Strana 44
82nd TRS, 71st TRG, Borokoe Airfield, Biak, summer 1944
1/Lt. Arthur A Bridge, 45th FS, 15th FG, Makin Atoll, Gilbert Islands, December 1943
This aircraft, with attractive pin-up painting
on both sides of its nose, originally belonged
to the 49th FG, where it flew with the number
10. In June 1944, it probably served as the
personal aircraft of the commander of the 49th
FG, Lt. Col. Furlo Wagner. At that time, it bore
the number 00. Wagner served in command
positions within the 35th FG from 1942 to
1944, and on November 22, 1942, he scored his
only kill (Zero) in a P-39. He served with the
49th FG only briefly, from June 3 to July 19, 1944.
He then returned to the 35th FG. The scheme
shown here depicts the aircraft shortly after the
49th FG was re-equipped with P-38s, in the fall
of 1944, and left its original P-40s at Biak. It was
taken over by the 82nd Tactical Reconnaissance
Squadron, 71st Tactical Reconnaissance Group,
and subsequently underwent some changes
in its color scheme, particularly the propeller
spinner, which was painted yellow instead of
blue and white. It is not entirely certain whether
the top of the vertical tail surfaces remained
blue with a black line. It is possible that this
marking, referring to the previous user, was also
painted over. With the 71st TRG, the aircraft first
served with its original code 00, later receiving
the number 15, and the yellow spinner was
repainted, most likely in olive green. At Biak, the
Warhawks already had their upper tail surfaces
painted white.
The traditional home of the 15th FG was the
Hawaiian Islands, where it was activated on
December 1, 1940, and served as part of the
Hawaiian Islands defense system. During the
war, however, it sent its individual squadrons
to various locations in the central and southern
Pacific. The Warhawks of the 45th FS took off
for combat missions from Makin Atoll, which
the unit reached via a detour. The squadron was
first sent to Baker Island, where it operated until
October 1943, then moved to Abemama Island.
At the repeated request of the commander,
first a detachment and then the entire unit
was transferred to Makin Atoll, where the 46th
and 72nd FS Airacobras had been operating for
several weeks already. Because the standard
paint scheme was not effective on the coral
atolls, technical personnel on Canton Atoll
mixed a sand color that was suitable for the
local conditions. In black-and-white photos, the
paint sometimes appears as if the undersides
were also painted sand color, but upon closer
inspection, the color border is visible on the
aircraft, and the undersides were most likely
repainted with a light blue color mixed by
ground personnel from insignia blue and white.
The stencils on the upper surfaces were masked
during repainting and therefore have an Olive
Drab background. The Warhawk named Miss
Cappy was assigned to Art Bridge, but it was
used by several pilots for combat flights, and the
number of bombs painted under the fuselage
represents all the missions in which Miss Cappy
participated. Lt. Art Bridge flew 20 combat
missions during his deployment to Makin Atoll,
the most of any pilot. In the spring of 1945,
he participated in several VLR missions from
Iwo Jima in the cockpit of a Mustang.
KITS 08/2025
INFO Eduard44
August 2025