Strana 51
OA-10A, 44-33879, 2
nd
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 2
nd
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.
KITS 07/2026
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.
INFO Eduard
51
July 2026