P-39 Airacobra „White 56“, 212 giap, 22 giad


by Michal Sekula

March 14, 2016
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P-39Q from the 212 giap, 22 giad:



Victory starlets show 9 individual and 1 shared victory. So this plane could belong to Alexandr Ivanovich Medvedev who achieved 10 individual victories and finished WWII as a Squadron Commander in the rank of Major (allaces.ru).



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:
red noses in the 129 giap (Guard Air Fighter regiment),
blue noses in the 212 giap,
white noses in the 213 giap.The 212 giap had to use the light blue color as the regimental fast recognition element. But according to some accounts (visual evidence) 212 giap used yellow spinners and the divisional stripe on the tail was sometimes painted also in regimental color, on many photos it is clearly not white. The were not seen such deviations in 129 and 213 giap.
This P-39 Airacobra is interesting with both Guard emblem and Alexander Nevskij Order emblem painted on the left door.
Some details about the period after Victory day are mentioned in Anatoliy Kozhevnikov‘s book "Startuet muzhestvo": „May 09, 1945 to June 26, 1945, Dabern airfield... Our regiment put in order all warplanes. Every plane was checked. Soldiers-artists lovingly painted regimental orders/medals on the fuselages...“
It is not known whether emblems and victory starlets were painted also on the right side of the plane. 
Here is the enlarged picture of the Guard emblem and Alexander Nevskij Order emblem:









References and sources of the photos:
vif2ne.ru/nvi/forum/0/0.htm (VIF)
www.sovietwarplanes.com/board
http://allaces.ru/p/people.php?id=2370