D Day Stripes - Present for How Long?

[Boomerang]

Gentlemen:

I would any information about two related questions regarding the famous black and white D Day stripes applied to Allied aircraft:

• for how long after D Day were the stripes applied?
• for how long after D Day would aircraft have been seen on ops with the stripes?

I assume the answer to the latter depends on factors such as whether it was policy to remove the stripes after a specified date.

Regards

Boomerang

[drgondog]

The 355th FG received orders to a.) put the Invasion Stripes on upper and lower wing surfaces plus fuselage on June 5, and b.) remove from upper fuselage and wing stripes on July 9. The July timeframe is also when the 355th removed all OD and Grey camo for the remaining Mustangs not in NMF already.

The last of the underwing and under fuselage stripes were removed at end of November, 1944.

These dates are pretty typical for 8th Fighter Command.

Regards,

Bill

[SteveB]

Chris Thomas co-author of the recent 3 volume series "2ndTAF" provided some detail on invasion markings two weeks ago
http://www.rafcommands.com/dcforum/DCForumID6/9881.html

Steve

[Alex Smart]

Hi,

IIRC I saw in a book at least one C47 in the Berlin Airlift that still carried the D-day stripes.

Alex

[Boomerang]

Gentlemen:

Thank you for such informative replies. My questions have been answered most comprehensively.

Regards

Boomerang

[Modeldad]

According to Dana Bell, the final order to remove all stripes came on 6 December, effective 1 January 1945.

One reason for the stripes remianing on the underside was a request of the US Navy. The Navy requested a positive ID because of all the aircraft flying back and forth across the English Chanel.

It is interesting to note that aircraft that ariived in July after D-Day actually had full set of stripes applied top and bottom.