ive been researching online and have come up empty so i put it to the forum. what were the differences in the usn and marine a/c 1941? i can find and have been shown pics of marine and usn a/c 1942 and the differences seem non existant. i am looking at color scheme, number location, plane identification, number color, etc. the '42 pics show either white or yellow numbers. any help will be helpful. oh specifically for a f4f from mag - 21, ewa field, dec 7, 1941.
joe
Hi Joe,
After reading your post I dug out my F4F Wildcat in Action. There is no reference to the Marines at Hawaii but it did talk about the Marines at Wake Island. They had F4F-3s and were the first Wildcats to see action.(8 Dec 1941).
From what I can gather there is a marked difference in the paint job and insignias between 1941 and 1942. In 41 the squadron designation was white and the fuselage insignia was a small star with an outside blue circular field with a red circle inside the white star. The Navy version was overall light gray. There were no rudder stripes as they were added on 5 Jan 1942. It looks as if you will find the only difference between the two (Navy and Marine) will be the squadron designation. Example of Navy version 3-F-9 where 3 indicates Squadron VF-3, F indicates Fighter and the final 3 is individual aircraft within the squadron
Hope this helps some[:D][:D][:D]
Richard
There is no difference between USN and USMC Wildcats. Colors and markings are the same, blue grey over lt grey. As you may know, half of VMF-211, part of MAG-21, had deployed to Wake Island, here is a print showing their markings, which were identical except for the individual aircraft number. HTH
thankyou for the help.
joe