D-Day markings

[alex crawford]

Hi,

Here is a photo of the Gladiator. It was sent to me by Plt Off Pritcher's daughter.

Alex

[drgondog]

The 355th put their stripes on June 5 and removed top half on July 9-10

Bill

[Larry]

In relation to D-Day stripes, I understand from several vets that these were applied on 4th June and not the 5th June, as the 5th would have been D-Day had it not been postponed for a day due to bad weather. As far as I can tell operational units were given just 24 hours to complete the task and in the case of 575 Sqn RAF with which my father was serving for D-Day no one was excempt from this work - from the CO down to the lowest Erk. With about 20 Dakotas and as many Horsas to paint, what started out as neat lines ended up being all over the place. As my father remembers paint was being applied with 'brushes brooms and mops' just to get it done. So modellers beware- some of those invasion stripe decal sheets look to good.

[atckyrre]

While I can't give you any more on this Gladiator issue we have been discussing the same thing when it comes to 333 Sqn Mosquitoes. They never flew along the invasion front and not one of the interviewed crew can remember having painted stripes on their Mosquitos. Nevertheless they were a front line unit.
I was surprised to learn about this, but it kind of makes sense, while their operations were far from France.

Having just learned about this book 'Even The Birds Were Walking' I just ordered it from Amazon. While I'm waiting for it to arrive, could you tell if there are any pics of late-war Hudsons in it?

Kyrre