Red-nose P-39 Airacobras from 129 giap, 22 giad
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The 22 giad (Guard Air Fighter Division) at the spring/summer 1945 used the white diagonal stripe on the tail as a fast recongnition element. Its fighter reqiments used following colors:
Evgenij Pakhomovich Marinskij from 129 giap, 22 giad flown P-39 with the board
number „4“ at the end of the WWII.
He finished the war with total 18 individual victories. He was awarded Hero
of the Soviet Union after the war, on June 27, 1945.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to identify exact version of this Cobra due
to retouched serial number on the tail:
His plane is usually drawn with blue-painted gun cover on the nose and blue
disc under the star. However, there is no reason to expect blue discs on Cobras
produced after July/August 1943, when new USAF marking was introduced. Here
at Marinskij's Cobra is nicely visible late-war USAF marking (disc plus side
bars) repainted most probably OD still by Americans. On the following photos
repainted original blue disc and side bars are visible:
Some planes from the 129 giap had the plate on the sides of the front fuselage
painted white. So its darker area is very probably originally white plate repainted
with some VVS green paint (e.g. AMT-4).
The folowing photo shows victory starlets painted also on the right side of
the plane:
So here is drawn profile of E.P. Marinskij's Airacobra:
Next Cobra with the board number „7“ from the same 129 giap was
flown by Nikolai Ivanovich Glotov at the end of the war.
N.I. Glotov finished the war with 17 individual and 1 group victories. He was
awarded Hero of the Soviet Union also after the war, on July 27, 1945.
This is after-the-war photo. However it is not sure that is shows the same Airacobra
as on the previous photo:
Next photo show another P-39 Airacobra from 129 giap. Pilot of the plane no.
„31“ is not known.
Here is drawn profile of the Airacobras no. „7“ and „31“:
References and sources of the photos:
vif2ne.ru/nvi/forum/0/0.htm (VIF)
www.scalemodels.ru
www.sovietwarplanes.com/board
www.airaces.narod.ru