P-39 Airacobras in VVS

[PG monster]

Hi pg_monster,
thanks a lot for correction. I am also not here every day/week, therefore my a late response.

1. White 24 - I sent you my e-mail addres via Messages at this forum. Photo showing "white 24" with 14 starlets without shield would be very helpfull.
    Other questions:
2. White 21 - do you have a photo showing Shikunov's Cobra without Gvardia emblem?
3. White 111 - yes, typo - 21 besides of 211,
4. White 67 - why do you think that "V" was orange or zellow, but not red?

Regards,
   66misos

Hi, TU a lot for your cool profiles! And again sorry for late answer.
2. No photos. But Nevsky order is personal Shikunov's award, not regimental one.
4. It looks so, isn't it of other shade?

[66misos]

Hi,
here https://www.nps.gov/articles/ladd-field-and-the-lend-lease-mission-defending-alaska-in-wwii-teaching-with-historic-places.htm is an interesting article about L-L planes delivered via ASLIB.

Info regarding red stars and the photo is from that page:
"...Soviet Leader Josef Stalin did not want United States military forces flying into Soviet airfields, he insisted that Soviet pilots should accept the planes in Alaska...Since the Soviets officially took ownership of the aircraft at Ladd Field, the planes were inspected and painted with a red star to denote that the aircraft were now the property of the Soviet Union. The Soviets would land at Nome for refueling and repairs before crossing the Bering Strait..."



Regards,
   66misos

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Misos,
nice to see that you are continuing your researches on this topic. I hope to see updates to your page on P-33 some days.
Regards
Massimo

[PG monster]

I've got a message (looks very reasonable), and need an opinion of this respected community:

"I would like to add some speculative infos to Your page 28 гиап http://ava.org.ru/iap/28g.htm
I checked the board numbers of P-39s used by 28. Gv.IAP during 1945 and I think the used numbers were the last 2 or 3 numbers from original U.S. Serial numbers.
1/ there are planes with unusal numbers as good as 118, 163, 190, 192, 529, 990 there.
2/ there were both numbers 43 and 043 as well as 63 and 063 there in the same period (in fact in the same combat!). That means there were two P-39s there with last 2 numbers 43 and 63 and they used 043 and 063 to differentiate these planes in service and reports.
From that point of view I think I can write for sure that for example P-39Q-30 "white 81" had Serial No. 44-71481 (shortened on tail to 471481 instead of 471461 pictured on drawing on Your page
Best regards
O. R."

[Massimo Tessitori]

This seems reasonable. What is his source for 471481? His exam of the photo? If confirmed, it seems good to correct the profile.
He knows a list of nose numbers. Are them from photos or from written sources?

[righidan]

Dear friends,
   I do not know from where the comment on the P-39 numbers of the 28th GIAP comes from, but I can say that you can find information on the squadron operations in the Pamyat Naroda site, looking at the Journal of combat operations of the headquarters of the 28th Guards IAP for 1945:

   As you can see, in the third column there are what I believe are the airplane numbers, if the heading means number of aircraft.
   We have rather peculiar numbers indeed, including 01, 09, 073, up to 74 and even 990.
   We have photos of a few examples of P-39 with numbers that correspond to the end of the serial, like a number 5:

And also the number 67 of the 68th GIAP that has been the subject of a 66misos profile:

   At the same time, in most of the less than twenty images I know, where you can see both the serial and the individual number, the two do not correspond:

   So it is quite possible that the 28th GIAP got its strange numbers from the serial, but it would be more reassuring if we could look at other photos that show this correspondence.
Regards
Daniele

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Daniele,
thank you for sharing your considerations about the thing. It seems that the soggestions of O.R., whoever he is, started from the same documents. I hope that something new will emerge.
By the way, plane 5 is a P-63, relatively colorful if compared to the boring images of the most part of P-63s in Soviet service.
Regards
Massimo

[PG monster]

http://ava.org.ru/iap/26g.htm

[Massimo Tessitori]

Good work again.
There is a nice photo where a MiG-3 has a single rocket rail, unusual for this type that had typical triple rocket launchers.

[PG monster]

new number
http://ava.org.ru/iap/352.htm

[Massimo Tessitori]

Good gallery of P-39s.

[Graham Boak]

In Hannants Future Releases, paint mask for camouflage pattern of P-39Q of 213 GIAP.  initially I was sceptical but searching here I did find one example but only the fuselage was visible.  Is the rest shown somewhere or just a guess?  (If it is already in the previous 20 pages, I apologise!)

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi,
have a look here, perhaps you will find an answer.
http://ava.org.ru/iap/213g.htm
Regards
Massimo

[PG monster]

http://ava.org.ru/rap/98g.htm
Note cool Cobra No.220 (a part of the serial?) with the eagle! Hope some1 will made a profile ))

[Massimo Tessitori]

Interesting plane, with number 4 painted on the fuselage. Yes, a profile would be nice.
On the same page there is a photo of a plane that seems to have a camouflage made with black bands, unfortunately  numbers are not visible.