Aircraft Designations - Database

[Rolling Thunder Tech]

Hoping that some one can help with this. Allied aircraft in WWII usually were identified by a three letter code. The first two identified a squadron and the third letter identified the aircraft in the squadron.

Have been searching for a data base that would identify the possible fighter squadron / fighter group that a plane belonged to. With only two letters, there probably would be an identifier that was used by several Air Force Groups, such as the 8th AF based in England, the 12th (North Africa) , 9th - (Middle East, ect for other theaters of operation and also changed depending on the location of base of operation. By knowing the three letters would like to narrow down the possible FG. By knowing the type of plane, this would then narrow it down to a specific FS /FG

For instance, P-47 UN-M belonged to the 63rd Fighter Squadron, 56th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force, plane designation "M". Specifically, I'm looking for the fighter squadron /group that flew P-47's with id "TS".

Any help would be appreciated.
Leonard
RTT

 

[Sgt Shultz II]

Leonard it would help to know more about the plane, razorback or bubble top, camo or bare metal.

Are you going by a picture? If so could you post it that may also help.

 

[Rolling Thunder Tech]

Hi

The plane in question is a radio control model, 62" wingspan, originally made by Global Hobbies as an ARF (almost ready to fly). My P-47 has been hit too often by ground fire and terra firma and have repaired the damage and now needs to be recovered. The latest damage that now requires more extensive covering is unfortunately due to pilot error. It has a four stroke engine and on climb out, instead of raising the gear I hit the engine kill switch, and wondered why the engine stopped, then saw the gear still down and immediately knew what my stupid mistake was. Had to land straight out over a berm and couldn't see the landing, Put the gear up so it wouldn't get ripped out (made that mistake before). It went in mostly wings level damaging the cowl, nose and bottom of the fuselage and the left wingtip. The covering had been getting a bit long in the tooth due to minor scrapes, oil, fuel, etc, so it's time to recover it.

It is a P-47 razorback, originally finished in overall light grey with a wide yellow stripe on each wing, with a thin black line on each side of the yellow. This occurs on the top and bottom of the wing.

The tail is red, so I did check with the Tuskegee squadrons and this doesn't match what they used. In the Lucas Red Tail movie, the Tuskegee's did use P-40's with yellow wing stripes while flying in Italy. From out sources, Tuskegees used the P-47 bubble canopy with yellow stripes and red tail, but have not found any evidence that they had razorbacks. Also the photos found of their P-47's had two digit numbers on the fuselage, and no two letter identifier.

Since the plane needs to be recovered, I want it to be accurate. From what I've found on line, the plane may need to be overall aluminum and not grey. Found some P-47's on google, both razorback and bubble with the yellow/black strips but only the bubble version with a red tail. The identification code on the plane is TF 8, which does not match the typical three letter standard identification, another detail that is suspect.

I do like the yellow/black stripes since it is different from the usual olive drab scheme. Was debating that if I can't find an accurate scheme with the yellow/black may go with the olive drab top, grey underside and invasion stripes.

It bugs me if the schemes do not at least try to adhere to an historically accurate rendition of the subject.

Thanks for any help,
Leonard
RTT

 

[Sgt Shultz II]

Leonard Robert Johnson flew a P-47 razorback HV-P in the 56th Fighter group w/ red nose and rudder named "Lucky" with a hand giving the finger.
http://www.aviationartstore.com/images/0i%20R.Johnson%201996.jpg

He had 27 kills to his credit out done by Gabby Gabreski with 28. The 56th FG flew the ETO and had codes letters.

The Tuskegee unit supposedly went from P-40's to P-47's prior to getting the P-51 and used plane numbers instead of code letters but they were in the MTO (Mediteranian Theator of Operations.

I did find a P-47 razorback called "The Hun Hunter" which had your yellow stripes on the wings and tail with a red nose but has a plane number (40) on the side instead of code letters so may be an MTO unit. Just found it in the 57th FG MTO. Google it for more info.

Hope this helps some. I'll keep looking!

 

[Rolling Thunder Tech]

Thanks for the info, will go with the color scheme of a fighter in the same FG as Hun Hunter. I broke down and bought a reference book, "Combat Codes" which lists all the alpha-numeric codes for all allied aircraft in the ETO, MTO and Africa. It's hard to prove a negative but there was no listing for the "TF" code of any groups that used the P-47 or any other fighter aircraft, so I have to assume that Global Hobbies made it up when the RC kit was produced. So much for accuracy.

Leonard
RTT