Ramitelli Red wrote:
I communicated the wrong information to you during my last reposne to you. P-51D Counter 25 was never assigned to Lt. Walter McCreary as I had previously indicated. In all actuality P-51D Couner 25 was assigned to the 100th FS as a replacement aircraft for the P-51B Counter 25 named C-Rations which was lost with Lt. Walter McCreary on 12 Oct 1944. Incedently I did post an image of P-51B Counter 25 in either my first or second 332nd FG thread. I apologize for the misinformation.
Thank you, that is a simple misunderstanding and I can see how that could easily happen. Does this mean you don't have any more pictures of the P-51D counter 25?
I called my grandmother last night and she told a pretty interesting story about my grandfather’s photo collection. When my grandfather was coming home after the war the officer that was checking his gear looking for contraband or sensitive information was going to confiscate his photo album (mostly of B-24's from the 450th BG, 720th BS) until he came across a picture of a fighter. I guess it was his plane and he liked it so much that he let my grandfather bring the rest of his photos home. I should add that I don’t know for 100% certainty that it was the picture of “LITTLE*MAC” that was the officers plane from that story, however out of all the pictures I have seen from my grandfather’s collection it is the only one of a WWII fighter of any kind.
In addition, last night I discovered that the person who supplied the picture of “LITTLE*MAC” in the book from my post above (Stanley Purwinis) also posted two pictures on the 450th BG webpage that are identical to two other pictures from my grandfather’s collection. When I asked my grandmother about this she said back when they were going to 450th BG reunions, someone was making a book and they asked members to submit their photograph from the war. I guess my grandfather submitted a bunch which he never got back and was never given credit for. My grandmother did not recognize Stanley’s name but there is also the possibility that they obtained the same picture from the squadron photographer. Based on that I think that the picture from the book and the side profile picture of “LITTLE*MAC” from my grandfather’s collection were taken on the same day and possibly from the same photographer. I realize most of this information is probably irrelevant but I am trying to track down the history of this plane and possibly identify the pilot so I’m just posting this in case it relevant to someone.
Thank you for all your help.