[drgondog]

Nigel - thanks for a much better explanation about the prior history of the 56th between the 'all 8th AF, all White cowl for all P-47s prior to Feb 1944 and the all red cowl for the 56th FG 'sometime in the future;

I do know that the Mustang groups in the 8th started their spinner/cowl identity in the March 1944 timeframe and that variations on a theme continued to evolve while the 9th AF 354th FG continued their white spinner and cowl into summer 1944.

A specific example of as yet unexplained interval of 'different' for 8th AF was the 355th which briefly went from white spinner/white cowl to NMF and/or black spinner with black cowl band in the late April/early May timeframe - then reverted back to white spinner for rest of war, white cowl (and mixed cases of white rudder) through late Oct/early november when the red, blue and yellow cowl band/rudder scheme was adopted as the rest of the 8th AF somewhat unified their approach.

I suspect that Nov 1944 is when a stake can be put into the ground when the 56th finally arrived at standardizing the rudder color differences in a systematic way?

Regards,

Bill

PS what website had the 'hissing contest' over this subject? I learned something from your post.