Markings for PBY-5A Catalina 1/48

COL A

OA-10A, 44-33879, 2nd Emergency Rescue Squadron, Dipolog base, the Philippines, 1945

In mid-August 1943, the USAAF drew up a plan to establish seven air rescue squadrons equipped with OA-10A Catalina aircraft (designated PBY-5A by the Navy), whose primary mission was to rescue U.S. Army Air Forces pilots forced to abandon their aircraft over the sea or ocean. All seven of these squadrons were to be assigned to serve in the Pacific. Two squadrons were ready for operations by the summer of 1944; one of them was the 2nd ERS, whose first area of operations was New Guinea and the surrounding waters, followed by deployment to the Philippines. This Catalina was camouflaged in US Navy colors, with the upper and side surfaces painted Blue Gray and the lower surfaces painted white. The unit decorated the right side of the fuselage below the pilot’s cockpit with a drawing of a pilot lying in a lifeboat, and a “scoreboard” of rescued crews was painted on the right side.

COL B

PBY-5A, VP-42, Kodiak Island, Alaska, the United States, Winter 1942

The United States officials were aware of the relatively short distance between the Aleutians and the Japanese islands and therefore began building up its air forces in the region even before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Among the units involved in the defense of the Aleutian Islands was VP-42, which moved to Alaska in August 1941 from its base in Seattle. Its mission was reconnaissance and, when necessary, rescue operations. One of the Catalinas used in the harsh environment by VP-42 was this PBY-5A. It was camouflaged on the upper and side surfaces with Blue Gray paint, while the lower surfaces were camouflaged with Light Gray. The red discs in the national insignia and the red and white stripes were removed from U.S. aircraft in mid-May 1942.

COL C

OA-10A, 44-34056, 2nd Emergency Rescue Squadron, the Philippines, 1945

Toward the end of World War II, Catalinas flown by both the U.S. Navy and the USAAF were painted white across the entire fuselage, wings, and tail surfaces. This was also the case for this aircraft, which served with the 2nd Emergency Rescue Squadron, which participated in the rescue of crews and individual pilots in the vicinity of the Philippine islands. Ground crew decorated this Catalina with the enticing inscription “I’ll be seein’ you” along with a drawing of a half-naked girl leaning against a palm tree trunk on the starboard side. On the port side was a “scoreboard” showing the flights completed.

COL D

PBY-5A, BuNo. 48445, Lt(jg). Howard Miner, VP-54, Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, 1944

VP-54 was established on November 15, 1942, at NAS Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii and was equipped with PBY-5A aircraft. Basic training was followed by two weeks of night flight training, after which the unit was deployed to the combat zone, where it conducted anti-ship and anti-submarine patrols, flights in support of ground forces, and rescue missions. It continued these operations from airfields in the Solomon Islands even after the unit was reactivated at NAS San Diego in California in early 1944. A photograph from this period shows an aircraft designated D65 with a drawing of a young woman on the right side of the nose. Catalinas used for night flights were entirely camouflaged in black paint, which suffered greatly in the tropical and humid environment and quickly faded.

COL E

PBY-5A, BuNo. 46517, Capt. L. E. Rearden, VPB-71, Manus Island, November 1944

Night operations codenamed “Black Cat,” targeting Japanese ships and coastal installations, were carried out by U.S. Navy units equipped with flying boats or Catalina amphibious aircraft. Although this was originally a tactic intended to provide some protection for the highly vulnerable and slow seaplanes, the operations proved so successful that several units were assigned this role. Thanks to their surfaces painted matte black, these slow and bulky aircraft became feared nocturnal predators. One of the units flying the black-painted Catalinas was VPB-71, redesignated in October 1944 from VP-71, which conducted flights from Manus Island in November 1944.