P-38 Over Water

[MIflyer]

Okay, so it probably has SCR-522 and some kind of a LF receiver, most likely a BC-1206 Detrola, which is big news to me. But in any case it is a real WWII photo taken in a combat area.

By the way, relative to the drawing you provided, I love Bjorn Karlstrom's work as to esthetics but he is legendary for his inaccuracies. I liked his Ercoupe drawing as the best of any I had seen - until I bought an Ercoupe myself and found that airplane he depicts, however lovely, has never existed. Looks like he took inspiration from P-40 to fill in some of the details.

 

[CATCH 22]

Going to have to do more reading on this. Found photos of the aircraft but there is no nose antenna. There must be more than one "Hill's Angel"
lt. allen hill p-38 hill's angel - Google Search

JKim did the "Hill's Angel", yellow H some years ago - see this thread. Some nice photos of the nose-art can be seen there. There is even a NM plane with the same name and with the antenna under the nose.
There is something that bothers me when a look at the initial photo, but I don't know what. It's just a feeling (as many others), not a proof, not a fact, not a detail. The perfect sea maybe or something I think I've seen already? The yellow-ish "thing" in the water maybe?
Is it a "mae-west" or a dinghy? Could this be a CGI? A "skin" for a P-38J from a simulator or a game?
In the past I have tried Il-2 and Flight Simulator only and the CGI was not perfect, but nowadays there are many beyond perfect creations I often admire.

 

[fubar57]

It is odd Yves. All the photos show no nose antenna. I can't zoom in clear enough but is there a pilot in there. The photo on the right, about the same size is pretty clear

 

[CATCH 22]

These 2 pictures show a very good comparison between a real a/c (on the right) with a real camouflage and appearance. I might be wrong (not for the first time), but how is it possible for a war plane to be so shiny as on the left picture? Yippee was so shiny, but it was painted with a different paint:

 

[GrauGeist]

The P-38 in the OP is an actual photo, what makes it a little odd, is the color balance is off.

Also, in the water is what appears to be an oil-slick. You can see it parting around the marker bouy.

 

[Greg Boeser]

It was not uncommon for crew chiefs to polish their aircraft, in hopes of improving performance.

 

[fubar57]

Prop blur looks odd as well

 

[whstlngdeath]

It's my opinion that this is a computer-generated graphic, or skin, more than likely created for online gaming simulations. There are discrepancies that cannot be explained, such as aerials and antenna, cleanliness of the airframe, color... etc. Here are some "skins" generated for download from the War Thunder gaming site. The level of detail is incredible. I believe the picture in question is a still or capture from a online war game. The other thing is that I ran a google search of this image, and it does not come up anywhere, except where people have pinned it to Pinterest or other similar sites. You'd think that a genuine, wartime color photo of this quality would have shown up in other texts and searches. Just my 2 cents...

 

[GrauGeist]

I might point out that the bulk of those images that show up in the forum's "random images", which that P-38J photo in the OP was taken from, were loaded to the gallery well over 10 years ago - LONG before sims had the high-res graphics that we see today.

To add to that, I've posted aircraft photos to this forum that exist nowhere else on the 'net (or the planet for that matter) and don't show up in any searches.

 

[fubar57]

This is the last thing that bugs me about the photo....the nose-art. This photo nose art is different than all other pictures of Hill's Angel showing the nose art. Notice that the foot is located much lower than all the other photos. Also note the guns in reference to the "H"

That and every other photo show no nose antenna. The only other explanation is that he had a third "Hill's Angel"

 

[fubar57]

When I first did a reverse image search it showed only one hit, a Russian site but I don't see it any more. Now there are Japanese twitter accounts

 

[Gerald Asher]

I'm labeling it "Digital Tomfoolery." On what website was the original image found?

 

[MIflyer]

If you look at Yippeee you'll see it has SCR-274-N installed and it came off the productiuon line around 11 months after the first J's were produced and also was sent to the Pacific. If a P-38J was built with SCR-274-N in the summer of 1944, you can bet that one built in late 1943 would have been so equipped as well. SCR-522 were required from the beginning in the ETO in order to interface with the RAF air defense system, aside from its advantages. So it is very likely that the P-38's arrived in theater with SCR-274-N and were modified with SCR-522, either at Pt Moresby or in Australia. Pictures both with and without the AN-104 antenna are entirely possible.

I found a color picture in Jeff Ethell's book "Wings of War" that shows an 80th Ftr Sqdrn P-38J, coded G, so someone was taking color photos of that group.

 

[whstlngdeath]

The long wire antenna is not what's in question. It's the AN-104 blade under the nose. The picture clearly shows that this is supposed to be the Lt. Allen Hill's P-38J-10-LO of the 80th FS, 8th FG. The livery shows that much, the "H" on the nose, green spinners, green tips on the verticals, and a rendition of the seated gal in a red dress. No actual picture of this aircraft can be found that shows it had the AN-104 antenna. Other P-38J-10-LO's certainly might have had it, but this particular airplane did not. That is the biggest giveaway of whether this photo is authentic. Having said that, look at the photo below, lower right frame of the montage that shows a different P-38 with Hill's markings, the "H", and the name "Hill's Angels". It has the AN-104 antenna, but this is the unpainted natural aluminum version. The caption read P-38-15-LO, as opposed to a -10-LO. That would make sense, since the production of painted P-38s ended sometime near the end of the J model.

 

[MIflyer]

No, the long wire antenna is indeed what is in question. If you will read the entire series of posts you will see my purpose was to raise the question as to why that P-38 has both an AN-104 and a long wire antenna. Both a full SCR-522 installation and a full SCR-274-N installation cannot be put in that airplane. If it has both kinds of antennas, what is the long wire for?

By the way the picture could not have been taken from another P-38. The most likely photo airplane would be a PBY, I think, and the altitude and that yellow object in the water would indicate it was on a SAR mission.

 

[CATCH 22]

No, the long wire antenna is indeed what is in question. If you will read the entire series of posts you will see my purpose was to raise the question as to why that P-38 has both an AN-104 and a long wire antenna. Both a full SCR-522 installation and a full SCR-274-N installation cannot be put in that airplane. If it has both kinds of antennas, what is the long wire for?

There are many examples with the both antennae and if you go through some books, Fold3-archive, P-38 sites etc. you'll find enough photos showing the same configuration. Curiously the P-38 in the NASM is a J-10-LO and is basically a time capsule (as far as I was told in the museum). She has the long wire and the mast under her nose:

The wire antenna could be for the range receiver. As described in the pilot's training manual found in this forum (page 55) "... some P-38 series have a low frequency range receiver. It operates independently of the VHF and can be used at the same time." The LF-range receiver is mounted on the right cockpit side. BTW is it the AVR-101?
Cheers!

 

[Gnomey]

Good stuff guys!