Strana 34
P-51D-20, 44-63451, Lt. Robert J. Louwers/Lt. John E. Montgomery III,
46th FS, 21th FG, 7th AF, Iwojima, July 1945
P-51D-20, 44-63733, Maj. Paul W. Imig, CO of 72nd FS, 21st FG,
7th AF, Iwojima, March 1945
As this aircraft was shared by two pilots,
it was also double-named. It was Mary Alice on
starboard and My Miss Moe on portside. Mary
Alice was Robert Louwers wife’s name, the girl
was painted from an Esquire magazine picture.
Such painting was quite rare among the 46th
FS aircraft, most of them were marked just
with black-outlined blue vertical tail strip, black
outlined wing and horizontal tail tips and blue
spinner with black outlined nose of aircraft,
which was the same style as the other 21st FG
squadrons where the other squadron colors
were white for 531st FS and yellow for 72nd FS.
One interesting detail is that Louwers served
also as photography officer for 46th FS yet he
flew nine VLR missions to Japan and one over
Chichijima.
Major Imig, a veteran of VII FC, named his
Mustang for his girlfriend and later wife. Dede
Lou completed altogether 26 missions flown by
various pilots from Airfield No.2. Paul Imig left
the squadron in mid-May and returned back to
the USA. He spent some three years overseas,
having been a P-39 Airacobra pilot of the 333rd
Squadron on Canton Island in late 1942. The 72nd
FS as well as the whole 21st FG operated less
colorful Mustangs than the aircraft of some
other units. The black bordered yellow strips
on vertical tail, black bordered yellow wing and
horizontal tailplane tips, yellow spinner, black
outlined nose, a name of the plane on the nose
side under the exhaust, that´s it.
KITS 07/2025
INFO Eduard34
July 2025