QUERIES - NZ3072 Wairarapa Wildcat - late Nov '43

[dewobz]

I guess in a way there are as many Wairarapa Wildcats as there are photos of her but I sometimes wonder if there was actually more than one aircraft ...?

This photo is taken off pg 196 in Chris Rudge's Air-to-Air.


32nd NZ3072 Ref & Opel Blitz 009 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr

My next commission build is a 1/32 scale NZ3072 Wairarapa Wildcat depicted like this in late Nov '43. My client Rob's father flew it at this time and in roughly this condition.

Firstly, I am wondering if anyone can provide me with a larger size version of the photograph that I can print off? If so, you can post it up on here so I can copy and paste it or email it to me as an attachment to [e-mail] and I would be very appreciative. I have a better chance of getting details right if I can study a larger print.

Secondly, does anyone have definitive (or perhaps even speculative) information about the aircraft around this time?
I have studied this small picture as best I can with my trusty magnifying glass and to me it reveals some interesting details, anomalies and conundrums.


32nd NZ3072 Ref & Opel Blitz 008 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr

I conclude the cowling has been repainted rather than replaced because I perceive the '19' is faded or partially obscured - as in "over painted" - and the Black Cat and Jap flags are still very faintly visible underneath ...?
But this doesn't explain the position of the number, which is a whole lot further back along the cowling than it was previously ...?
(I guess maybe that doesn't matter so much; it is where it is).
There appears to be 4 Japanese flags or kill markings painted below the canopy windshield. If these are for 'confirmed destroyed' then I am baffled. My reading of Air-to-Air leads me to believe the aircraft achieved its 3rd kill on 26 August and then 2 kills on 1 November. On this basis there should not have been a time when she wore 4 kills. I wonder if anyone knows? Perhaps a 'probably destroyed' was given a flag? Or was one of the 1 Nov kills not confirmed until much later? (This might be another rhetorical question; if a larger photo confirms 4 flags I will put 4 flags on the model).
Finally, does anyone know definitively what code letter she wore on the fuselage behind the roundel? The best I have seen written speculates it is either a 'U' or an 'O'.
Considering these code letters may have been worn from August to November 1943 there seems to be very little information about them or photographs of aircraft wearing them. What exactly were they? Were they simply individual aircraft code letters or did they serve some other purpose? Radio call or 'flight' code letters?
Yours Sincerely in anticipation
Wally.

[Dave Homewood]

I am certain this entire topic has been covered before on the forum in one or more of the many threads on NZ3072.

And yes there was a second aircraft alleged to have worn the Wairarapa Wildcat nose art. It was apparently on NZ3075.

I am sure that the Japanese flags will have been those of whichever pilot the aircraft was issued to as a personal aircraft, not of the airframe's own kills. Look at the P-40 flown by Mick Herrick which had swaztika kill markings. You might say "Oh but the aircraft belonged on a Servicing Unit and not to the squadron" which is true but they still got individual aircraft personally issued to the pilot during the tour (or in the case of a fighter squadron, often two pilots would share 'ownership' for one aircraft usually unless they were the Flight Commander or CO. The senior of the two pilots probably chose any markings added). The reason they got issued an individual aircraft despite usually flying whatever aircraft the SU had available? Because it was that pilot's responsibility to ensure that aircraft got things done like compass swings and test flights, etc.

I believe that the photo you've posted shows NZ3072 after it was repaired from its second accident. It lost the cat marking at the time (Fisken had rotated home I believe), but it was later reapplied when it came home to NZ and went to the OTU from what I've been told.

The two-digit numbers on the aircraft were Servicing Unit numbers. If you look through the photos you'll find that all the P-40's that served with No. 2 SU wore numbers from 1 through to whatever. And all the P-40's that were owned by No. 4 SU had letter, from A to W on the cowl. It will have been more for easy identification on the dispersal area for the groundies than anything in the air. It's certainly not a radio code, they used the squadron code then section colour and number to contact a pilot in the air, i.e. Onyx Red 3.

[Dave Homewood]

To add to the NZ3075 thing, I am uncertain if it wore the actual words Wairarapa Wildcat, or Wairarapa Wildcat II as some have supposed, or whther it just wore the same cat stencil that had been applied to NZ3072 while under repairs by the US repair unit. I've never seen a photo so I'd love to know more. Otherwise someone will have to go deep sea diving to find out for sure.

[dewobz]

Thanks Dave, I had a look through the P-40 pile but couldn't find anything. I'll do a search in the modelling pages.
I'll also have a search through Air-to-Air for a pilot with 4 kills.
Do you (or anyone else) have any comment about the single large fuselage Code Letter, probably NZ Sky coloured, which is behind the fuselage roundel and (by Nov '43) appears to also be partially obscured by the white roundel-bar?
Cheers
Wally.

[Dave Homewood]

I don't know what that letter was there for, and what it was. I have wondered about that in the past.

[dewobz]

Thanks for your replies Dave.
It seems to me the most likely candidate for the 4 kill markings is F/O L.A. Rayner who scored his 4th kill in NZ3072 on 17 November 1943 when he destroyed a D3A Val over Cape Torokina. It was the a/c's 6th and last 'destroyed'. Rayner is known to have applied kill markings to other aircraft, notably NZ3155[50] in which he scored 2 kills on 1 November.
May I ask how one accesses RNZAF Official photographs?
My Google search has not rendered anywhere I can contact.
Do I contact the Air Force Museum of New Zealand?
Many Thanks
Wally.

[Dave Homewood]

Contact Matthew O'Sullivan (Keeper of Photographs) at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand.

[davidd]

I have no knowledge of NZ3072 ever being painted up again with the pussy cat (or name) subsequent to its losing these markings after the departure of Fisken and 14 Squadron to NZ in July 1943. I think the rest of its career was spent as a completely anonymous aircraft; its best known "public showing" was at Wigram in September 1944 when it was photographed hooning around, completely nameless and apparently no cat either. By comparison, NZ3220 was on public dispay in Cathedral Square at the same time, and this had been repainted with somewhat revised nose art as "Gloria Lyons".
David D

[Dave Homewood]

OK. I had some vague memory of it beign mentioned at the OTU at Ohakea with the markings in Bryan Cox's 'Too Young To Die' but I am away from home so cannot check my copy. I know there was a photo of NZ3072 with the cat markings on it, but not sure if this is a red herring.