[MW Giles]

Thank you everyone, you have been most helpful

I was particularly pleased to get the details of the loss on the 12th April 44, Bishop and Hey confirm the serial as 42-67862 in Vol 3 of Losses of the US 8th and 9th Air Forces.

I do not think the detachment was taken on the books of 515 Sqn, but operated alongside to learn from each other. When the Droop Snoot P-38s of the 7th PG (R) operated with 192 Sqn in an Elint role their sorties are included as part of the 192 Sqn ORB. I was hoping the intruder detachment at Little Snoring would appear in the RAF records on a similar basis. No such luck, which is why I posted the first message.

Martin Streetly states that at least one of the P-38s was resprayed in Medium Sea Grey and Dark Green as per 515 Sqns Mossies and gives a side view on page 148 of his book The Aircraft of 100 Group. He also mentions another P-38 with natural metal uppers and black undersides, decorated with a yellow lightning flash marking.

A picture of such a P-38 appears on page 99 of Bowman and Cushing's book Confounding the Reich - The Operational History of 100 Group (Bomber Support) RAF. There is no serial no visible on the tail, but it has the name Miss Ann on the nose and a lighning flash on the side of the stbd engine cowling just above the air intake. I am not sure if the upper surfaces are in natural metal or have been painted grey as the normal anti-glare panel on the nose is missing (the upper surfaces are definitely not in OD as there is a regular camouflaged P-38 in the photo behind and the tones are completely different)

I have not found any illustration or photograph of the P-51s. There is a record of a sortie to Berlin, therefore it is likely the aircraft would be P-51 Bs or perhaps Cs.

I think the Major Gates in this detachment is the one RSwank (sorry I do not know your name) refers to. One source gives his initials as TL

Regards

Martin