Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 15, 2019 18:17:49 GMT 12
Last week Bryan Cox called in for a natter and while he was here I asked him if he had any knowledge of the P-40's at Ardmore with the white noses that I recently discovered. He didn't. However he told me another story that has actually solved another mystery.
When he was in Japan with No. 14 (Occupational) Squadron, he would often fly as No. 2 to the squadron commander, Jesse de Willimoff. Apparently de Willimoff used to keep the pilots on their toes, flying all sorts of exercises and despite the war being over he was still keen to try out and develop fighter techniques.
One in particular he was keen to crack was how to attack a certain formation called the Lufbery Circle. In this the defending formation of aeroplanes star to form circles. He said in their exercise there would be two pairs, one pair flying a clockwise circle and the other pair just above flying anti-clockwise. Apparently this defensive formation becomes almost impossible for attacking fighters to attack, except, Bryan said form a vertical attack from down below, or a vertical dive from up above. de Willimoff wanted to perfect his vertical diving attack and he with Bryan as wingman would try to attack the other four fighters.
But Bryan was having a heck of a time keeping up with his C.O. because he found as soon as de Willimoff went into the dive, and Bryan went over the top to follow, he was losing sight of the leader's aircraft. It was dark blue and so was the sea they were flying over. Several times they tried it and he repeatedly lost sight of the boss and they were split up.
In the end he explained to de Willimoff that he was losing sight of his plane and asked if he could have his Corsair marked in a way that it stood out better. So the C.O. had the cowl ring stripped of its paint back to bare metal. And after that Bryan said it stood out perfectly against the sea and he no longer had any problem keeping up with his vertically diving leader.
So, over the years I have seen a few photos of a single solitary Corsair in Japan with that cowl ring a different, brighter colour. People have suggested it was white, others suggested yellow. Well from the horse's mouth, as it were, it was bare metal. And now we know exactly why it was like that. It was done specifically for Bryan, at his request, so he could keep up with his leader when they were making mock attacks on four poor pilots down below flying in Lufbery Circles.
More about the Lufbery Circle here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lufbery_circle
And here's a shot of that Corsair, cropped from the background of a wider photo from the late pilot Gordon Jennings' album.
When he was in Japan with No. 14 (Occupational) Squadron, he would often fly as No. 2 to the squadron commander, Jesse de Willimoff. Apparently de Willimoff used to keep the pilots on their toes, flying all sorts of exercises and despite the war being over he was still keen to try out and develop fighter techniques.
One in particular he was keen to crack was how to attack a certain formation called the Lufbery Circle. In this the defending formation of aeroplanes star to form circles. He said in their exercise there would be two pairs, one pair flying a clockwise circle and the other pair just above flying anti-clockwise. Apparently this defensive formation becomes almost impossible for attacking fighters to attack, except, Bryan said form a vertical attack from down below, or a vertical dive from up above. de Willimoff wanted to perfect his vertical diving attack and he with Bryan as wingman would try to attack the other four fighters.
But Bryan was having a heck of a time keeping up with his C.O. because he found as soon as de Willimoff went into the dive, and Bryan went over the top to follow, he was losing sight of the leader's aircraft. It was dark blue and so was the sea they were flying over. Several times they tried it and he repeatedly lost sight of the boss and they were split up.
In the end he explained to de Willimoff that he was losing sight of his plane and asked if he could have his Corsair marked in a way that it stood out better. So the C.O. had the cowl ring stripped of its paint back to bare metal. And after that Bryan said it stood out perfectly against the sea and he no longer had any problem keeping up with his vertically diving leader.
So, over the years I have seen a few photos of a single solitary Corsair in Japan with that cowl ring a different, brighter colour. People have suggested it was white, others suggested yellow. Well from the horse's mouth, as it were, it was bare metal. And now we know exactly why it was like that. It was done specifically for Bryan, at his request, so he could keep up with his leader when they were making mock attacks on four poor pilots down below flying in Lufbery Circles.
More about the Lufbery Circle here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lufbery_circle
And here's a shot of that Corsair, cropped from the background of a wider photo from the late pilot Gordon Jennings' album.
