USAAF Unit Identification Aircraft Markings - Other Air Forces in The Pacific

Other Air Forces in The Pacific

With only eleven heavy bomb groups distributed among five numbered air forces in the Pacific and CBI theaters, all B-24-equipped after mid-1943, unit tail markings were much less systematized than in other air forces. Identification of aircraft within specific squadrons was more meaningful than identification of groups.

The four groups of the Fifth Air Force employed three different methods. The original two groups, the 43d and 90th Bombardment Groups, bore the red-white-and-blue-striped rudder markings of the pre-war Air Corps, but the other two groups, appearing later, did not. The 43d and 90th were differentiated from each other by their squadron markings; the 43d placed large squadron insignia on the fins, while the 90th painted the tail fins in squadron colors and superimposed a 72-inch Jolly Roger symbol, emblematic of the group's nickname, on the painted fin. The 380th Bombardment Group painted one quarter of its tail fins black for identification, with each squadron having a different quadrant. The 22d Bombardment Group, which converted from B-25 medium bombers in 1944, placed a 40-inch-wide (1,000 mm) rectangle horizontally bisecting the tail fin, with each squadron having a different color.

All three groups of the Seventh Air Force used black symbols or stripes in various configurations, without any pattern. Identification of groups could be made only by memorization of symbols assigned to squadrons and knowledge of to what groups those squadrons were assigned.

The two groups of the Thirteenth Air Force used completely different methods. The 5th Bombardment Group used the same black geometric symbols as the Twentieth Air Force, a different symbol for each squadron, placed in the upper third of the tail fin. The 307th Bombardment Group created a group symbol, a large blue circle containing a stylized "LR" (for "Long Rangers", the group nickname) in gold, and placed it on all their aircraft tails. The upper tips of the fins were painted different colors to identify its squadrons.

The two air forces in the Far East, the Tenth Air Force and Fourteenth Air Force, each had only a single bomb group. The Tenth's 7th Bombardment Group used a checkerboard pattern in either black-and-white or black-and-yellow on the rudder or part of the tail fin to identify its squadrons. The 308th Bombardment Group of the Fourteenth Air Force used colored or striped rudders.