Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aircraft and Vehicles => Topic started by: Octavius on February 23, 2004, 01:46:46 PM
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I spent 3 hours last night searching for decent squadron information. I mainly need the information with photographs for skinning purposes.
Are there any websites or databases out there with a list of all (or many) USAAF/USN/Commonwealth squadrons? Basic information such as which planes were flown, when the squadron was created, nose art/squadron patches, stuff like that.
My latest P40 skin was inspired from an IL2 skin claiming to be of the 398th FS / 396th FG... When I google it, I find the 398th BG and nothing on a FS or 396th FG. Did they exist? The noseart looks like a blue circle buzzard/vulture or maybe a bald eagle?
any help is appreciated
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396th was actually a Heavy Bombardment Group in WW2 for a very brief time. It was activated January 29, 1943 and Inactivated May 1, 1944.
It was equipped with B17s and was at first an Operational Training Unit and then a Replacement Training Unit.
Track down a copy of "Air Force Combat Units of World War II", edited by Maurer Maurer.
It gives brief histories of all the units of the USAAF in WW2. I found it at Half Priced Books a long time ago and I've used it a ton for these kinds of questions.
398th Squadron was also a bomber squadron, part of the 504th Bomb Group flying B29s.
Looks like someone was using a bit of artistic license to come up with that combination of Squadron and Group for Fighters :)
Dan/Slack
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Apparently they did exsist I found a pic of the squadron patch on a website but so far that's all I've been able to get at.
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lol, thanks Guppy. I'll check out that book. We have three Half Price Book shops in my area (great shop!) so I'll check them out.
Soulyss, have a link to that site or the picture?
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OK Octavious,
Here are a few sights that may be of use to you.
USAAF IN WW 2 DATABASE
On this site you can find any group or squadron in the USAAF during WW2, their history, aircraft flown, markings. It is the king of info sites on the USAAF in WW2. Just click on "UNITS DB" and put in the number to find it. Also has lots of other items on Airfields and how to track particular veterans. Also has a forum for each squadron or group where you can ask guestions of the veterans.
http://www.armyairforces.com/default.asp (http://www.armyairforces.com/default.asp)
BRIAN"S SQUADRON PATCHES
http://members.aol.com/brimiljeep/WebPages/SquadronPatchAAFPage.html (http://members.aol.com/brimiljeep/WebPages/SquadronPatchAAFPage.html)
This a killer site and has a major collection of WW2 squadron and group patches from the USAAF, USN & USMC.
9th AIR FORCE IN ENGLAND
http://www.publicenquiry.co.uk/index.html (http://www.publicenquiry.co.uk/index.html)
This site has a hitsoy of all the units belonging to the USAAF's 9th AF. It has profiles of planes, markings, histories, airfields, etc.
12 O'Clock HIGH
http://xs4all.nl~rhorta/luftwaff.htm (http://www.xs4all.nl/~rhorta/luftwaff.htm)
Though the site is mostly on the Luftwaffe - it has a section on the Fighter Units of the 8th AF and has profiles, markings and code letters for each group and squadron.
Hope this helps you out Octavious. :aok
!
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Jester has the link to the page I saw, "BRIAN'S SQUADRON PATCHES".
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Originally posted by Soulyss
Apparently they did exsist I found a pic of the squadron patch on a website but so far that's all I've been able to get at.
I saw that squadron patch too, but I'm not convinced that is enough to say they existed. Might be a typo, or a post WW2 patch if a squadron that changed designations. But I'm not seeing it anywhere as a WW2 Squadron
I'd like to see the skin in question as it might look familiar.
Dan/Slack
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http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=109597
Thats it ^
Jester, awesome links. Thanks!
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That patch is the squadron patch that shows up on that site. It's not linked to any Group however.
Nice work on the natural metal P40. Not many of those and I think outside of squadron hacks, the ones that saw combat were P40Ns that had been stripped of camo before being reissued to the 7th FS, 49th FG in the Pacific, just prior to their conversion to the P38 in Mid 1944
Dan/Slack
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OK I was wrong, I found it. 398th Fighter Squadron was part of the 369th Fighter Group. Guess the typo was 396 instead of 369
Activated May 26, 1943 and Inactivated August 10, 1945
They were based stateside and trained replacement crews in A36s, P39s, P40s and in 1945 P51s.
Could be that it's one of those training P40s stripped to bare metal. Not a combat aircraft however unless it was chasing Japanese Balloons over the west coast :)
Dan/Slack
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http://www.usaaf.com/index.htm
http://www.stable.demon.co.uk/general/uscode.htm
http://www.armyairforces.com/
http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/helpdesk.asp
http://www.littlefriends.co.uk/galleries-home.html
http://www.327th.org/327th-org/Greg/327th%20patch.htm
http://www.rafweb.org/Menu.htm
http://www.web-birds.com/8th/457/457.html
http://www.monogramaviation.com/cgi-shl/webc.exe/st_prod.html?p_prodid=6&sid=28C9AP0@s7kN6xC
The Mighty Eighth by Freeman has color diagrams of bombers as well as paint, codes for a/c.
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Argh, thanks. Well, it's a neat looking trainer for that matter. Even if it didn't see action in the war, it'll see action in AH2 I hope :D
Thanks again for your research
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I also found the same thing as Guppy. And from what IL2 says thats a P-40M. Though they have there reference incorrect. 369th (http://www.armyairforces.com/dbgroups.asp?Group=190) . Here's that squadron patch enlarged too. 398th FS (http://www.nmia.com/~valorc/american/patchs/fighter/398fs.html). Hope this helps. I have yet to find a photo of that bird either.
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For all I know it may have been the original artist's creation. That patch is definitely the buzzard/vulture thing from the original... only the background is a pool table green. I'll try and squeeze it into the skin.
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Originally posted by Cobra412
I also found the same thing as Guppy. And from what IL2 says thats a P-40M. Though they have there reference incorrect. 369th (http://www.armyairforces.com/dbgroups.asp?Group=190) . Here's that squadron patch enlarged too. 398th FS (http://www.nmia.com/~valorc/american/patchs/fighter/398fs.html). Hope this helps. I have yet to find a photo of that bird either.
You found it on the web, I found it in the book. I noted that the reference for that website is the Maurer Maurer edited book I mentioned :)
that book is a handy little sucker
Dan/Slack
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Well I contacted the person who originally made that P-40 skin. He says that it is infact a real aircraft. He found it in a book and it had not only a profile but an actual real life picture of the aircraft. He says for the most part the paint scheme should be nearly historical. Though due to the profile being color and the picture itself being black and white there could be minor mistakes. But that exact tail number did exist.
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Nice work Cobra!
The discoloring of the noseart makes sense now due to the black and white photo. Did he mention the name or author of the book?
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Actually no I can contact him again and see what book it was. I'll have to reread his message but I believe he said he couldnt' remember which one. But he did say he doesn't make any skins unless he can find an actual photo of it somewhere. He stressed that not all profiles are historically correct. Some sites are different depending on where you go for the exact same aircraft. I'll try and contact him again though.