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s/n 44-13321, Maj. George Preddy Jr., 487th FS, 352nd FG, 8th AF,

Bodney, United Kingdom, July 1944

In the picture from the end of July there are already 23 kills painted on Preddy’s aircraft nose in the form of small crosses. The

plane is already missing the complete invasion stripes, they only

remained on the wing lower surfaces and the fuselage. While

removing these the European theater markings consisting of the

15 inch wide stripes on the wing upper surfaces and horizontal

tail surfaces as well as 12 inch stripe on the vertical tail surface

were also deleted. The pilot’s name tag was added to the canopy

trim. In August 1944 Maj. Preddy was sent back to United States

for recuperation and after his return in October he took command

of 328th FS incorporated to 352nd FG. On December 25th, in vee

hours chasing Fw 190 over the front line Preddy’s fighter including

his pilot were hit by the American anti-aircraft fire. He attempted

the emergency landing nearby the anti-aircraft battery but fatally

wounded crashed in its vicinity.

Historically first release of the version without the dorsal fin fillet

INFO Eduard - October 2019

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