[Linked Image]

The above was a very famous picture of P51s on a Bomber escort mission in 1944 AFTER the D Day invasion...it is one of the most famous of the war, due to the colorfulness of the squadron's A/C paint job...

What you never hear about tho, is the P51 in the forefront, with the Yellow Nose, was flow by the unit commander.... this aircraft took a direct hit from flak, 10 minutes after this picture was taken...the pilot of course was killed when the A/C blew up when hit by Flak...

The second P51 with the code of E2-S, was very famous as it has been used as an example for Modelers, Photographers, Pictures for Book about the P 51, due to its very colorful paint job and this particular picture...

What is not known publicly...this Aircraft was shot down in combat, just less than 2 weeks after this photo was taken...

the combat life of this particular P51 SN 413-926, was less than 6 weeks from being received by the Squadron brand new.. to the time it went down on an escort mission over Europe...

sources: History of the 357th FG...

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