Markings P-39Q Airacobra 1/48
P-39Q-5, 42-20351, Lt. William A. Shomo, 82nd TRS, 71st TRG, 5th AF, Dobodura, New Guinea, March 1944
William Arthur Shomo was born on May 30, 1918, in Jeanette, Pennsylvania and joined USAAC (US Army Air Corps) in August 1941. Having completed the training, he was assigned to 82nd TRS belonging to 71st TRG. In the fall of 1943, the unit equipped with Airacobras was deployed to Port Moresby airbase in New Guinea. Crew chief of all Shomo’s aircraft at his unit was S/Sgt. Ralph Winkel who named all airplanes assigned to him Snooks according to his future wife. William Shomo became famous thanks to the mission flown on January 11, 1945, when at the controls of his reconnaissance Mustang he single-handedly shot down seven enemy aircraft, a feat for which he was awarded Medal of Honor. Shomo’s total score was eight enemy aircraft shot down within 24 hours. In addition to a number of ground targets Shomo also claimed ten airplanes destroyed on the ground. At least three of them while flying Airacobras. On January 31, 1944, together with Lt. Weber they destroyed Ki-61 Tony fighter and a Betty bomber. On March 13, 1944, during the raid on Madang airbase he destroyed an A6M fighter. Airacobra 42-20531 was lost during the ground attack mission in the Hansa Bay area and pilot, Lt. Harrison perished.
P-39Q-1, 42-19467, 46th FS, 15th FG, 7th AF, Kanton atoll, Phoenix archipelago, August 1943
The 46th FS (originally 46th PS) was formed on Hawaiian Islands on December 1, 1940, as a part of 15th Pursuit Group equipped with Curtiss P-36 Hawk fighters at that time. It opened its combat score right on the first day of the War in Pacific, December 7th, 1941, defending the Pearl Harbor naval base against the Japanese attack. In 1942 the squadron was re-equipped with Airacobras and in the spring of 1943 deployed to Kanton atoll in the Phoenix archipelago. Due to the conditions on the island, almost completely lacking the vegetation, new Airacobras were repainted in the combination of the sand color on the upper and side surfaces while the lower surfaces of the fighters were sprayed in light blue colors. Camouflage change was an idea of Lt. Benjamin C. Warren, a pilot and unit’s technical officer, who also supervised its application. In December 1943, 46th FS left Kanton and after the overflight to atoll Makin carried on with the operations until mid-December 1944. At that time Airacobras of the unit carried the Olive Drab coat on the upper surfaces again.
P-39Q-5, 42-19896, Lt. William W. Gambill, 363rd FS, 357th FG, 8th AF, Oroville CA, USA, autumn 1943
The 363rd FS was established in December 1942 at Hamilton Field, California. The aircraft on which the unit’s pilots trained were factory-fresh P-39Q Airacobras. In the fall of 1943, the 357th Fighter Group, of which the 363rd Fighter Squadron was a part, moved to the United Kingdom, where it was the first Fighter Group to be armed with P-51 Mustangs, versions B and C. These were used by the 8th AF to fly escort flights for the Bomber Command over occupied Europe. In a raid on Berlin on March 8, 1944, Gambill’s Mustang was shot down by Messerschmitts Bf 109 near Mehringen. Lt. Gambill was killed during the British night raid on Frankfurt on the night of March 22 to 23, 1944, when the Dulag Luft (Durchgangslager der Luftwaffe; Luftwaffe transit camp) was also hit. The standard Airacobra camouflage in the Olive Drab / Neutral Grey color combination was supplemented with red tail surfaces and a red stripe on the nose during training for the 363rd FS. The unit emblem was painted on the cockpit door.
P-39Q-5, 42-20043, 70th FS, 347th FG, 13th AF, Torokina airfield, Bougainville, Solomon Islands, autumn 1943
The 70th FS was formed on December 14, 1940, and was ordered to Philippines on December 5, 1941. Due to the fall of Philippines the unit deployment did not take place and the unit got shortly stuck in Hawaii. Another stopover before the combat deployment was Fiji where the unit transferred in the end of January 1942 equipped with Bells P-39 Airacobra. Since November 1942 until the spring of 1944 when the combat activities ceased, the 70th FS operated in Solomon Islands area within 347th FG and was credited with over 50 enemy aircraft destroyed in the air-to-air combat. The unit’s equipment changed from the most popular P-38 Lightnings in the first half of 1943 to P-39s and P-40s for the rest of the deployment period. Since the end of 1943, the 70th FS operated from Torokina airfield and kept Bell P-39 in its inventory until April 1944. The missions flown were bomber escorts, defense of the home base and most frequently the ground attacks. Airacobra “SNAFU” was delivered to the combat zone in the end of summer 1943. The original marking was in the form of the large numeral 6 on both fuselage sides in front of the cockpit door. Later the marking was relocated to the aircraft nose and changed to numeral 106.