Special thanks to Lyric1, Waltz41, and Mister Fork (among others) for the countless hours digging for info on my behalf. Also to Devil505 for his analysis on the colors and metal panels. This one was a true group effort. I have far too many people to thank so I'll just point you to this thread lest I forget anyone:
https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,400442.0.htmlLt. Charles Gustav Pfost
P-51D-20-NA "The Deacon" (300)
S/N 44-63985
21st FG, 531st FS
Iwo Jima, July 1945
This is Lt. Charles Pfost's P-51D-20-NA "The Deacon" (s/n 44-63985) of the 531st FS, 21st FG, based on Iwo Jima in the Summer of 1945. Among the most widely seen Mustangs due to a well-known color film segment of it taxiing (used in numerous films, newsreels, documentaries, and television shows--including "The Hawk Flies on Sunday" from "Black Sheep Squadron"), there is not much known about the airplane or its pilot. It was lost on 27 July 1945 in a mid-air collision with Lt. Robert A Worton's 44-63403 of the 47th FS, 15th FG. That airplane crashed 10 miles from Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima while 44-63985 crashed eight miles northwest of the Island. Both pilots were killed.
The 21st FG was one of the Very-Long Range (VLR) Mustang groups used in the Pacific Theater for B-29 escort over the Japanese home islands in the final months of the war. Their first elements deployed to Iwo Jima in February 1945 with the final segment arriving on 25 March. The next morning they were attacked in their encampment by Japanese commandos. With the help of U.S. Marines they counter-attacked and killed 250 of the enemy at the cost of fourteen airmen of the group killed and fifty wounded. The first VLR B-29 escort mission took place on 7 April 1945 and these would continue until 14 August.
The elements, weather, enemy opposition, mechanical irregularities, logistics, and vast expanses of open ocean were just some of the challenges faced by these fighter pilots. Though they did not have the opportunity to chalk up the victory totals of their European counterparts these brave young men established decisive air superiority over the Japanese home islands in the last months of the war.
This is the fourth in my series of VLR Mustangs. The other three can be found here:
* Pete Nowick's #599 of the 506th FG, 458th FS
https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,400576.0.html* Harold Marx's "Tiny Gay Baba" #234 of the 21st FG, 46th FS
https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,400632.0.html* Capt. Stanley C. Zagorsky's / Lt. Charles Frank Seale's "Shawnee Princess" / "Empire Commuter" #640 of the 506th FG, 462nd FS
https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,400847.0.html
