Odd marking in P-39 national insignia

[OldGeezer]

Reading the September 1941 issue of Flying magazine, I noticed that they'd printed the entire text of "Winged Warfare" by Hap Arnold and Ira Eaker, which included this odd photo. Odd for two reasons: The red circle in the fuselage insignia has a number 14 painted on it (not repeated on the visible wing insignia) and the caption says that the aircraft have light blue undersides rather than standard gray.

 

[GrauGeist]

I seem to recall seeing numbers in the center of the insignia on some prewar aircraft in the past, though I don't have access to my books at the moment to find what/where that may have been.

One thing I did notice in the photo, is the "missing" serial numbers on the aircraft.

 

[fubar57]

.....no wing guns and faired over nose guns. YP-39?

 

[OldGeezer]

If I had to guess, I'd guess they were P-39Cs from the 31st Pursuit, with some judicious retouching by censors to erase identifying numbers.

 

[OldGeezer]

Another photo, not as clear unfortunately, but it definitely shows the "14"

 

[OldGeezer]

 

[fubar57]

Just finished doing searches of the 31st, though I found nothing with the number in the star

 

[GrauGeist]

The "14" also appears to be a yellow-ish tone?

 

[fubar57]

D Dana Bell