Monday 29 May 2023

Lt Urban Leonard 'Ben' Drew, 375th FS, 361st FG "Yellow Jackets" RAF Bottisham - P-51 D 'Detroit Miss'

 
One of the latest 'dogfight double' sets from Airfx brings us their newer tool P-51 D and Me 262 kits. Since I completed my Italeri P-51 in Drew's markings years ago  (above) I've tried to find out more about Drew's P-51 D. Urban 'Ben' Drew's 361st FG P-51 is generally portrayed with red trim. Popular illustrations show the wingtip, fin tip and canopy rail in red. However the 375th squadron colour was blue. The aircraft name was on a red background, but as for the rest..The recent Airfix 'Dogfight Double' box is just the latest to show Drew's machine with red trim.

And then this image popped up on FB recently. Eveidently a film still but I'm not entirely sure what it depicts - aside from 361st FG CO Landers machine 'E2 -I' in the foreground. But the machine behind it seems to have both red and blue trim.  Blue canopy rail but top of the fin, gear doors and wingtips in red.. note too the black bar on the fin.



This image (below) tends to suggest that the trim on Drew's machine was red; the same colour as the trim on the canopy rail. Note no tonal difference from the red of the German flag. At some point the a/c rudder was painted in the squadron colour. The aircraft name was on a red background....
 

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