P-39 Airacobra „Yellow 47“, 212 giap, 22 giad

 

by Michal Sekula

March 14, 2016
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P-39Q-25 from the 212 giap at the beginning of the Battle of Berlin, Freiwaldau airfield, Germany:



White diagonal stripe and blue propeller spinner was the fast recognition marking for 212 giap. However, many photos show that white color of the diagonal stripe was changed to yellow color at the end of war.

2

According to A.L. Kozhevnikov's book "Zapiski istrebitela" slogans appeared on April 16, 1945 at the beginning of Berlin operation. Alex at VIF was more specific about slogans - there was the same slogan on all Cobras - "???????? ?? ??????? ??????", e.g. "Otomstim za Nikolaya Zhivova", e.g. Revenge for Nikolay Zhivov.



According to the same book badges were painted on the P-39 doors after the war.
The profile represents the plane as it looked at the beginning of the Battle of Berlin (April 16th – May 8th, 1945) when 212 giap was based at Freiwaldau airfield (Silesia, 109 km NE of Dresden).
6-digits serial number of this 4-prop. blades Airacobra starts with 470, e.g. it should be P-39Q-25 from a 200 plane batch 44-70905 to 44-71104 (i.e. 470905 to 471104). The fourth digit in the serial number has to be 9. The profile represents one of 95 planes with serials from 470905 to 470999. The digit at the the fifth position is guessed according to the picture – it looks like 5. So the complete serial number could be 470953.



Blue color on the spinners of the 212 giap Cobras could have been the light blue like on the spinners of the Cobras from 30 giap http://lend-lease.airforce.ru/english/photogallery/30giap/page_06.htm (note yellow number 93 vs. light blue spinner):



Let me thank to Alex and Owl-99 from VIF and to Massimo and especially to KL from sovietwarplanes.com for their comments and help.




References and sources of the photos:
vif2ne.ru/nvi/forum/0/0.htm (VIF)
www.sovietwarplanes.com/board