P-39 Aircobra Pictures North Africa

[kaki3152]

Recently, on German E-Bay there appeared two pictures of two different P-39 Aircobras in Tunisia. Can anyone identify?

[udf_00]

There is a better pic of the crashlanded one in p.67 of Bell P-39 "Airacobra" by Alain Pelletier, captioned "this P-39 was shot down by the Italians in Tunisia during the Winter of 1942-43".
The wreck is crowded by locals and what seems to be uniformed Italians, clearly visible are the individual letter "T" forward of the door and the two last digits of the s/n "93" on the vertical fin.
A good candidate could be P-39L-1-BE 42-4493.

[kaki3152]

UDF ,thanks. I will label it as such.

I quite enjoy the picture of the first P-39. It looks like it was landed and then set afire. Notice the propeller has no damage.

[Mark R.]

Or maybe the one with gear extended was one of the unflyable P-39s deliberately destroyed at Thelepte airfield before the Germans occupied it? I do wonder if the 20mm in the nose signifies a P-400E?

P-39L-1-BE 42-4493 makes the other aircraft a good candidate for a 350th Fighter Group aircraft whose pilot was probably attached to the 81st Fighter Group.

Possible ID of the bellied in aircraft is the one flown by Lt Howard Sutton of the 346th FS/350th FG shot down by flak NE of Maknassy during the afternoon of 9 February 1943 or (IMHO less likely) either Lt Eudo E. Thibideau of the same squadron/group shot down by flak vic Sbeitla - Sid Bou Zid on 16 February 1943 or Ltc Richard P. Klocko the group commander shot down by flak vic Feriana on 24 February. I say less likely for the latter two because I think they would have been shot down by German flak given they were both lost during the Faid - Kasserine counterattack. Maknassy was held by Italian troops prior to the Faid - Kasserine counterattack.








ak

Cheers,

Mark R.