On Sunday, September 17, 1995 at 2:00:00 AM UTC-5, Cam Lynch wrote:
I'm trying to determine the correct version of the Mustang (472505) that Major William Shomo of the 82nd TRS/71st TRG/5th Air Force flew with the markings "The Flying Undertaker". On 11 January 1945 Shomo and his
wingman were flying a reconnaissance mission over the Philippines when he
ran into a formation of Japanese aircraft. In the resulting engagement
Shomo shot down six fighters and a bomber. For this action he was awarded the Medal of Honor. On page 47 of the Squadron/Signal book "Aces of the Southwest Pacific" three photos are shown of his aircraft, a P-39Q he flew
in New Guinea, what is clearly an F-6D serial 414841 (what I assume to be
the aircraft in which he flew the 1/11/45 mission), and the aircraft I'm interested in "The Flying Undertaker". The drawing of "The Flying Undertaker" on page 36 of the same book says that the aircraft was a P-51D and the cover illustration concurs. On page 84 of "The Great Book of
World War II Airplanes" it says that "The Flying Undertaker" was a P-51D-20-NA. I have also seen another photo of the aircraft in the more recent Squadron/Signal book "Flying Scoreboards".
My question is whether this aircraft was a P-51D or in fact an F-6D. I do not really trust the drawings of this aircraft but on examining all of the photos I can find I can find no evidence of any camera ports. Admittedly
the camera ports could have been obscured by the black band aft of the fuselage insignia, but the characteristic bump should still show up.
Another possibility is that this aircraft was only equipped with the two downward looking cameras (a photo some of these style aircraft is in both
the new Aero Detail #13 and the Model Art book on the P-51) and these two ports are more difficult to spot. I find this perplexing because I cannot explain why a tactical reconnaissance squadron would be flying a "normal" P-51D without any cameras, particularly when his previous aircraft was obviously an F-6D. Can anyone confirm whether "The Flying Undertaker" was
an F-6D or a P-51D? Thank you for your help.
Cameron Lynch
Cameron, I realize that this post is now well over 10 years later and I do not expect it to find you, but I write anyhow with the hope to uncover the same thing. I've come to find the same as you have with closer examination of photos of the two aircraft.
I've also noted the same about the serials. It does seem that Shomo was presented with a P-51D to replace his F-6D (Snook's 5th) that was apparently crashed by another pilot using it. I'm currently trying to find if the P-51D was ever converted to an F-
6D or if those same markings were carried over to a newer F-6D. So far I've not gotten any further. If you have learned anything new, I would appreciate hearing about it. My email is
vallotb@gmail.com
Thank you.
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