I just had a question for those of you into WWII aircraft history? Has anyone heard of P-51 Mustangs being painted in Axis colors for spying/ reconnaissance flights? I had an old friend who was former Navy during that time. He was always telling me stories of them doing this. I have always wondered if this was ever documented as true. It might be interesting to see what that would look like. Of course I’m not looking to offend anyone or disgrace/dishonor anything from that time. Just want to know if anyone else had heard similar stories.
I doubt it for 2 reasons.
Without proper markings, the pilot would be considered a spy and liable to be shot as such. It’s also asking for friendly fire. Reconnaissance flights relied on surprise, speed, and/or altitude to avoid interception.
But primary resources saying otherwise give me food for thought.
There could be captured Allied planes painted in Axis colors,I’m pretty sure there was the opposite.
In fact check this out
The Luftwaffe had a special group 'Zirkus Rosarius’ that was tasked with evaluating captured Allied aircraft and providing training opportunities for German pilots to fly in and against these aircraft.
Not in enemy markings, friendly fire would be far to much of a risk. No IFF back then. Friendly fire was a serious problem, for D-day the allies used the invasion stripes on aircraft to counter friendly fire and they were painted on to aircraft that were already marked in friendly colors.
invasion stripes: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_stripes
A risky enough move would be to paint the aircraft in a color scheme similar to the enemy’s with the correct markings.
Here is a nice potrayal of how it works, notice that even the tower doesn’t use its radio:
I have never heard of Allied aircraft being painted in German colours. A couple of guys mentione dthe German unit which flew captured aircaft. At a guess, i would say this has confused things a bit. The Germans did used captured aircraft, such as B-17’s, to shadow bomber formations and report back so fighters could intercept.
Bish,check my link,there seem to be quite a few.
Ye, there was quite a lot. I have that decal set in that link in 72nd and that includes Stangs, Jugs and Mossies. But just about all the major Allied aircraft can be seen in German markings. The Germans seem to have made use of captured equipment to a greater degree than the allies did.
YIKES!!! That is realy freaky seeing a bunch of Mustangs painted with German markings. Sends chills up my spine.
Actually, electronic IFF was developed and used in WW2. Some pilots turned it off, because they were afraid enemy radars could track it as beacon. Still, most crews used them and my understanding is they worked pretty well for radar controlled intercepts and such. But small ground AA units may not have had any access to IFF, and many were trigger happy even if they would have.
Oh Wow! That is an amazing find Tojo. Man, these stories always fascinated me since I was a little boy and I wondered if there was any truth to them. I think I’ll paint a P-51 to honor my old friend and neighbor that told me all those great stories.
Yes, it’s certainly mindblowing stuff.
Most of the German held Alies planes were painted yellow on the underside to avoid friendly fire. I have an old Squadron book “strangers in a Strange Land” which documents the captured craft.
I think anything we captured we just painted in OD and stuck starts all over it.
Most of the stuff we captured was at the end of the war anyway. Most of the airwar in Europe after the BoB was over Europe anyway, so less chance to capture stuff.