J.C.Meyer's Petie 2nd and 3rd

[MIG3LANGELO]

Hi All I am trying to collect info about Meyer's P-51 'Petie' planes. The following info in particular:

1) When did Meyer start to fly Petie 2nd and when did he stop flying it? leading on to the next question :
2) Do any of you know from which date Meyer started to fly his Petie 3rd?

Any help in answering these questions , or providing any other info that you know about these planes, will be very much appreciated.
Thanks in advance

 

[le_steph40]

Hello Anton,

Sorry, I don't know the exact dates but here is what is known:

Before D-Day Meyer flew P-51B 'Lambie II" HO-M, last victory with "Lambie II" the 12th of May. "Lambie II" was lost the 7th of June with another pilot.
It's probable that "Petie 2nd" was flown when Meyer came back to the front after his wedding for his second tour of duty from mid or late June 1944 until November. Only two ground kills with her...
The first victory with "Petie 3rd" came the 21st of November.
I'll try to find when exactly Meyer came back to the front after his wedding and when he took possession of "Petie 3rd"

Regards

 

[MIG3LANGELO]

Hello Anton,

Sorry, I don't know the exact dates but here is what is known:

Before D-Day Meyer flew P-51B 'Lambie II" HO-M, last victory with "Lambie II" the 12th of May. "Lambie II" was lost the 7th of June with another pilot.
It's probable that "Petie 2nd" was flown when Meyer came back to the front after his wedding for his second tour of duty from mid or late June 1944 until November. Only two ground kills with her...
The first victory with "Petie 3rd" came the 21st of November.
I'll try to find when exactly Meyer came back to the front after his wedding and when he took possession of "Petie 3rd"

Regards

Thanks lots for your help Le Steph, as always that's good info! I appreciate it. yes, if you will find more info, please share it.
About when Meyer came back to the front after his wedding, I know this - Meyer had a one month leave starting on May 14th, 1944. This info is based on the book called "Fighter Group". If this info is correct then Meyer would have returned to the front sometime in mid June, not long after the Normandy Landings (Which he missed since he was on leave). This info fits well with what you wrote about "Lambie II"

 

[MIG3LANGELO]

The first victory with "Petie 3rd" came the 21st of November.

That's great info. Steph, where does this info come from, do you remember?
I have purchased the book called "Stars and Bars" and am waiting for it to arrive. once it arrives it'll be good to see the dates of when Meyer scored his victories, I can share those with you too. At this stage I know that while flying Petie 3rd he scored 2victories on the 1st of Jan 1945 - his last two victories in WW2. I have read (Also in the book called "Fighter Group") that Meyer scored 10 victories in Petie 3rd. Will be good to confirm this info once "Stars and Bars" arrives.
If he scored 10 victories between 21st November 1944 and 1st Jan 1945, that's quite impressive - 10 victories in just over one month not bad

 

[le_steph40]

Here is the list of victories claimed by J. C. Meyer => John C. Meyer
At the bottom of the page we can see in the sources: STARS AND BARS

 

[MIG3LANGELO]

Here is the list of victories claimed by J. C. Meyer => John C. Meyer
At the bottom of the page we can see in the sources: STARS AND BARS

That's an excellent page! thanks for sharing
According to this list of victories it looks like Meyer scored 11 victories between the 21st Nov and 1st Jan. 2 of those were "damaged' and 9 were 'destroyed'. Interesting

 

[le_steph40]

Anton, here are the others infos I found: the confirmation of 30 days off from mid May 1944. So, "Petie 2nd", as you said, was flown very probably from the date of his return to the unit (Mid June 1944).
"Petie 3rd" was flown from early November 1944 to 1 January 1945 => page 107 from the book "Osprey Aviation Elite 8 - 352nd FG"

 

[le_steph40]

After that, during late January or early February 1945, "Petie 3rd" HO-M became "Ricky" coded HO-Z assigned to Lt J. N. Wood. (p 112)

 

[MIG3LANGELO]

Great info, thanks so much! Legend Good to confirm when Meyer started to fly Petie3rd from.
In addition to your last comment, I have read that after J.N.Wood flew Petie 3rd (Renamed Ricky), the plane was assigned to Carlo Ricci who renamed it into "Ron-Marie". After the war the airplane passed into obscurity.
Thanks for your help Le_Steph. never ceases to amaze me how knowledgeable you are about aviation and I am always grateful for you sharing some of that knowledge with us.
Once I will finish the page for these planes I will mention you at the bottom of that page to say thanks I'll share the link to that page here once it's finished.

P.S. I have just purchased "Osprey Aviation Elite 8 - 352nd FG". Good to have this added to my collection.

 

[le_steph40]

Thank you Anton, but let me tone down your comment a bit .
Just a little bit of knowledge regarding aircrafts of some WW2 Aces but for the vast majority of the rest I consult my books

 

[Snautzer01]

Lt Col John C. Meyer P-51 Mustang Petie 2nd

Lt Col John C. Meyer P-51 Mustang "Petie 2nd" Pilot WWII 8x10 Photo 423a | eBay

Reproduction 8" x 10" World War II photo. Our photos are made of great quality material and printed on a high end, high quality Photo Art Printer. No cheap desktop prints here. Most photos are available in 5" x 7", 8" x 10", 11" x 14", 11" x 17", 13" x 19", 16" x 20", and 24" x 36".

www.ebay.com

 

[Howard Gibson]

This is a war bird I photographed at a London, Ontario airshow 1988/06/03.

There is a bit of a fun story here. This was around 5:00pm in the afternoon, and I had ISO 25 Kodachrome in my camera. I was using a Tamron 28-70 lens with f/4.5 at 70mm. To my complete amazement, I saw a de Havilland Mosquito down the runway. I was standing there thinking "This is a miracle!"

Fortunately, I had a tripod. There were a bunch of aircraft taxing by, and I practised my Mosquito panning shot on each one as it went by. There were a couple of Mustangs and I shot them. Then I shot the Mosquito and I was happy, or at least, I hoped I would be happy. Digital photography has brought us a long way since then, although back in the day, it was possible to get Kodachrome developed back home in Toronto.

It was not until I went through my slides that I realised I had a fantastic Mustang shot. Note the pilot waving. I got the blurry background on my Mosquito shot, but there was blurry guy next to the tail.

 

[MIG3LANGELO]

This is a war bird I photographed at a London, Ontario airshow 1988/06/03.

Thanks Howard and Snautzer01 for sharing the photos.
Howard, interesting to see 'Petie 3rd' written on the starboard side of the plane, I've wandered about it when I saw photos of this plane online, as well as your photo. I get a feeling that the original airplane had the inscription written only on the port side. Will have to do some research into it. Do you know anything about it?

 

[rad2484]

Hi All I am trying to collect info about Meyer's P-51 'Petie' planes. The following info in particular:

1) When did Meyer start to fly Petie 2nd and when did he stop flying it? leading on to the next question :
2) Do any of you know from which date Meyer started to fly his Petie 3rd?

Any help in answering these questions , or providing any other info that you know about these planes, will be very much appreciated.
Thanks in advance

Petie 3rd assigned to a different according to this caption in "Blue-Nosed Bastards of Bodney"

 

[rad2484]

More Photos

 

[Howard Gibson]

Thanks Howard and Snautzer01 for sharing the photos.
Howard, interesting to see 'Petie 3rd' written on the starboard side of the plane, I've wandered about it when I saw photos of this plane online, as well as your photo. I get a feeling that the original airplane had the inscription written only on the port side. Will have to do some research into it. Do you know anything about it?

I took that photo over thirty years ago, prior to the internet. I was going to claim that only Peties first and second were WWII, but photos below my post prove me wrong.

Google is your friend.

 

[MIG3LANGELO]

Petie 3rd assigned to a different according to this caption in "Blue-Nosed Bastards of Bodney"

Thanks for the photos Rad2484. Appreciate you taking the time to post them into this thread.
About your reply - that's correct. Petie 3rd was assigned to J.Wood after C.Meyer, and after Wood (who renamed it to Ricky) it was assigned to C. Ricci (who renamed it to Ron-Marie), although other sources claim that 'Ricky' was sold to Sweden, so I am not 100% sure about the exact details of what happened to the plane after Wood flew it.

 

[troyfreefly]

Hi All I am trying to collect info about Meyer's P-51 'Petie' planes. The following info in particular:

1) When did Meyer start to fly Petie 2nd and when did he stop flying it? leading on to the next question :
2) Do any of you know from which date Meyer started to fly his Petie 3rd?

Any help in answering these questions , or providing any other info that you know about these planes, will be very much appreciated.
Thanks in advance

Lt. Colonel Meyer finished his first tour after scoring a single victory on 12 May 1944 in his assigned a/c, P-51B-10NA, 42-106471, HO-M "Lambie II". He left the UK on 14 May. At that point he had 8.5 aerial victories. He returned to the 352nd FG late July or Early August 1944. He was back on operations by 5 August. His assigned a/c at that time was P-51D-10NA, 44-14151, HO-M, "Petie 2nd". He scored no aerial victories in "Petie 2nd" but on 11 September he scored four aerial victories in P-51D-5NA, 44-13597, HO-F "Stardust" which was assigned to Lt. Bill Fowler. Meyer scored a triple on 21 November in P-51D-15NA, 44-15041, HO-N, "Petie 3rd". His "Petie 2nd" had been assigned to Lt. Sheldon Heyer as HO-N and was nicknamed "Sweetie Face". I've done paintings of all three a/c and you can see them at this link: 352nd Fighter Group Bluenosers

 

[Snautzer01]

Nice paintings. Worth a view.

 

[MIG3LANGELO]

I've done paintings of all three a/c and you can see them at this link: 352nd Fighter Group Bluenosers

Hi Troy. Beautiful paintings! I love them Nice angles and very well painted. The website is great too, well done. Thanks for sharing your work and thanks for your comment with great info.

I have tried to look for the 'Sweety Face' airplane a while back but could only find a modern version of a replica of 'Sweety face'. There are quite a few photos online. But I am not sure this plane was based on the actual "Sweetie Face" plane 44-14151. Did you happen to come across any photos of what the original 'Sweety Face' flown by Heyer looked like?

https://www.flightforum.fi/uploads/monthly_2021_05/large.P-51D_Sweetie_Face.jpg.25a59e61bbc7113426deecd1778579c4.jpg