Many thanks to Lyric1 for digging up some good info on this one, particularly the right side of the airplane.
Capt. Pete Nowick
P-51D-25-NA "Anything Goes" (559)
S/N 44-72870
506th FG, 458th FS
Iwo Jima - Summer, 1945
This is the P-51D-25-NA "Anything Goes" (s/n 44-72870) coded 599 flown by Capt. Pete Nowick of the 506th FG, 458th FS out of Iwo Jima in the summer of 1945. The 458th was established in October 1944 as part of the newly activated 506th Fighter Group and began training immediately with the North American P-51 Mustang for long-range escort duty.
The 458th participated in the Group's first VLR (Very Long Range) mission to Japan on 28 May 1945, a strafing attack on Kasumigaura Airdrome on Honshu. On 10 June 1945 the 458th escorted B-29s to Tokyo. Engaged by some forty Japanese fighters, the 506th claimed ten kills without loss. Six of the victories were scored by 458th pilots, with Capt. Peter Nowick being credited with a double.
A history of the 506th sums it up nicely.
Picturesque, mustachioed Capt. Pete Nowick, the Mad Russian, bagged two Franks or Tojos. His wingman Lt. Neil Smith remarked later, "I called out the bogies to him and he went after them. And boy, did he get them".Before hostilities ended the 458th had downed 22 enemy planes in aerial combat--making it the highest scoring squadron for the 506th Group--probably destroyed three, and damaged two more.
This Mustang is alleged to have gone by the name "ANYTHING GOES" and a picture of an engine cowling with this nose art on it supposedly exists. However, there is some dispute over whether or not that nose art was actually applied to this particular aircraft—and as all of the photos of it I have show it without it, I have chosen to depict it in that fashion. The side numbers appear to have been hand-painted without stencils and thus do not match from one side to the other.
(Edit in: Just realized this is a -25 so I’ll have one more modification to it before submission. Darn it.)
Offsite Gallery:
https://postimg.cc/gallery/99LScyq
And all the haters can still suck it.
