North_American_P-51_Mustang.JPG


Summary

Description

"The Bottisham Four", four U.S. Army Air Force North American P-51 Mustang fighters from the 375th Fighter Squadron, 361st Fighter Group, from RAF Bottisham, Cambridgeshire (UK), in flight on 26 July 1944.
The nearest aircraft is P-51D-5-NA s/n 44-13410 ("Lou IV" on the left side, the 4th aircraft named after his daughter, "Athelene" on the right side, probably the crew chief's lady friend or wife), flown by the 361st CO, Col. Thomas J.J. Christian Jr., who was killed in this plane while dive-bombing the Arras marshalling yards on 12 August 1944.
The 2nd aircraft is P-51D-5-NA s/n 44-13926, already equipped with the fin-fillet, was flown by Lt. Urban L. "Ben" Drew. This aircraft crashed during a training flight near Stalham, Norfolk, on 9 August 1944, the pilot, 2Lt. Donald D. Dellinger, was killed.
The 3rd aircraft is P-51D-5-NA s/n 44-13568 ("Sky Bouncer" later "Alice Marie") flown by Capt. Bruce W. "Red" Rowlett, 375th FS operations officer. This aircraft suffered an engine failure on take-off and crashed on 3 April 1945.

The furthest P-51 is P-51B-15-NA s/n 42-106811 flown by Capt. Francis T. Glankler (named "Suzy-G", after his wife), 375th FS "D" Flight commander. This plane was was written off after a crash landing at Bottisham following a combat mission on 11 September 1944.
Date
Source USAF
Author USAAF, photographed for a series of U.S. 8th Air Force publicity pictures for widespread distribution (photos were taken from B-17G bombers of the 91st Bomb Group) [1] .
Other versions see also File:Bott4.jpg

Licensing

Public domain
This image or file is a work of a U.S. Air Force Airman or employee, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government , the image or file is in the public domain in the United States.

العربية беларуская (тарашкевіца) català čeština Deutsch English español eesti فارسی suomi français italiano 日本語 한국어 македонски മലയാളം မြန်မာဘာသာ norsk bokmål Plattdüütsch Nederlands polski português português do Brasil русский sicilianu slovenčina slovenščina српски / srpski svenska Türkçe українська Tiếng Việt 中文(简体) 中文(繁體) +/−

Captions

Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents

Items portrayed in this file

depicts

26 July 1944