325FG "Star of Altoona". Can anyone supply fuselage number please?

[Mysticpuma]

'Herky' Green normally flew his plane which had the number 11 painted on the fuselage.

On January 30th 1944 his plane was being serviced, so No.11 never flew, but he took Captain Bunn Hearn's P-47 up.

During this mission he got six victories.

I can find reference to the plane, and have the artwork but I don't have the fuselage number, but really need this info. if anyone has it?

By fuselage number, I mean like "Big Stud" of the 325th had the fuselage number 88 painted on the side pictured here I'm not looking for the serial number, which I don't need to re-create the model in 3D:



Can anyone help me with the fuselage number that was painted on the side of "The Star of Altoona" please?

I have managed to source the original artwork, just the number on the side is missing.

Thanks, MP.

[Alex Smart]

Hi,

Looks like she wore a red band around the front of the cowling and the pic in the book I have shows the "Star" on the right side,
317th Fighter Squadron side numbers were from 10 to 39 I think.

Alex

[Mysticpuma]

Hi Alex, you are correct about the paint and artwork, unfortunately I already have these referenced.

Tracking down the number is proving very frustrating, I can't tell how much!

Thanks for your input, though, cheers, MP.

[mayfair35]

mysticpuma:

I am a 317th pilot from the 325th Ftr Grp and while I was helping Herschel Green write his book, we tried for several months and a couple of our reunions to find the number of Bunn Hearn’s aircraft. We were unsuccessful. The only clue we found was on page 41 of The Checkertail Clan by McDowell and Hess, there is picture of Herky demonstrating how he maneuvered to down one of his victories on 30 Jan 1944. The picture is of the port side of the aircraft and unfortunately the men standing there almost completely obscure the side of the aircraft. Between the 2nd and 3rd man there is a fragment of an aircraft number seen. It can only be a “6” and since it is a 317th FS aircraft, the number can only be 16, 26, or 36. Herky believes this was just after he got out of the airplane and so it should be Hearn’s aircraft. But even this cannot be completely confirmed.

I wish you luck. You may want to query Dr. Olynyk who wrote an outstanding book on American fighter aces. He may have a listing of the aircraft number Herschel was flying on 30 Jan 1944. Other than that I suggest you check the historical Archives at Maxwell AFB to see if they have the encounter reports from Herschel on that date. There should be 6 encounter reports by Herschel for that date and hopefully one will have the correct number of the aircraft he flew.

At the time we were researching, we were unaware of the above possible resources.

Cordially, Art Fiedler

[Mysticpuma]

Art, many, many thanks for your reply!

This is much further than I have managed to get in the last month of asking, and I'd like to thank you so much for your help.

I will endeavour to contact the above as soon as possible and see if they can bring me any closer to soving this 'mystery'.

It is such a shame (at the moment) that this historic moment, is poorly recorded in terms of the plane, but I suppose they weren't too concerned about historians in the future, just the fact they had a battle to win!

I can only say I am deeply in your debt for taking the time to make this contribution to my search for the information.

Thanks once again, and if I do track it down, I will certainly post it here.

Yours, Neil.

[Mysticpuma]

Hello Art, please can you check your email and Private Messages, thanks, Neil.