When have markings been changed in combat?

[Ken]

I'm not talking about spy stuff. The Enola Gay flew her atomic mission with a "circle R" on her tail in lieu of the 509th arrowhead. And, although different, there are Vietnam era airplanes where the US insignia was removed or displayed on a card in a slot instead of applied to the skin of the aircraft.

Anyone have other examples of markings modified in combat to either protect the airplane or deceive the enemy?

Ken

[Trey Carroll]

Air America during Vietnam lost count of how many aircraft they had. They would be flying a C-130 or what-have-you in Thailand, but 2 or 3 more airplanes with the same serial-number/N-number painted on them all around the country.

This way, when someone says they saw a U.S. aircraft where it wasn't supposed to be, the government would say, well N12345 was in England with an engine off, or maybe N12345 was training guys in Texas. They ended up never knowing how many planes they had.

[Richard W.]

I'm not sure if it's what you're looking for, but there are the surrender markings that the Japanese had to apply to their aircraft at the end of the war.

Green crosses on a white background, IIRC.

[tom d. friedman]

the u.s. deleted the insignia of the red dot in the star in 1942 to avoid confusion with japanese aircraft, in 1943 the red border around the star & bar was short lived.

[Steve Nelson]

As for "wolves in sheeps' clothing," I've heard of at least a couple of instances in which Japanese aircraft were painted in Allied markings. One was a paratroop operation early in the war, in which the transports (Japanese copies of the Lockheed C-60) were painted with American insignia to fool our forces into not shooting at them. Then at the close of the war, the submarine-based Aichia Seiran seaplanes intended to bomb the Pnanama Canal were supposedly painted in American markings. That operation was aborted when the war ended, and the planes scuttled before the subs returned to Japan.

Many aircraft on all sides often changed markings or camouflage as they were reassigned to different units or theatres (I seem to remember that when the NASM restored their Fw-190, they found something like seven different unit markings that had been overpainted during its combat career.) Some American planes delivered in Olive Drab were stripped to bare metal while in service, and some delivered in bare metal had camouflage paint applied, as needed.

SN

[JDK]

As for "wolves in sheeps' clothing," I've heard of at least a couple of instances in which Japanese aircraft were painted in Allied markings. One was a paratroop operation early in the war, in which the transports (Japanese copies of the Lockheed C-60) were painted with American insignia to fool our forces into not shooting at them. Then at the close of the war, the submarine-based Aichia Seiran seaplanes intended to bomb the Pnanama Canal were supposedly painted in American markings. That operation was aborted when the war ended, and the planes scuttled before the subs returned to Japan.

Hi Steve,
Do you know of any evidence for these stories? The German soldiers in US uniform in the Battle of the Bulge I think are well documented; however I'm unaware of the points you mention above.

Tom, after the US had made the changes, the RAAF got rid of the red dot in the middle of the RAF style roundel after a RAAF Catalina was attacked and forced down by a USN Wildcat pilot.

A good PDF article on it is here: http://www.airforce.gov.au/airpower/htm ... _hires.pdf

An extract, which also talks about the prior US actions:

On 26 June 1942, a Catalina flying boat of 11 Squadron RAAF was about to alight on Havannah Bay, New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), to refuel. The ‘Cat’ had called in there on its way to bomb Tulagi in the Solomon Islands, and was then on the return flight to Noumea having completed its mission. Despite its presence being expected, the American ground control at Havannah Bay had, as a precautionary measure, ordered a US Marine Wildcat fighter into the air to identify the incoming aircraft.
Geoff Pentland, in his book RAAF Camouflage & Markings 1939–45 – Vol. 1, takes up the story:
This the US pilot did, but though the shape of the Catalina was no doubt disturbingly familiar, the red in the upper wing roundels [national insignia] seemed to him so distinct—as he later said—that he mistook them for Japanese markings and immediately attacked. Bullets passed through the Catalina’s main crew compartment, fuel tanks, and ailerons, but fortunately no one was hurt and the aircraft was able to land safely.
Flying Officer Robert Seymour and his crew were undoubtedly shaken by this close call, but the incident had a more far-reaching consequence. It was decided that operational and second-line RAAF aircraft were henceforth to have the large red centres of their upper-wing roundels painted out in white. This was formalised in Aircraft General Instruction C11, Issue 4, dated 31 July 1942. Within a few months, the order was extended to all roundels on all RAAF aircraft.
Ironically, the Americans had already foreseen the problem. Firstly, prior to Pearl Harbor and again in 1943, the US national insignia was deleted from the upper right and lower left wing surfaces in a similar attempt to differentiate its aircraft from Japanese (the latter displaying the red Hinomaru disc on all four wing surfaces). It was believed that the position of a marking could be the first indicator of friend or foe.
However, in practice, colour appears to have been the more important signifier. From a distance, red can be seen more easily than other colours—often, in fact, before other details of a marking can be made out. Cases of mistaken identity led, in March 1942, to the red disc inside the US national star being deleted. On 27 March the operations diary for 13 Squadron RAAF reported:
Orders issued by the US Air Staff to the effect that the red circle in the American insignia on all United States aircraft was to be immediately painted white to avoid mistakes in recognition, particularly by ground troops.
Considering the above, one might ask why red was still in use on RAAF aircraft six months into the Pacific War.

[Steve Nelson]

BDK, I believe the evidence for the "false flag" Japanese aircraft is entirely anecdotal, meaning it could very well be Allied propaganda.

SN

[Swiss Mustangs]

As for Vietnam - I've heard a story (real or gossip - I have no clue) where a Base Commander for a F-4 Phantom II wing was rather 'difficult' and demanding re. serviceable aircraft...... no matter how damaged an a/c returned from a mission, he ordered it on ops next day...... so ground crew became inventive and started to paint the 'correct' tail-number on a different but serviceable aircraft overnight so the CO was happy when he saw the 'correct' aircraft taxy out for a mission next morning.....

anyone heard similar stories ?

Martin

[Django]

D-day is the obvious example.

Anyone have any pics of the ground crews stripping paint to NMF?

Or painting?

[Ken]

As for Vietnam ...... no matter how damaged an a/c returned from a mission, he ordered it on ops next day...... so ground crew became inventive and started to paint the 'correct' tail-number on a different but serviceable aircraft overnight

I believe this is mentioned in Yeager's autobiography from when he was a B-57 commander in Vietnam.

I appreciate everyone's reply but I was hoping the overall gist of this would point out intentional deception. I didn't consider the enemy use of our machines. Aren't there also documented cases of Luftwaffe-operated B-17s (and possibly US fighters) shadowing US bomber formations to report back on altitude/speed/course? Can't remember if these birds had German or bogus US markings.

Ken

[baldursveins]

This was not during combat perse, but during the Cold War. During the late 70s and early 80s, the USN had two squadrons of specially modified and equipped P-3B Orions. I believe that they both had two such aircraft, but they never operated under their own BuNos (serials), but were painted up with different squadron markings and BuNos. I have a good selection of photos of these birds on my web.
http://www.verslo.is/baldur/p3vpu/p3vpu.htm
Note that all of these are the same two aircraft. In the beginning they could be identified by the nose mounted camera like the C-model had when it first was introduced. Also they had a special optics glass instead of the front observational bulge and a rectangular window in the cockpit escape hatch. Further they had two special (sonobuoy?) chutes under the rear fuselage. Very often one could see that some part of the BuNo on the fin had a lighter background to some of the numbers, signifying repainting. Also the Nose numbers could be seen to be overpainted, but that also happened in regular squadrons. Sometimes the US insignia on the fuselage was given a white outline, but that was only seen on brand new Orions and was removed when they went for the first depot maintenance.
Thought maybe someone might like to see these mementos of the cold war.
One of the pilots of the Brunswick squadron later told me that some of the planes had the tails repainted so often that it caused a problem with the center of gravitiy.

[Bill Walker]

I've seen stories on some spotter web pages about the USAF Boeing 757s regularly switching serials these days , and sometimes having US military markings removed and carrying civil registrations for some flights. These are allegedly the aircraft delivering prisoners to US facilities in other countries.

[fritzthefox]

A-10's flying in Afghanistan had their crew member placards painted over to avert possible retribution against their families by terrorists.

[tom d. friedman]

captured aircraft abound in military aviation history. italy, p-38.... germany..... countless aircraft, both bombers & fighters for testing or confusing the allies..... japan.... any captured allied plane was used mostly for testing. any axis aircraft captured by the allies to my knowledge was put into allied markings specifically for testing.

[Steve Nelson]

The Japanese definately repainted a captured P-40 in American(ish) markings for use in a propaganda/training film. The U.S. also repainted "meatballs" on several captured Japanese aircraft for the same purpose.

There's also a famous shot of a Spitfire from the nose of an He-111, that was actually a captured spit repainted with British roundels for some training/propaganda shots.

SN