P-51B/C/D skinpack by Emel, May/June 2010.


"When you fly, nothing else matters. I could have been flying for the devil and it wouldn't have mattered."

332nd pilot Louis R. Purnell. 




Red Tail Angels - 332nd Fighter Group
 
This skin pack, Red Tail Angels_332nd FG_P-51 skins now infront of you, is the first of four similar skin packs depicting some of the most famous US 8th and 15th Air Force P-51 Mustang fighter units. 

  
332nd Fighter Group - Tuskegee Airmen.

To most Americans who lived through the tumultuous era of WW II, the war was a fight between the virtuous good life against the evil moral of the fascist regimes. The mark that this war was a struggle against violence, discrimination, and racial inequity to many of the African-American community was an absurdity, as for them this struggle was a painful part of their every day life. Pre-war America was a nation divided, and segregation was a way of life, particularly in the southeast America where blacks did not attend the same schools or dined in the same restaurants with whites. In the northeast and west America this was not as evident but the general atmosphere against blacks did exist.

In the 1930s these atmospheres were also very much a part of the US Army's way of treatment of the black society. It ment that eventhough blacks had served in combat and all-black units had distinguished themselves during the American Civil War and WW I, they usually held positions of menial labour or maintenance role in the army. These attitudes could not keep black Americans from aspiring to fly and fight.

In 1938 the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CTPT) announced by President Franklin D Roosevelt, mandated that 20 000 college students would be trained to fly each year. Black schools and students were not part of this
legislation, but in May 1939 barnstormers Chauncey E Spencer and Dale L White embarked on a Chicago-to-Washington D.C. flight to promote aviation for black Americans. During this trip they met a little-known senator named Harry S Truman. After listening to Spencers and Whites concerns he pledged to help. It is said that Truman was especially impressed when he saw Spencer's and White's beaten-up biplane and stated 'If you guys had guts to fly that thing from Chicago, I got guts enough to do all I can to help you'.

Shortly after, funds were authoriced by the Congress for the extention of the CTPT to several black universities and for the training of black students at white colleges. At the end of the first year 91 per cent of the black students had successfully completed the training - the same rate attained by white students.

On 15 October 1939 Tuskegee Institute was added to the programme. Over 1300 Black aviators were trained here. 450 fighter pilots fought in the aerial war in North africa, Sicily and Europe under the command of Col Benjamin O Davis Jr. Col Davis Jr later became the first black General of the US Air Forces. 

The original 99th FS, then equipped with the P-40L, first saw combat in North Africa while based at Fardjouna on June 2 1943. Attached to the 33rd FG William Campbell and Clarence Jamison flew as wingmen to other 33rd FG fighters on an offensive fighter sweep followed several hours later by another group operation where James Wiley and Charlie Hall bombed and strafed a German-held airfield on the island of Pantelleria. The next day the four pilots that had been wingmen on the 2nd led a second bombing strike against the same target. 

The 99th FS distinguished itself in the battles of North Africa, Sicily and Anzio. Later it was joined by three more black squadrons the 100th, 301st and 302nd to be designated the 332nd FG. The unit flew a variety of aircraft from worn out Warhawks and Airacobras to P-47s until by mid July 1944 the 332nd had been equipped with the P-51 Mustang, which quickly became a favourite mount for the pilots because it was better suited to the long distance escort missions than the other aircraft. The 332nd FG was stationed at Ramitelli air base in Italy from 3 July 1944 onwards. It was from here the unit flew 200 escort missions without ever losing a bomber to enemy aircraft attacks. A feat enjoyed by no other fighter unit with equal amount of missions under their belts. In WW II 332nd FG achieved 111 aerial kills. The unit also conducted strafing missions achieving 150 strafing kills, and one German naval vessel sunk. It should be added that the ship is said to have been sunk by machine gun fire only, a perfect demonstration of the awesome firepower of the P-47 Thunderbolt. The pilot responsible for this achievement was 1st Lt Gwynne Peirson of the 302nd FS. The 332nd received a Presidential Distinguished Unit citation after escorting the B-17s from the 5th BW of the 15th Air Force to the Daimler-Benz tank assembly plant in Berlin on 24 March 1945. During this mission, the longest flown by the 15th Air Force - a 1,600 mile round trip, 1st Lt Roscoe C Brown Jnr, Flt Off Charles Brantley and 1st Lt Earl Lane each shot down a German Me 262 jet fighter aircraft. 
  
By the wars end, both feared and respected by the Luftwaffe, Col Benjamin O Davis' 332nd Fighter Group had become one of the elite units in the USAAF.

Sixty six 332nd fighter pilots lost their lives in accidents or aerial combat. Another 32 were shot down becoming POWs. The units only officially-recognised ace was Lt Lee Archer Jnr of the 302nd FS with a tally of 5 confirmed aerial victories.   

The red tail

The newly arrived Mustangs lifted the morale of the Group. As a visible sign of confidence groundcrews applied the Group marking of a solid red tail to all of their fighters. 'We wanted the American bombers to know we were escorting them. The red tail would also let the German interceptors know who was escorting the bombers.'


Red Tail Angels:

1. P-51B (serial number unknown) KITTEN of 2nd Lt Leon 'Woodie' Spears, 302nd FS, Ramitelli, Italy, March 1945.

2. P-51B/C (serial number unknown) ALICE-JO of Capt Wendel Pruitt, 302nd FS, Ramitelli, Italy, September 1944.

3. P-51B/C (serial number unknown) TOPPER III of Capt Edward Toppins, 99th FS, Ramitelli, Italy, August 1944.

4. P-51C-10 (serial number unknown) "INA THE MACON BELLE" of Lt Lee Archer Jnr, 302nd FS, Ramitelli, Italy, July 1944.

5. P-51C-10 (serial number unknown) Miss-Pelt of 1st Lt Clarence 'Lucky' Lester, 100th FS, Ramitelli, Italy, September 1944.

6. P-51C-10 (serial number unknown) Skipper's Darling III of Capt Andrew 'Jug' Turner, Ramitelli, Italy, September 1944.

7. P-51C (serial number unknown) MY BUDDY of Capt Charles Bailey, 99th FS, Ramitelli, Italy, December 1944.

8. P-51C (serial number unknown) DAISEY (Daisy?) MAE of Capt Woody Crockett, 100th FS, Ramitelli, Italy, November 1944.

9. P-51C (serial number unknown) By Request of Col Benjamin O Davis, CO of 332nd FG, Ramitelli, Italy, December 1944.

10. P-51C (serial number unknown) Joedebelle of Capt Joseph Elsberry, 301st FS, Ramitelli, Italy, July 1944.
 
11. P-51C (serial number unknown) APACHE II of 1st Lt Henry Perry, 99th FS, Ramitelli, Italy, September 1944.

12. P-51C (serial number unknown) LUCIFER of 1st Lt Luther Smith, 302nd FS, Ramitelli, Italy, October 1944.

13. P-51D-15 44-15648 LOLLIPOOP II of 1st Lt Spurgeon Ellington, 100th FS, Ramitelli, Italy, December 1944.

14. P-51D-15 44-15648 DUCHESS ARLENE of 1st Lt Robert W Williams, 301st FS, Ramitelli, Italy, March 1945.

15. P-51D (serial number unknown) BUNNIE of 1st Lt Roscoe Brown, 100th FS, Ramitelli, Italy, March 1945.

16. P-51D (serial number unknown) TALL in the SADDLE of 1st Lt George Hardy, 99th FS, Ramitelli, Italy, February 1945.

17. P-51D (serial number unknown) "Little Freddie" of 1st Lt Freddie Hutchins, 302nd FS, Ramitelli, Italy, October 1944.

18. P-51D (serial number unknown) MEATBALL RAP II of Flt Off Charles Lane, 99th FS, Ramitelli, Italy, March 1945.

19. P-51D (serial number unknown) Creamer's Dream of 1st Lt Charles White, 301st FS, Ramitelli, Italy, January 1945.


Notes on the skins & template:
-----------------------------

The mighty project with the Mustang began soon after the Christmas holidays of 2009, and despite of a small break from skinning in February, has continued unabated since late March to this day. On the road there were many mysteries concerning the technical details of the Mustang. When trying to reveal the secrets I received many times help from others who have more experience and knowledge than I could ever hope to have of a specific aircraft. I'd like to thank fellow skinners and members at Mission 4 Today, particularly Jarink, Jorjus, Rudi Jaeger, Duggy, RDDR for their valuable help in showing some of the basic differencies between the Mustang varients and for pointing out some of the "do's and do-not-do's" with the Mustang. 

I also had the advantage to learn some of the tricks of skinning the Mustang by studying the solutions from the work of others. I'd also like to thank Sean Goodwood Nash, since it was that by viewing several versions of the red tail marking made by other skinners I found the version made by Goodwood to be the most eye pleasing of them all. I opted to use similar method when designing my red tail-version. On this version the normally sharp point on the top fuselage is more round tip like. In real life it probably wasn't like that, but visually in game the round version behaves better than the straight diagonal line. 

As far as personal emblems, nose art and individual squadron markings of the US fighter units were concerned it was not possible to obtain sufficient information to cover every detail or the original colour of this artform. Many times I would find several different versions of a specific emblem, all claiming to be historical, on other times no adequate information was found at all. The latter problem became especially apparent when trying to solve if an insignia existed on both sides of the fuselage or not. At best any markings, emblems and nose art of these skins should be concidered semi-historical.

When drawing the panel lines and rivets for the P-51D I used alongside the original void-files information based on Robert Peczkowski's North American P-51D Mustang by Mushrom model publications, plus numerous photographs from both books and the internet. Some of the erratic panel lines plaguing the original P-51D void bmp's were thus cleared. When converting the P-51D to the B and C (Malcolm) I relied mostly on the original Void although some considerable corrections to the panel lines - especially on the canopy details on both the Malcolm and the original bird cage version - were made here too. And last, I redesigned a set of new internal/mechanical textures for the P-51 mustang, which I'm glad to introduce with these skins. I hope you enjoy these skins.

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Important!

Two Mustang variants - B and D are present in this pack so please pay attention when installing the skins to ensure that all skins are placed to the correct folders.

This pack includes 37 skins. 19 fully marked, 9 generic, and 9 blank skins. Slip the BMP files into their proper folders in your Il-2 Sturmovik/Paintschemes/Skins folder. The skins should work the next time you start the game. Happy flying!

A poster of the 332nd Fighter Group Insignia is also incuded.

The template was redrawn from the original P-51B/C and D void files. Also Introducing a new mechanical layer, this time with my own little touch.

All colours, markings, and nose art are interpretations from what can be seen in the colour profiles of Osprey Aviation Elite Units, 332nd Fighter Group - Tuskegee Airmen by Chris Bucholz.  

All written information is based on Osprey Aviation Elite Units, 332nd Fighter Group-Tuskegee Airmen by chris Bucholtz and Motorbooks classic, WII fighters by Jeffrey L Ethel and Robert T Sand. Some information was also obtained from the internet.

These skins are not to be uploaded further without my permission. You are permitted to use and publish the skins in this pack with IL-2 Sturmovik missions & campaigns, also you may rework these skins for your private use. No commercial use in any form is permitted with my Il-2 Sturmovik skins. Please do not remove credits. Thank you for downloading these skins and happy flying.

Emel

Contact me:  emel@elisanet.fi