Thanks!
I had a time deciding on the height of the D-Day invasion stripes also. Many profiles show them with a gap of bare metal between the Star & Bar insignia, but some show them extending up to the insignia. I found no photos of his plane that show the top of the stripes, but a few B&W photos of other 361st FG '51s that do. I'm guessing of course, but I think its possible both could be correct - at some point they extended, and at another point they were trimmed, leaving the gap of bare metal between insignia and the top of the stripes.
Wow as far as red v. blue, this stuck out to me from your link:
This plane has popularly been depicted as having red on those areas over the years. I’ve seen restored planes, illustrations and models all using that scheme... but I have to ask myself “why?” since there are no colour photos of Detroit Miss (or even showing the tail itself) - why are folks using red?
Ive purchased a set of decals from “lifelike decals” for Drew’s plane, and they have indicated the squadron colours as actually being a medium blue! This seems correct since 375th FS’s colours are indeed blue. I even contacted the imperial war museum to confirm the FS colours and they replied stating blue.
Just when I thought I’d wrapped the mystery up, I was browsing through a book “Mustang aces of the 8th Air Force” and it states that Drew’s plane used 374th squadron colours (red?)!! Why would a senior figure in the 375th fs be flying using colours from another squadron? What is their source for this information anyhow?
Very interesting. I also don't doubt at some point the rudder was painted - I think near the end of the War, they really went in for extensive color coding and had the time and the paint.
Like you say, perhaps Lyric can find something definitive.
