What was the purpose of the D-Day stripes they painted on the planes? Was it just a way for the Allies to identify one another?
In a word… yes [:p]
Fade to Black…
Identification was the main aim - both for air to air identification as well as ground to air.
Because the allies already had air superiority over France, it was deemed more important to avoid friendly fire than to reduce visibility. Just before d-day, the planes received the well-know black-and white striping for this purpose. Some planes only had them on the bottom half of the aircraft because it was mainly to avoid friendly AAA fire. Incidentally, the same approach was used during the Suez crisis a couple of years later, only this time the striping was yellow and black.
An appropriate question on this historically crucial day.[^]
Even though it was for identification, several planes were still shot down by friendly fire. Seems like some of those AA gunners got a little jittery when they heard planes over the ships.
By the way, the new FSM has a great article on painting these stripes on your models.
(shameless plug, do I get a free subscription [:D] )
This is my pet peeve, and at the risk of making several people angry, I’ll pontificate again.
Everyone seems to model the invasion stripes perfectly, but were they? They were applied at the field level, often very late/early in the morning. How? Were there templates? Masking? Was the aircraft washed for better adhesion? In the book “Gabby”, the head mechanic of Gabraski’s aircraft describes the “paint”, supplied by the Brits, as a thick paste. Did it peel off in flight? IF so why no pictures of the bad paint job? Were the stripes re-applied every night?
In the HBO series “Band of Brothers” a C47 in the back ground shows a crudely applied invasion stripe scheme, which I believe may be the norm rather than the exception for field applied stripes.
Can anybody shed light on this for me and allow me to rest??
Don
Heya Don…
Yes- in most cases the order came within 24 hours, so some were hastily applied using mops… it was rare to see perfectly applied stripes- at least at first. Those planes not directly active that day probably had neater stripes applied…but I have seen pics of some planes with uneven stripes…
Don,
In regards to the “neat and tidy” versus “slapped on” invasion stripes, some airfields, fighter groups, transport groups had widely varied manpower available, and some in charge were extremely proud of the machines under their command, some less so (in regards to visual appearance).
Subsequently, some erks worked long and hard to get the stripes “perfect” and others just did the job as best they could. Some bases had the tools needed to do the job right (spray facilities, correct thinners, masking facilities) and others had only brooms or mops to get the job done.
Squadrons’s B26 in Action has photos of planes with both crisp stripes and hand painted, uneven stripes.
I tryed to do that. About year ago, anyway… Because I heared about that too. So I did it. It just didnt look right… Even though I’ve seen those pictures…It looked like…A little 3 years old for hand painting.[B)]
On Mail Call Sunday, (History Channel show for those of you who haven’t heard of it) they showed footage of the stripes being painted on. It looked like they put down thin layout lines in white chalk or paint. These lines looked very straight. I assume they used a template of some sort. The main stripes were then applied by well worn brushes, mops, etc.
They did show a couple finished stripes and they were mixed. Some of the stripes were crooked, colors overlapped on the edges, some looked perfect. Prolly depended on the paint operator.
- Jamey
I love that show. R. Lee Ermy is so freakin’ cool!
During the military action that was Operation Husky (the invasion of Sicily), several dozen (yes DOZEN) planes were lost due to friendly fire accidents. Basically, our boys on the ground in Sicily confused our C-47s and gliders with enemy aircraft after they’d strayed off course in some not-so-good weather. If I remember correctly, the number of aircraft lost was in the low to mid forties.
Having learned from their mistakes, the allies painted all vital aircraft with these invasion stripes. Methods of painting ranged from well-masked and sprayed, to chalk-lined and brush-painted, to eyeball and mop-painted.
For scale purposes:
These stripes (three white and two black) were 18 inches (457 mm) wide and were painted chordwise on the upper and lower surfaces of both wings and around the fuselage. The outer edge of the wing bands was 6 inches (152 mm) inboard of the insignia and the rear edge of the fuselage bands was 18 inches (457 mm) forward of the tailplane.
Nice little history lesson CaptainBrazilia now drop down and give me 20.
Thad
The fact that shortly after D-Day the practice of painting the stripes on the upper surfaces was discontinued, but they continued to paint them on lower surfaces clearly shows their purpose was, as already noted, to aid ground forces in identifying friendly aircraft. There were a great many friendly fire incidents during WW2, and to this day they still continue. Identifying friend or foe in the heat of battle will always be a problem. The sole Commonwealth Boomerang lost in air-air combat for example was shot down by a P38!!!
Also note that most heavy bombers didnt get the D-Day stripes. The axis really didnt have 4 engined bombers that were going to be in the area.
The only allied heavy 4 engined bombers Ive ever seen that had D-Day stripes applied were Short Stirlings used as glider tugs.
There was a mistake in Italy when the americans landed, they had mistaken their own bombers for enemy. So the military had decided to paint those stripes on every single flying allied thing out there. So this is the reason why they painted those stripes. You guys should whatch more mail call it tells a lot. The special D-Day version on Sunday had told about the stripes. If you don’t know when or where mail call is on, well it is on the History Channel in U.S. and probably Canada.
Sooo,
My aircraft that was totally picked apart and my ego destroyed by the IPMS judges due to “crooked” invasion stripes WAS historically accurate after all!
Ha! Vindicated at last!
Don
On sundays mail call it showed 2 maintenance guys on the wing a c-47 with very large hand brushes painying in the last black stripe. I thought it was a pretty cool vid because I have never seen them applied in the real condition
Hey speaking of this I just got done appling these to my weatherd P-51B, boy do they look good on a model.