Maj. T. Gates - P-38J "Miss Ann", RAF Group 100 (Night Intruder Detachment)

[Vraciu]

Thanks to Greebo, Devil, Oboe, Lyric, Guppy, Lazerr, and all the others who weighed in on this one.   https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,404079.0.html


P-38J s/n Unknown
"Miss Ann"
Maj. T. Gates (C.O.)
RAF Group 100
Little Snoring
March-April 1944

"Miss Ann" was a P-38J assigned to the Royal Air Force's clandestine No. 100 Group at Little Snoring in March-April 1944.   It was used to test the suitability for the P-38 as a night intruder.   

The 'Intruder Detachment' was formed in March 1944 under the command of Major T. Gates and consisted of two P-38s and two P-51s.   It flew its first mission on the night of 24/25 March when Gates flew a P-51 to Berlin and back.  Nine more flights were made before the end of the month, plus 21 during April.  Ultimately, single-seat fighters proved less than optimal as night intruders in the ETO and were not adopted for the role.   As a result the detachment was disbanded.


(Click to Enlarge.)

[lyric1]

 

[Greebo]

Really nice skin of an unusual scheme Vraciu, great job. 

[Devil 505]

Very nice

[oboe]

Looks great!   Nice composition in the ground-level screenshots too.   Shows off your skin and the grass, trees, and shadows of AH3 really well, and look realistic. 

Now I want the new ETOMA terrain even more so I can fly to Berlin at dusk in this baby.

[Vraciu]

Ha ha ha, Oboe. 

Thanks everyone.  Greebo as always deserves a tip of the hat for his work on the Default.   I can't imagine any 38 in this game that will lack his significant influence. 

I just realized this plane has wheel covers.  Can I mimic those with this shape or are the wheel spokes embedded?

[Lazerr]

Sweet

[Greebo]

The wheel spokes are embedded n the P-38J and L, only the G has wheel covers. From the available photos it seems the covers were rarely removed from the early variants and on the J and L were left on more often than not in the ETO and MTO theatres and removed more often than not in the PTO.

[Vraciu]

So to try and make the covers work would be worse than leaving them as they are I guess.

[Vraciu]

Sweet

Oh, and thanks, Lazerr.   Somehow I forgot to include that in my reply above.   

[oboe]

So to try and make the covers work would be worse than leaving them as they are I guess.

True. I tried that with My Little Pig.  It doesn’t look right.

[Greebo]

It might be possible to make the G's covers look like spokes but the other way round really isn't going to work on the J and L.

I have accepted both this and Oboe's new P-38J skins for the pending batch and also sent Hitech a reminder asking him to process it.

[Vraciu]

Sounds good.  Thanks guys.  I'll leave it as is.   

[Vraciu]

While doing more research trying to track down the block and serial numbers I came across this Missing Air Crewman Report.   It appears the Intruder Detachment suffered a loss.   


1st Lt. James H Corbet
O-746049
Dayton, OH

Assigned to 79FS, 20FG, 8AF USAAF. Detached service with RAF unit on long range escort trials out of RAF Little Snoring. Failed to Return (FTR) night intruder mission to Ijmuiden 12-Apr-44 Killed in Action (KIA) MACR 3750.

Awards: AM (3OLC), PH.

P-38J-10-LO s/n 42-67862.

 

[whiteman]

That’s a very cool scheme