My recent skinning project has been chosen as the P-47D, "Damon's Demon", flown by George Rarey of the 362nd FG, 379th FS.
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There's lots of doubts and questions about this particular aircraft, as almost nothing is known about the plane(at least, when you leaves some thousands of kilometers outside US, the sources I could gather is very limited).
None of George Rarey's journals seem to mention any specific type - which types he began out with, which types he was flying when he was KIA, and which serial number it had.
The noseart "Damon's Demon", was apparently applied to this aircraft after March, when his son, the late Damon Rarey was born. George Rarey was killed 3 months later, June 26th, 20 days after D-Day.
The only other reference I could get, was a P-47N of the same FG, FS, flown by Keith Kitts, which I take that sometime during '44 or early '45, the 379th changed to P-47Ns. Besides that, I have only the noseart, and the fact that his jug during that timeline, was very probably still a razorback type - about the only thing I have that makes this paint scheme feasible to the plane, as late Cs and early Ds were very simular throughout the variants.
In desperation I've tried even going through web sources of USAAF serial numbers between 42 and 44, which of course, led to a lonnnnng, boooring, unsuccessful search.
So, what I am curious is, specifically;
1) Which P-47s were the 362nd FG, 379th FS flying between March and June of 1944?
2) Is there any known/presumed serial number for this plane; "Damon's Demon"?
3) When did the 379th switch to P-47Ns?
4) If George Rarey was indeed flying an early D model on the day of June 26th, 20 days after D-Day, would this aircraft have invasion stripes painted on it?
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It's coming along nicely, except the fact that I'm not sure if this paint scheme can be applied at all, to our AH D-11... and having doubts whether I should/could submit a skin I'm not sure of, even if its finished.
