Tricolour on captured LeO 451 - the plot thickens! Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana?

[TonyOD]

Elsewhere I asked for some help regarding the colour order of French tricouleurs painted on the tail of a plane I'm building, a French LeO 451 used by the Luftwaffe but then captured by the Americans in Sicily. Thanks for the feedback in this regard. 

 

The decals and some representations of the plane give the tricouleur a gold border. On the build WIP @Marklo happened to mention that this makes them very similar to the Italian tricolori painted in the place of swastikas on the tails of German fighters flown by the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana. It had occurred to me that the tricolour on the LeO might actually be an Italian flag, not a French one (it was captured in Sicily after all) - there isn't colour photographic evidence either way.

 

So my hypothesis is: at the time of it capture by the Americans, the LeO wasn't being used by the Luftwaffe, but by the ANR, and it had Italian flags painted on the tail over the swastikas, and these were left untouched by the Americans when they captured the aircraft. (I did wonder why the Americans went to the trouble of painting a French flag with gold border on the plane, it just seemed like unnecessary faff!)

 

Does this hold water? (And I wonder how green looks in black and white! )

 

Cheers

Tony

Edited February 16, 2021 by TonyOD

[Giorgio N]

The timeframes do not match: by the time the Allied had completed operations in Sicily the ANR had not even been conceived. This air force was established in November 1943 and did not start operating until early 1944

[JWM]

This golden border  is on that old decal set (https://www.scalemates.com/kits/abt-decals-137-leo-451-usaaf-north-africa-1943--190956)

 

Where it is said not Sicily but North Africa, and Italians are not mentioned at all...The most important is that the Repubblica Sociale Italiana (RSI) was established on North Italy on 18th September - why the airplane captured in Sicily most likely during conquest, so on July-August '43, could have markings of RSI? That sounds strange ...

 

Very strange is also reversed order of colors on this "fin flash" on port (RAF-like) and starboard  (French-like)  suggested here:

How to explain this?

 

To solve the problem not solving it you can do a radical choice - do that one instead

 

But speaking more sriously that one has also a lot of doubtful interpretations - looks that till the trailing edge it has a normal French camo, not silver like shown on profile... 

Regards

J-W

[TonyOD]

Well there ya go... in the meantime I've done some further digging: my LeO was used as a squadron hack by USAAF 57th Fighter Group, which at that time was flying P-40's... with RAF style fin flashes and red prop spinners, I guess their LeO would have been consistent with that.

 

That's the decal sheet I'm using @JWM... it's just a short hop from Sicily over to North Africa so I don't see an issue there. The inconsistency in the French Wings profile doesn't make any sense though. I think (after all that) I'm just going to go with RAF-style fin flashes.

 

NT+HW is an interesting example for sure! A Frankenleo!

 

 

[JWM]

11 minutes ago, TonyOD said:

I'm just going to go with RAF-style fin flashes.

On profile the finflash on starboard has reversed color order. Do you think it is just mistake?

[TonyOD]

Just now, JWM said:

Do you think it is just mistake?

Yes I suspect so. 

 

I think the white stripe in the middle might be narrower than the red and blue, like on their P-40s:

 

[JWM]

3 minutes ago, TonyOD said:

I think the white stripe in the middle might be narrower than the red and blue, like on their P-40s:

It looks that you are right, I will look at the book, the quality is better there/

Regards

J-W

 

[TonyOD]

I've found a fantastic website devoted to 57th FG. Hundreds of pics (haven't found one of the LeO yet, sadly)., Many examples of the fin flash on various aircraft types, always narrow white stripe. 

 

 

Edited February 16, 2021 by TonyOD

[JWM]

The book photo looks similar, but indeed it could be that white is narrowed then red and blue, on the contrary to what is shown on profiles and in decals sets.

J-W

[TonyOD]

7 hours ago, JWM said:

The book photo looks similar, but indeed it could be that white is narrowed then red and blue, on the contrary to what is shown on profiles and in decals sets.

J-W

 

It's really hard to tell from the two b/w photographs as the red is very washed out and it's more or less impossible to see where red stops and white starts, but the thickness of the blue stripe suggests a narrow white stripe.

 

 

Like I said 57th Fighter Group's P-40's had the narrow white stripe. It would be logical that the markings that they painted on their captured LeO were consistent with what they had on their other aircraft. all the evidence points to narrow white stripe.

 

 

They also captured some Me 109's in Sicily (possibly even at the same airfield as the LeO - it seems they just found a bunch of German aircraft left behind) but didn't paint fin flashes on those.

 

http://57thfightergroup.org/pictures/bob_hanning/g3.html 

 

Edited February 17, 2021 by TonyOD