506th Fighter Group 462nd Fighter Squadron Skinpack

This skinpack contains 12 skins representing planes from the 506th Fighter Group, which served on Iwo Jima in the waning months of the war. They 506th joined two other P-51 groups on Iwo (the 15th and 21st groups) in providing very long-range escort to B-29s flying from the Marianas. Initially, they also made a number of ground attack missions on Chichi Jima and other islands in the Bonins. The Iwo Mustang groups also flew many fighter sweeps over Japan. None of these missions were easy. With approximately 1500-mile round trips to Japan, nearly all over open ocean, they were each a severe test of endurance. Often, pilots returning from missions had to be helped from the cockpit. Because of the extreme pilot fatigue, most planes were assigned to more than one pilot.

The 462nd Squadron was assigned aircraft numbers from 600-649. At first, the planes had stripes painted on the tails (except for control surfaces), but this time-consuming procedure was quickly dropped in favor of a solid-colored tail. Also, all aircraft had black stripes painted on the upper leading edges of the wings as an aid to dive-bombing. Depending on speed and altitude, the pilot would start his attack when the target was lined up with the appropriate mark.

Name			Serial	Plane	Pilots
Talahassee Lassie	472547	600	T. DeJarnette / Brown
Meatball		472550	602	Ballhorn / C Posta
Dolly			472861	607	Grant / Miller
My Bonnie		472581	615	Diaz	
Shanghai Lil		472588	616	Linfante / Bash
Sniffles		472608	618		
Hon. Mistake		472587	619	Bercaw / Ebersole
Ida's Imp		472632	625	Freeman / Cornett
Corky - Belle of Auburn	472667	638	Kubis / Linfante
The Shawnee Princess /
 Empire Commuter	472620	640	Charles Seale	
Providence Permittin'	472855	643	Deitz / Colley
Sandra Leigh		463959	644	Reese	


Also included are two blanks: an early striped tail and the more common solid tail.

These skins were made using Jesters-Ink's Template with a partial FBS's internals layer and my own Bare Metal layer and weathering layers.
Feel free to use or modify these skins, just leave the credits intact, please!
Jarink

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For more information on the 506th FG, please visit their website!
www.506thfightergroup.org