World war 2 Aircraft tallies

[lesofprimus]

Great Pics Erich...

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

nice pic, and i was refering to your own piloting skills....................

 

[Lightning Guy]

I recently learned something else about aircraft tallies. At least some American units in the SWPA (namely the 475th FG) used the simple red circle on a white square to denote a bomber kill. The raidiating red beams denoted a kill over an enemy fighter.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I always thought it was just unit preference.

 

[Lightning Guy]

As far as I can tell it was. But I had never seen anything denoting the distinction. I had always assumed the guys with the simple white flag and red circle were too lazy to paint anything else.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I figured there was some unit regulation. I know that is how it is today. Our unit will not let us paint anything on our aircraft. I had black flames painted down the sides of my Blackhawk's engine cowlings and a "Big Red One" painted on the nose, my buddies aircraft had a big Chicken Hawk painted on the engine cowlings and we had to paint them over with standard army OD Green. We are not even allowd to make tally's denoting how many air assaults our individual aircraft have performed on paint a purple heart for each time our aircraft sustain battle damage. But other units here have Grim Reapers or 4 Leaf Clovers, Shark Teeth, or Skulls painted on there aircraft. Each unit designates the what and how it can be painted on the aircraft. That is what I allways thought governed the way WW2 US aircraft painted there aircraft.

 

[cheddar cheese]

figured there was some unit regulation. I know that is how it is today. Our unit will not let us paint anything on our aircraft. I had black flames painted down the sides of my Blackhawk's engine cowlings and a "Big Red One" painted on the nose,

This id love to see, do you have any photos of when it was like that?

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I have a few on my external harddrive I will check them out and see what I can find. The last time my aircraft was like that was when I was deployed to Kosovo and I have thousands of pictures from when I was there but when I find them I will post them, hopefully tonight.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Here is 2 of the Big Red One that I painted. I could not find any of the flames but I know I have some as soon as I find them I will post them for you. (The ugly camo uniform is the new flight suits that the US Army is making us wear, they suck! 2 piece flight suits suck and the women dont like them as much) Any how here is the first ones. It is not as intricate and detailed a thing as the stuff that you would see on WW2 aircraft. I really suck at artist stuff. The flames though were awesome. They looked so good that I had to paint everything we had like the engine cowlings on my aircraft: the tractor, the hummer, the gator, everything until they made us paint everything over.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Anyhow I know this is completly off topic but I found this pic while I was searching for the flames pic and I had to post it. This is a perk of being a fly boy! Girls love you. This was the best flight I ever did. The Cincinnati Bengals Cheerleaders came to visit us and I got fly them around. Man it was hard to contain myself, she is so hot. So kids when you grow up what do you want to do now?

 

[cheddar cheese]

Nice 8)

 

[Nonskimmer]

That's it! I'm quiting the Canadian Navy and joining the US Army!

Great pics, Adler. Nice "1"!

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

So how do you like the Canadian Navy and how long have you been in it? What exactly do you do?

 

[Nonskimmer]

It's not a terrible way to make a living. The perks are slowly being taken away, however, and politics has pretty much taken over how we do things now a days. In essence, they've sucked the fun right out of it! Still, it pays the bills.
I've been in the mob for almost sixteen years so far. I work on radar and fire-control systems, mainly. "They break 'em, we fix 'em!".

 

[Erich]

Eagle :

does the army allow giant skulls on the front of their craft ?

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Well Nonskimmer that is the same for our army. It is all politics and that is why we cant win this Iraq war. They are more worried about how our uniforms look then getting the job done.

Erich it depends on the unit you are in. This is why I always thought that the way tallies were painted on the US aircraft in WW2 depended on the unit regulations. My unit like I said does not allow anything but the guys who just got here there unit allows them to. I can take a picture and show you if you would like. They have really giant skulls on there noses. My unit sucks they dont let us have anyfun. I put tallies for every insertion or assault that I flew in and they made me remove them along with my flames and big red one saying that it was unprofessional. My ass it is pride in my aircraft. I cant even paint the name of my aircraft on it and they made me remove my name off the bird.

 

[Erich]

most likely no-personalization which is crap in my opinion but that is probably written in the code books.

I would think an old standard like placing mission bars on the tail or right under the cockpit would mean something to your CO

oh well........... by the way there were many differences in the placement of the cross or swastika as kills even with 8th and 9th AF fighter group squadrons. Personal trait ?

 

[plan_D]

The British don't allow nose art, full stop. Except I think on bombers, I saw some Bucs with nose art from the Gulf War...which was mildly confusing but I assume they allow bomber nose art.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

most likely no-personalization which is crap in my opinion but that is probably written in the code books.

I would think an old standard like placing mission bars on the tail or right under the cockpit would mean something to your CO

oh well........... by the way there were many differences in the placement of the cross or swastika as kills even with 8th and 9th AF fighter group squadrons. Personal trait ?

I agree with you on that also. Personalization is good for moral and pride in my opionion but as the saying goes in my unit "Hey thats good for moral, you cant have that!"

I also noted the differences in the ETO US fighters and thought that too was just unit regulation. Do you know if that was just personal trait or was that regulations?

 

[Medvedya]

I cant even paint the name of my aircraft on it and they made me remove my name off the bird.

You can't even have your name on the side now?