Hey there y'all! My boyfriend is a big WWII buff, and also currently serving in the US Navy. This morning I remembered seeing a photo a long time ago. It was from WWII and showed some soldiers smiling next to an Air Force plane that they had just tagged with insults and such. They were standing on an aircraft carrier, if I remember correctly. It was a very charming snapshot of interservice pranks from long ago. As soon as I remembered it, I knew I had to find it again for my boyfriend. It combines WWII and hating the Air Force- it'd make his day. The only issue is that I've utterly failed to find it. There's so many photos of WWII planes on the internet I feel like I'm losing my mind searching for it. This is my last-ditch attempt to find it for him. Do any of y'all know a better way I could be searching? Better yet, do you know the photo I'm describing? Any help is much appreciated!
Can't help directly so all I can say is 'have you posted the same question on this Forums twin site in the USA'? www.ww2f.com
Worse still is when an aircraft due to interference with beam navigation or instrument error lands at any enemy airfield. I would think that navigation from Brittany cross the English Channel through the South West peninsula and passing over the Bristol Channel then on to the tip of South Wales,then on to the Irish Sea was always a route where navigation errors caught aircrew out. Many years ago there was a case of a RN Harrier whose pilot could not find his carrier on returning and had to put down on a freighter....airmanship....has to be said the pilot performed well to save himself and his aircraft.
In WW2 there was no US Air force - there was the US Army Air Force, the US Navy with aircraft and the US Marine Corps with aircraft. It would seem unlikely that soldiers would be standing next to a US Army Aircraft on an aircraft carrier having tagged it. There are many photos of U S Army Aircraft on carriers but these are almost all when the carrier was being used to transport numbers of aircraft and they didn't fly on or off it. Tagging I think dates from the development of the spray can which, unless I am mistaken, was post WW2. I don't want to be a dampener but perhaps your memory is misleading you?
I think Von Poop's suggestion is correct and her boyfriend was looking at a carrier plane. Landing on the wrong carrier wasn't that rare during WWII and they almost always received a 'custom' paint scheme from the host carrier before they returned.
I think the photograph will be around somewhere.likely source will probably be USN or USMC publications/magazines ....combatants tended to be classed as "soldiers" by some civilians but the main feature of the photograph has been registered. As an aside,graffiti with paint was widespread before the spray can.There is evidence of this as an example of No 83 Squadron Lancaster PB 341 which was daubed up to the eyeballs with graffiti celebrating the liberation of POWs. She was given the name the Blighty Express by the POW repatriates.There is a photograph showing the POWs outside the aircraft displaying their Nazi souvenirs with a group all wearing German helmets.In the background is PB 341 OL.G with her own special identity to mark their liberation. (Put in store 3 months later at No 10 MU,two years later she was scrapped and I would think her graffiti was untouched when she left for the breakers yard in September 1947) Aircraft flying off carriers other than those designed to operate from carriers, Innovation....no better example than that of the Doolittle Raid of 18 April 1942,a nuisance raid on Tokyo and three other targets with a relatively small bomb load, but above all,a morale boosting raid which demonstrated to the Japanese that their home islands were not out of bounds to the US carrier fleet and aircraft capable of being launched from a carrier. 16 B 25B's were planned to be dispatched from the carrier,the USS Hornet when 450 miles from Japan but the carrier was discovered by the Japanese over 800 miles off Japan.Launching was brought forward by 10 hours and surviving aircraft from the raid diverted to China in accordance with the operational plan.
The paintbrush zaps of the USN continued post war. This is my favourite when a Royal Navy Phantom was zapped into Colonial Navy markings and meatball added. XV590 001 R of 892 NAS from HMS Ark Royal 1978 USS Saratoga received Colonial Navy zap Oops - just seen the last photo on the page posted by Von Poop Ross
