P-51 markings question

I know that on D-day or just before, Mustangs got the famous zebra stripes. But:

- when were the top half of the fuselage stripes removed?

- when were the stripes on the upper surface of the wing removed?

- were they automatically replaced by the single black band?

- When did that single black band replace the stripes on the lower side too?

- When were black bands painted on the horizontal stabilizer?

- When were the wing bands totally removed while leaving the lower fuselage bands?

or to put it in a different way, what markings would a P-51 have carried in December 1944?

Thanks!

The stripes from the uppersurfaces of wings and fuselages should be remoded 4th July 44 by general instruction.

The underwing stripes were removed between 25th August and 10th September 44.

In early December 44 remaining Invasion marking was ordered to be deleted by the last day of the year.

According to USAAF colours No.4

But, there were always some exceptions...

The stripes from the uppersurfaces of wings and fuselages should be remoded 4th July 44 by general instruction.

 

The underwing stripes were removed between 25th August and 10th September 44.

 

In early December 44 remaining Invasion marking was ordered to be deleted by the last day of the year.

 

According to USAAF colours No.4

 

But, there were always some exceptions...

Thanks! But what about those single black bands on the wings?

You sure you don't mean the non-skid?

I mean these:

Those were ID markings - I believe officially called 'Recognition Bands' applied to Thunderbolts and Mustangs in the ETO (and MTO too) in order to help distinguish them from the Fw190/Bf109 respectively.

In the ETO they are white on Olive Drab/Gray aircraft and black on natural metal, yellow on either in the MTO.

The recognition bands seem to generally disappear around the time that the invasion stripes come off - though this appears to vary with group and even from plane to plane within a group or squadron.

For example, by November of 1944 you'd be hard pressed to find a 352nd FG Pony with em.

However, the 357th who seemed to keep their OD camo for longer than most 8th AF Fighter groups, show many images with underside D-Day stripes and a recognition band on top of wings and horizontal tail of both their OD and NM finished airframes. However, as they move into a more prolific NM finish then we more and more see airframes devoid of any stripes whatsoever!

It should be noted that there used to be a Recognition Band running along the fin and rudder in the early days of P-51 ops but these were deemed to break up the distinctive lines of the tail and thus make it harder to distinguish between it and a 109 so were the first to disappear.

Just remembered I have the Mighty Eighth War Manual at home; think that covers camouflage and marking orders. Will check when I get home.

The single black bands were introduced before D-Day, shortly after the Mustang was introduced in the ETO. Before the a/c was clear for operations and units were still doing conversion TRG (334ths springs to mind) there were several unfortunate misidentification incidents where P-47 pilots confuse them for Bf-109s much like the introduction of the P-47 and the solution was similar. To avoid confusion with the Fw-190 they painted ID bands around the cowling, tail and wing roots in white paint. I can't think of an example I've seen of a white band on the nose of a Mustang, most FGs had various bright colours id'ing them before the Mustang was introduced. When the Mustang went to the natural metal finish the white bands on the wing roots and tail didn't show up as well so they switched to black. I don't have the dates handy but the tail band disappeared on the Mustang when the FG s adopted the coloured rudders/tails and the wing root bands disappeared about the time the invasion stripes appear. I can't think of an example of one that I've seen painted on after D-Day but you might find some lingering after.

Brilliant, thanks for your replies!