Gabby Gabreski

[glenmorangie]

Originally posted by Guppy35
No doubt on the images being taken at different times.  Invasion stripes were taken off or painted over on the upper surfaces after a month, which puts the one image taken between July 6 and July 20 when Gabby went down, with the other photos with full invasion stripes from June 6-July 6 time frame.
Dan/Slack

Mostly, I'd agree the stripes came off quickly and were much more crudely applied than people usually make them.  However, the pictures I have of Old Crow and Glamorous Glennis that were taken 'around' Christmas 1944 and show the underside stripes still there. The underwing stripes are not visible, leaving some question on them.

My understanding is the 56th FG did not paint the overstripe camouflage until they moved to France, but I am unsure what the exact time-frame was on that.

[Guppy35]

Originally posted by glenmorangie
Mostly, I'd agree the stripes came off quickly and were much more crudely applied than people usually make them.  However, the pictures I have of Old Crow and Glamorous Glennis that were taken 'around' Christmas 1944 and show the underside stripes still there. The underwing stripes are not visible, leaving some question on them.

My understanding is the 56th FG did not paint the overstripe camouflage until they moved to France, but I am unsure what the exact time-frame was on that.

Bottom half fuselage stripes were the last to go and were still common into the winter of 44-45.  The underwing stripes were ordered off in September 44

The word came down from Allied command to delete the upper wing surface markings in early July 44 so it wasn't just a group decision  Since the one image shows Gabby's D-25 without the upper stripes it was clearly done before he went down in that bird on July 20th

Dan/Slack

[Nomde]

ok,
Based on this research, i'll paint the underside stripes black and white, but keep the top the same.

Thanks for the input gentlemen, excellent work