Werner Christie & Mustang

[ragnarec]

Tanks everyone for clarifying (?) comments. This is obviously far more complicated than I could imagine. Seems to be quite chaotic days in the beginning of 1945...

Regards,
Ragnar

[Stein Meum]

Lt. Col. Christie joined 150 Wing at Andrews Field on 11 Feb. -45. He came from 234 Sqn which he had commanded for a while.While commanding 150 Wing,there were several losses,mainly Polish pilots from 316 Sqn.

On 1st March -45 while providing escort to a Ramrod to Mannheim,the Wing left the bombers after the bombing and descended through clouds to find targets of opportunity to strafe. The Wing had been flying for over 2 hours over a solid cloudlayer and they were further east than expected when they came out of clouds over high ground.2 Polish pilots,W/O Ferruga and F/S Kamecki,were killed when their Mustangs crashed.Christie also hit the ground,had both wing leading edges perforated and the starboard stabilizer cut through almost all the way to the elevator,but returned safely to base. He was flying FB226 MT-K at the time instead of his usual "WHC". Anybody have the serial number of his personal Mustang III?

Christie blamed himself for this accident due to poor navigation on his part and,according to an interview I made with him in January 2004,he requested to be transferred to another Wing as he thought his leadership with 150 Wing suffered from this accident.He left 150 Wing for the Hunsdon Wing on 6th March -45. He died earlier this year.

Stein

[atckyrre]

Ahh.... expect Mr. Meum to come through for us whenever a question regarding Norwegians might come up.

Sooo.
FB226.. a rather famous plane in that it has been photographed and published in several books, albeit at an earlier stage. I've noticed that 122 Sqn seems to have used rather small code letters. Do you think that would be the case also in March '45? P'raps stripped down bare metal aircraft?
Email inbound.

Kyrre

[Stein Meum]

Nope,still in standard camouflage.There were som Polish Mk. III's that were stripped,but I can not recall seeing any bare-metal 122,19 or 65 Sqn Mk. III's.Small codes were used by 122 Sqn Mustangs.At this stage,spinner would be black and the upper wing roundels modified into "C"-type without yellow surround as this surround was basically a 2nd TAF thing.


Stein

[Franek Grabowski]

There was only a small batch of silver Mustang IIIs, indeed most of them known from PAF but perhaps only because we have the best photo coverage.
Bulk (ie. all) of Mk IIIs were camouflaged, with standard markings but spinners. At early March 1945 coloured spinners were introduced to Polish Mustangs, 316 had white-red stripes. Cannot say about RAF Sqns, but apparently they have had coloured ones as well.

[atckyrre]

I've picked up bits and pieces about the spinners and according to two sources I have the spinners got new paint in April for 19 Sqn and possibly 234 Sqn as well. What more 19 Sqn repainted their black and yellow spinners in May 45, making the checked noses evident on most pictures of Mustang IV Dooleybird.
It seems to me 65 sqn kept their red/white noses throughout the period.

Kyrre

[Stein Meum]

The striped noses were a Peterhead Wing-thing.As Franek states,the Polish Sqns had Red-White stripes,19 Sqn had Yellow-Black (not the pre- and postwar Blue-White!),65 Sqn had Yellow-Green.There might have been other combinations as well,as several squadrons were rotated in and out of the Wing at intervals.The stripes were in use at least from as early as the beginning of March -45 in the case of 19 Sqn according to the Danish pilot Kjeld "Ronnie" Rønhof who served on the squadron alongside the Norwegian Flight Commander Erik Westly.


Stein

[Brent Erickson]

Stein,

Yellow/Green stripes on 65 sqn Mustang III's? Very interesting! Are there any photos? The only photos I've seen of 65 sqn Mustangs at Peterhead are mk IV's with either Sky or natural metal spinners.

TIA,
Brent Erickson

Originally Posted by Stein Meum

The striped noses were a Peterhead Wing-thing.As Franek states,the Polish Sqns had Red-White stripes,19 Sqn had Yellow-Black (not the pre- and postwar Blue-White!),65 Sqn had Yellow-Green.There might have been other combinations as well,as several squadrons were rotated in and out of the Wing at intervals.The stripes were in use at least from as early as the beginning of March -45 in the case of 19 Sqn according to the Danish pilot Kjeld "Ronnie" Rønhof who served on the squadron alongside the Norwegian Flight Commander Erik Westly.


Stein

[Stein Meum]

Originally Posted by Brent Erickson

Stein,

Yellow/Green stripes on 65 sqn Mustang III's? Very interesting! Are there any photos? The only photos I've seen of 65 sqn Mustangs at Peterhead are mk IV's with either Sky or natural metal spinners.

TIA,
Brent Erickson

Sorry! 165 Sqn,not 65.

Stein

[Brent Erickson]

Originally Posted by Stein Meum

Sorry! 165 Sqn,not 65.

Stein

Okay Stein, now you've really got me interested! Could you point me in the direction of any photos? I've got a particular interest in 165 sqn- John Haslop's Me 163 kill especially.

Thanks again,

Brent