
'extended' 24" red nose was done earlier than the
books say (December 44), and Col. Don and maybe a few
others "tried out" an extended nose color prior to the
rest of the group doing so. Second, based on what we
THINK we know, the Dec 44 assumption is correct and
they just didn't have the heart to remove his name
(that's my guess as to why his name is still on the
kite), OR, repeat OR, Blakeslee semi-regularly came back to
Debden to fly "his" kite for pleasure.
I'd go with DB being long gone and them not having the
heart to remove DB's name from the plane, though that
is what fascinates me about the seemingly "easy"
markings within the WWII 8th Air Force - what SHOULD have been
done, re: markings, etc., always comes with the
caveat: better check your refs!
Wade
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