C-47 white stripes

jsparry · Feb 6, 2010

Does anyone know when the white stripes were added to the C-47 Skytrain (aka Dakota)?

My grandfather witnessed the friendly fire incident during the Sicily invasion. The night after the invasion, most of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment was flying in on C-47's and they came in right over the fleet that was sitting offshore the American invasion beaches. I believe it was 23 planes that were shot down by Americans on the ships and shore.

My grandfather said he knew they were our aircraft because he could see "the white markings".

I have heard that the white stripes were not added to the C-47's until after this incident and they were in fact added because of it. Does anyone know when the stripes were added and/or if there were other white markings? It's possible that he just recognized them as C-47's because he was a 505th Paratrooper and was very familiar with them.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

evangilder · Feb 6, 2010

I'm not aware of any markings that were in place before June 6 for the Normandy invasion, but I have heard that some operational plans called for specific markings on friendly aircraft to reduce these kinds of incidences.

jsparry · Feb 8, 2010

Thanks for your reply. I'll keep looking. There must be a book out there somewhere that would cover this.

evangilder · Feb 8, 2010

I did find this:

The Sicilian Invasion in July 1943 was plagued by friendly fire from the Allied fleet shooting at and shooting down British and American Aircraft. Indeed, on the nights of July 11 and 13 44 12th Air Force C-47's laden with British and American Paratroops were shoot down over flying the allied fleet. Several types of special ID markings had been carried on aircraft participating in training exercises in the United Kingdom. Clearly this state of affairs could not continue, so Operation Starkey turned out to be the test run for a new means of identifying Allied Aircraft over flying the fleet.

Several types of special ID markings had been carried on aircraft participating in training exercises in the United Kingdom. However, for this operation a new method of Identification was tested. Aircraft involved in Starkey appeared on 9 September in something similar to Typhoon ID stripes, on closer examination this was somewhat modified one step. Two white and two alternating parallel black stripes of equal width, were carried on each wing, above and below. In at least two photo's the stripes are shown to have been painted over the under wing roundels. To my knowledge, there is no photo's showing the upper wing of Starkey aircraft but there exists the distinct possibility that the upper wing roundels were over painted too. The colour profiles accompanying this article show the upper wing roundels over painted if nothing else to stimulate research. Aircraft known to have carried these stripes as confirmed by photographs were Spitfires, Boston's and Whirlwinds. Others thought to have carried these early invasion stripes include Typhoons, fighter-recon Mustangs, Mitchell's and Venturas. All of these types were in RAF service. The 8th United States Army Air Force B-26's which were heavily involved in this operation are not know to have carried the stripes. In addition, some twin-engine A/C had their noses painted white. This evidently turned out to be the only successful part of the Starkey hoax invasion. The dawn of June 6, 1944 found thousands of Allied aircraft over flying the invasion fleet with alternating Black and white stripes painted on the wings and fuselages of all allied aircraft taking part.

Operation Starkey

antoni · Feb 8, 2010

For Operation Starkey all aircraft operating at low-level on 9th September 1943 carried the following markings.

Upper and under surface of mainplane. Outboard of a datum line where aerofoil chord measures five feet all black. Inboard two white and two black stripes, each one foot six inches wide on single engined aircraft, two feet wide on twin engined aircraft.

On twin engined aircraft from the tip of nose for a distance of five feet six inches painted white.

There is a photograph of Mustang IAs of 268 Squadron taken at Odiham on 9th September showing they had these markings. Typhoons already carried black and white stripes on the undersides of the wings and there are no illustrations of how Starkey markings were applied. One Typhoon squadron ORB says they were applied to the upper wing surfaces implying they were omitted from the lower surfaces.

In the European Theatre Thunderbolts and Mustangs carried white stripes on the wings and tailplanes and a white band around the nose as an identification feature. Originally they carried a white band on the fin as well. These were introduced as a result of the aircraft being mistaken for Fw 190s and Bf 109s respectively. These identification markings were also adopted by the RAF.

C-47 white stripes

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