Nealius Posted February 28, 2021 Posted February 28, 2021 I've been digging into the USAAF squadron composition, mainly P-51s and P-47s, and I've noticed two peculiarities: 1. Squadron codes are inconsistent. The same squadron may go through two or three different squadron codes through the war. Why is this? 2. I see some squadrons using P-51s and P-47s simultaneously. How was that organized? Were half the planes Mustangs and half Jugs? Were pilots trained on both?
DD_Fenrir Posted March 1, 2021 Posted March 1, 2021 (edited) 1. A fighter Group consisted of three squadrons. As far as I am aware, squadron codes remained consistent throughout the stay in theatre for both 8th and 9th Air Force Units. 8th Air Force Fighter Groups by April of 1944 had a common nose colour for all their squadrons with different colour rudders denoting particular squadrons appearing later in 1944; the 9th Air Force was not so consistent in this aspect, and each Squadron in the same group had a different nose colour but often in the same design. This meant in the 9th that two separate squadrons from two different groups could theoretically have the same nose colour, but a different design pattern. A lot of the 9th Air Force groups seemed to modify their colours in early 1945. Examples: 8th Air Force 353rd Fighter Group - P-47D then P51B/C/D from October 1944 350th Fighter Squadron Code: LH Markings: Early '44 - white nose band; Mid '44 - yellow & black diamond checkerboard; Late '44 - yellow & black striped spinner and deep square checkerboard noseband, yellow rudder 351st Fighter Squadron Code: YJ Markings: Early '44 - white nose band, Mid '44 - yellow & black diamond checkerboard; Late '44 - yellow & black striped spinner and deep square checkerboard noseband, no specific colour on rudder 352nd Fighter Squadron Code: SX Markings: Early '44 - white nose band, Mid '44 - yellow & black diamond checkerboard; Late '44 - yellow & black striped spinner and deep square checkerboard noseband, black rudder 9th Air Force 354th Fighter Group - P51B/C/D, then P-47D from November 1944, then P-51D from mid February 353rd Fighter Squadron Code: FT Markings: Early '44 - white nose band; Mid/late '44 - yellow spinner with yellow and black sawtooth nose band; '45 - yellow spinner & noseband 355th Fighter Squadron Code: GQ Markings: Early '44 - white nose band; Mid/late '44 - blue spinner with blue & white checker panel/noseband; '45 - blue spinner with blue & white checker panel/noseband http://soyuyo.main.jp/p51/p51dg02.jpg 356th Fighter Squadron Code: AJ Markings: Early '44 - white nose band; Mid/late '44 - white spinner & white stars on blue nose band; '45 - red spinner & noseband 2. This was generally only during a transition period. The Squadrons generally tried not to operate mixed flights, but there were occasions where a group would sortie a mixed group, (i.e. 1x squadron P-51, 2x squadrons P-47s). The 352nd FG is a good example of the latter. The method of training varied, particularly during the early introduction of the Mustang, when there were scarce few around, and not enough it seems to equip an entire Group at once. If we take the 4th FG for example, they flew ops with their P-47s and trained on the Pony in between (not for that long apparently!) until their CO Don Blakeslee deemed them combat ready on the P-51, and there were sufficient P-51 airframes to make them operationally viable. This seems to be the pattern followed by later Groups converting to the Mustang; the 20th, 55th, 78th, 339th, 353rd, 355th, 356th, 359th, 361st & 479th FG all follow this pattern, and as the war progresses and more and more pilots and airframes are available at the squadron level, not every pilot is on every mission and it meant type conversions could happen that much more quickly. It even gets to the point towards the end of Autumn of 44 that a single squadron could provide enough manned airframes that instead of one formation of 16 aircraft it could provide 2 formations of 12, allowing a single FG to commit two understrength Groups to combat. Edited March 1, 2021 by DD_Fenrir 1
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