Great picture of pre-delivery A-20G's, Konstantin! If only the Soviets took such nice colour photographs. But then, I guess they had other things to worry about than creating pictures for the benefit of modellers 60, 70 years down the line.
not to mention strict security and rarity of colour film in the USSR!
I've read that the Soviets painted out the white circles the red stars were on because they didn't like having a giant "bullseye" painted on their 'planes.
Yes, they did.
Legend has it they thought the Americans screwed up their request for white outline red stars.
I don't believe this, why? The white circle/red star combo was the 2nd type of marking on US Lend-lease, the first being standard US insignia, painted over by the US or the VVS (I don't know who by)
So
why the red stars on white circles?
These are US factory applied, and seen on B-25's, A-20, P-39, P-47 and maybe others, note all from different manufacturers's (North American, Douglas, Bell, Republic)
A thought occurred to me, these planes were all delivered on the Alaska-Siberia (ALSIB) route, perhaps these are
deliberate High-visibility markings, remember the US British and Australians all removed all trace of RED from their pacific area markings, maybe this was to avoid friendly fire incidents during transit, they would fly long distances inside the USA as well as have flown over Canada to get to Alsaka.
(and later how the British Pacific fleet 'Americanized' their markings, our American friends have a tendency to shoot first and ask questions later, then and now!)
Possibly to make it clear in Soviet air space as well? The Air supply route being a new development then. (see below)
I postulated this idea earlier in this thread, Konstantin thinks it's a good idea.
that makes sense! The story how Soviets requested red stars outlined in white, and Americans (Joe Buchanov, aka Joe the Painter) misinterpreted that with red stars on white disks must be a myth/urban legend!
Bear in mind we also have 50 years of cold war propaganda in between this as well, so of course the Russians are happy for the Americans to look silly by painting on the 'wrong' insignia.
To sum up
U.S. supplied lend-lease has 3 marking phases,
First - U.S insignia painted over. Like this. a B-25 C
second - Red Star/White Circle high vis - like this a B-25D-30, in Alaska in transit.
third - Red Star with white outline, like the B-25J's and P-63s, which are later supplies. By this time ALSIB was established, and planes were supplied as specified.
Like this B-25J
Note the successive models, and the markings applied. This is a theory, but makes more sense than a painter mistake. One plant, yes, four? doubt it.
I can also see VVS units receiving planes marked like thinking it was stupid, but without the reason being explained....
I'm to try to contact Dana Bell about this, he'd be the man who would know.
Initially the main Lend-lease route was by ship to Murmansk and Arkhangelsk in northern Russia. In 1942 two other supply routes were opened: a southern route via Iran (where the aircraft are assembled and flown into the southern part of the Soviet Union), and above all the ALSIB (Alaska-Siberia) route which was opened on 29 September 1942. The aircraft were flown by American crews to Fairbanks, Alaska, where they were handed over to a Soviet commission headed by Col. M.G.Machin, and ferried to Krasnoyarsk in Siberia by specially selected Soviet pilots of 1 PAD (ferry aviation divi?sion) commanded by Arctic veteran-pilot Col. I.P.Mazuruk (HSU 27.6.1937).
1 PAD consisted of five ferry regiments (PAP), each of which was responsible for a certain part of the route:
- 1 PAP - Fairbanks-Uelkal (1.500 km),
- 2 PAP - Uelkal-Seimchan (1.450 km),
- 3 PAP - Seichan-Yakutsk (1.167 kin),
- 4 PAP - Yakutsk-Kirensk (1.331 km),
- 5 PAP - Kirensk-Krasnoyarsk (965 km).
In Krasnoyarsk "ordinary" pilots took over, flying the newly arrived aircraft westwards via Omsk, Sverdlovsk and Kazan to Moscow for further distribution to frontline units. Yakutsk?-based 8 TAP was responsible for returning the ALSIB-ferry crews to Fairbanks.
The ALSIB route turned out to be very successful and fast. Regardless of the primitive sub-zero conditions and extremely long distances over the deserted areas losses in transit were surprisingly small: of 8.058 aircraft delivered at US factories 74 were lost in USA, 58 lost in Canada and Alaska, and on the Siberian leg 42 aircraft crashed fatally.
from
http://lend-lease.airforce.ru/english/arti..._deliveries.htmall pics and quotes under "fair use"
Also, you're saying that the Gneis-equipped A-20's were real nightfighters? Same as the Gneis-equipped Pe-2's? ("Gneis" was a radar fitted to a few Soviet aircraft - this is for other people's benefit as I'm sure Konstantin knows about this.)
pics of a 4 cannon radar equipped Boston are in Red Stars 4.
cheers
Troy