Warbird Information Exchange

I'm looking for information on this aircraft. I looked at Baugher's site and it lists:

14537 returned to USA Apr 12, 1944. To CL-26 Apr 12, 1944

Where did this aircraft serve? Thanks- FFATC

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I know some F models came back from N.Africa into new jewsey and where broken up on the airfield.There were some pictures on ebay awile back with guys in the pics who had flown the same birds in N.A.I will see what I can find.

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Hang The Expense

41-14596 was in scordia sicily in 43 which is a bit off your data plate but a good chance it was there.

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Hang The Expense

They came with these things. Who is Robert P. Gracie?

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Not sure if this helps, but found a Robert P. Gracie - KIA 1944
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&gs_nf=1&cp ... 80&bih=862

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45-47=-2

Mike,
Thanks. That makes it clear...as...mud. The 85th Chemical Mortar Battalion was in the Pacific- they were at Hollandia which is probably where this guy was killed (If this is the same guy). How did he get data plates from this airplane? Now I have some REAL research to do....

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These five little items came with no story other than they came together. But they might be telling a story and I'm trying to track it down. Thanks to Mike Furline's find of the grave, here is the information I have generated. I would appreciate any help on this one.

First, about the airplane. There were 176 P-40F-10-CU’s made. AAF serials were 41-14423/14599. The aircraft were distinguished by having manual instead of electrically operated cowl flaps. This information comes from this page:
http://www.p40warhawk.com/Variants/P-40F.htm
As for Desert Air Force aircraft, there were three AAF squadrons equipped with P-40F’s- the 64th, 65th, and 66th. 41-14596 would have been with one of them, and it is a -10-CU. Out of a total of 75 operational planes, 41-14537 could be one of those. But the seller said these dog tags came with the data plate, so I’m assuming they came home together.

This is the information on the 85th Chemical Mortar Battalion: 
Overseas: Arrived SFPE 20 Jul 1944, New Guinea 24 Aug 1944, Los Negros Is 4 Oct 1944, Philippines 20 Oct 1944
Campaigns: Bismarck Archipelago, Leyte, Luzon, New Guinea
. FYI, a Chemical Mortar Battalion fired 4.2 inch mortars which were originally used for smoke and to distribute chemical ordnance. But they wound up being used as infantry support through most of WWII; after WWII, a 4.2 inch mortar company was included in each Infantry Regiment.
References:

http://www.4point2.org/hist-85D.htm
http://www.4point2.org/85cmb.htm

I don’t know if Company D had the same experience of the other companies, but I’m assuming 1LT Gracie was killed in the Leyte Gulf Invasion October 1944. I doubt he got these data plates after he was killed, so I am looking for a wreck of a P-40F that was present in New Guinea or Los Negros Island, between 24 August 1944 and sometime early in October 1944. That should narrow down what unit used the P-40F. I am assuming it was salvaged home because it wasn’t reparable in theatre. But it was sitting somewhere that an enterprising 1LT could go pry off a pair of data plates when no one was looking.

I'd appreciate any guidance on which units used P-40F's in the Pacific. That would help track down what happened to this aircraft. The story of the P-40 and the story of 1LT Gracie intersect somewhere. I'd appreciate any help making that connection. I have listed these items for sale, but I would really like to help put together the story because I don't want it to get lost. I know there are people out there better at this stuff than me, so anybody got any ideas?

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While the P40F dataplate could have been collected personally by him in New Guinea, an equally plausable outcome is that his dogtags were sent home to his family and someone at home retained them, and seperately sourced the dataplate from another family member etc and simply kept them together in a single treasure box.

Is the container likely to be a wartime product? if not they may well have only come together in more recent times.

Its even possible the objects have seperately changed hands a few times before coming together into the one container over the last 68 years, has the seller got any provenance leading back to nect of kin of the dog tags?

Obviously finding a history of the P40F that places it in the Pacific is the first priority to support or dispell the view he collected the plate before his death.

regards

Mark Pilkington

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20th Century - The Age of Manned Flight
"from Wrights to Armstrong in 66 years -WOW!"

Mark,
They came from an antique dealer and could have come from anywhere. The box they were in was a small modern display case. The sales clerk (who was not the dealer) said the stuff came together. I don't trust that as provenance, so am trying to find (by requesting here) any link between the aircraft and the Pacific. On examination of Baugher's website, the other P-40F-10-CU aircraft have three units listed in -10-CU number block dispositions-27th, 57th, and 64th Fighter Squadrons which are all MTO units. Out of 176 aircraft, I suspect it is possible that some went to the Pacific. But I am not hanging my hat on it. In the number block my L-5 is in, all the aircraft around it went to the 167th Liaison Squadron (a unit which never really existed). But the record card on my aircraft indicates it was assigned to Army Ground Forces. So while the information on Baugher's website leads to the possible conclusion that this stuff wasn't together, I don't think it definitely rules it out until somebody finds a photo of 41-14537 in the MTO.

I have found more information on Robert Gracie. On his Birthday, October 21st, 1944 he was killed. But he received a Silver Star posthumously for moving one of his men off the field after he was wounded. There is another Gracie (there aren't a lot of Gracie's out there) who was a late-WWII draftee. Maybe this stuff came from two Gracie's and wound up together due to death/family heirlooms coming together. I don't know. I'm not drawing any conclusions until I have more facts.

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Gents

Just to confirm that this aircraft did not serve in the Pacific at all. Aircraft was Sent to North Africa as a Attrition replacement in Nov 1942, arriving in North Africa in Dec 1942. By this time there were two Fighter Groups active with P-40F's in North Africa.

There is to much conjecture to exactly which unit it served with, however on completion of its time in North Africa, it was shipped back to the US and placed as an Instructional airframe in Dec 1944, until scrapped in late 1945.

buz

Buz - you've a PM.

If Lt Gracie had a brother, then perhaps the brother was a pilot? Any unit rosters available for those NA P-40 units?

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