Quote:
|
Originally Posted by shooshoobaby
Wade - 4th Fg book " Escort to Berlin " Aircraft assigned Appendix :
Spitfire VB BL776
P-47D 42-8659
Cheers
|
Thx ... I don't have the book handy - I did see BL255 in the Spitfire listing, but not BL776. Is BL776, as you imply, listed in Gentile's assigned planes? I'll look.
P-47D-1-RE 42-7884 isn't listed as assigned to Gentile in ESCORT, IIRC, but in fact it was the first P-47 coded VF-T. Gentile, as a flight commander, got one of the very first D-5s (8659) in September 1943, and 7884 was passed on to crew chief Larry Krantz, becoming VF-P, Krantz's code (following RAF practice, the individual aircraft letters in the 4th, with very rare exceptions, belonged to the crew chief rather than the pilot). Godfrey flew 7884 "P" regularly, eventually being formally assigned the kite and allowed to paint his 'own' artwork on the plane around Dec 1943, about the time of his first kill.
I know the author, Garry Fry, very well. He and I correspond regularly. Those that know him know he's not shy about expressing his opinion (refreshing!), and I get all my 4th FG work run through his gauntlet. But, I digress.
When Garry and Jeff Ethell wrote ESCORT, they only had the 334 FS daily history to go by, 335's and 336's were 'discovered' later. Fortunately, 334's is by far the most detailed of the three squadrons, and all in all Fry and Ethell did an absolutely amazing job considering what they had to work with.
Thx,
Wade