When are invasion stripes appropriate?

[Charles.K.Forrest]

I am normally an armour modeller but I have tried my hand at building aircraft. I really want to make an allied aircraft with invasion stripes but I don't want to put invasion stripes on an aircraft that wouldn't make sense to have, so I need to know, when are invasion stripes appropriate to paint on? How do I know if the aircraft I am painting is appropriate to have?

[T2B]

It depends which era or conflict your doing aircraft from. But WW2 the invasion stripes where applied to aircraft for D-Day to aid allied aircraft recognition.

 

FAA aircraft also applied them during the Korean conflict, and again during the Suez crisis when they were yellow and black stripes. 

 

A quiet check on the net, asking for images of your choosen aircraft will probably provide evidence of whether stripes were applied, or checking the squadron history could be another avenue? Hope this helps!

[Ratch]

T2B is correct, they were hastily added to aircraft on the evening of 5/6/44 for aircraft operating over Europe. They weren't always neatly applied either, you can find pictures with them being applied with sweeping brushes very crudely, so don't worry too much if yours aren't perfect.

[Kenneth ONeill]

As the other guys say, with the note that the "full stripes" were reduced to "underside only" on most types by early July 1944.

 

If it helps any, Johnny Johnson's "JE-J" Spitfire IX definitely carried full stripes on D-Day, and underside stripes in July when being used on the beer run.

[spadgent]

i try to avoid invasion stripes that are not decals, i find them a utter fiddle to paint on

[Alan Hamilton]

I am a wargamer and most of my aircraft models are for air support on the wargames table or as targets on runways in a land battle.  My main collection is NW Europe from D-Day onwards so almost all my Allied aircraft have invasion stripes.  So everything in 2 Tactical Air Force and almost every other aircraft flying in the theatre would have them certainly on the underside if not the full wrap around.  

[Dad Paul B]

As mentioned the stripes were applied in a hurry a day or 2 before D-Day. Mainly to discourage the Navy from shooting at them. They were applied to everything apart from heavy bombers (so all Tactical Aircraft - including Fleet Air Arm, Transports and Gliders) which were operating in the invasion area - so Scottish based Maritime Strike units may not have got them. Initially wing top and bottom and all round the fuselage (though just the underside of the fuselage was not uncommon). By late 1944 and into 45 they became less common.

As mentioned they were used by the Fleet Air Arm in Korea and in Yellow/Black for Operation Musketeer (Suez). Fuselage stripes can be tricky to mask.

[Dominic Thomas]

It should be remembered that the Strike Wings based in Scotland with Beaufighters did indeed appear with full sets of ‘invasion stripes’. If you are lucky enough to have a copy of the May2015 edition of Airfix Modelworld magazine, it contains a very good article on the markings carried by these aircraft.

[Flip Marchese]

The stripes were added to tactical and liaison aircraft for the Normandy invasion in northwest Europe in the nights before the invasion. Because of the secretcy, these were applied hastely.

By August , most of the topside were removed or painted over and new planes received only tge lower portions. A more appreviated  and even reversed ( two black stripes) continued until about the end of 1944.

The AAF  went to uncamoflauged planes in January 1944, those arriving in the ETO by March 1944.  So by June, the 8 & 9 Air Forces had mixed fleets.

Some RAF heavies were used as glider tugs and were marked for the invasion, most strategic bombers werenot marked for the invasion, however.

The last thing to remember is that aircraft had to have been active in the area in latter 1944, a B-25G or a P-38 F or a Spit I would not be appropriate subjects  for example. 

[Dominic Thomas]

 It’s worth noting that while B25Gs may not have had these markings, RAF Mitchells did. As with all things, you will need references. One very good set is the pair of AirFile volumes on ’Operation Overlord’. These cover the period June - September 1944, with Volume 1 covering RAF & Commonwealth aircraft, and Volume 2 covering US aircraft.

[Ratch]

 I find the AirFiles to be good and reliable references.

[Kanyiko]

Ah yes - one of my earliest modelling sins, putting hand-painted Invasion Stripes on a Hawker Hurricane IID back during the 50th anniversary commemorations in 1994. >.>

 

Anyway, the invasion stripes were quickly applied as per last-minute instructions just prior to the invasion, and in some cases, it was not just done crudely, but also incorrectly.  Examples are known where the 3 white/2 black was incorrectly applied as 3 white/3 black, or even as inverted 2 white/3 black .  And in other cases, units simply ran out of paint or time, and applied only the most necessary markings - 3 white with only some or no black, hoping the spaces between the whites would correctly be interpreted as black.

 

And by 'crudely', I mean, any means of applying the paint was used due to the haste involved - brushes, but even rags and brooms.

 

And of course, every unit applied these markings in their own way.  Some would paint - neatly or in block - around squadron codes and serial numbers, while others would simply overpaint them.

 

Do note though - the invasion stripes weren't the only stripes in use at the time.  Following a number of unfortunate incidents, both the Hawker Typhoon and early Hawker Tempests were marked with what could be considered as the precurser of the invasion stripes - namely identification stripes on the lower surfaces of the wings, in a 4 narrow black/3 broad white pattern.  These stripes were abandoned early in 1944.

 

The stripes were used on anything and everything that was involved in the landings - going from various marks of Spitfire, Mustang, Thunderbolt, Mosquito, Lightning, Typhoon, Tempest and Beaufighter, via Douglas Boston (RAF & USAAF), Mitchell (RAF) and Marauder (USAAF), to the Dakota; on the gliders - Hadrian (CG-4), Horsa and Hamilcar - and their tugs - Ablemarle, Halifax and Stirling; and liaison types such as the Piper Cub, Taylorcraft Auster and Noorduyn Norseman; but also on more unexpected types such as Coastal Command Wellingtons, Fleet Air Arm Sea Hurricanes, Swordfishes and Avengers; and even RAF Hurricanes that were used as cross-channel liaison aircraft in the immediate aftermath of the invasion.

 

It's worth mentioning that the Invasion Stripes would also see an unexpected use later on during the War:

After the Liberation, the French Free Forces started assembling an air force with just about anything they could muster, however in some cases this also involved 'enemy' or unexpected types, such as pre-Blitzkrieg Dewoitine D.520s, Martin 167s and Douglas DB-7s, unfamiliar (in the European Theatre) Douglas A-24 Dauntlesses, or German-built Ju-88s and Fiesler Storchs.  To avoid friendly-fire incidents, the French applied invasion stripes (or rather, stripes similar to the invasion stripes) on their aircraft.

 

Finally - the Swiss had the misfortune of being bang in the middle of it all, with their air force equiped with German types in an increasingly less friendly sky.  After an incident in which one of their Bf 109s was mistaken for a German and shot down by American P-51s that had accidentally crossed into Swiss airspace, the Swiss started adding stripes similar to the invasion stripes to their aircraft - albeit red and white ones.  Similarly, Swissair (which was still but increasingly rarely flying to German destinations) started marking their DC-2s, DC-3s and Ju-86s with red-and-white stripes on fuselage and wings.

 

One word of warning though: be sure of what you are researching.  With the advent of a number of combat flight sims and 'what if' repainters and modellers, a quick image search nowadays may result in an image of aircraft types in 'invasion liveries', even if they never carried them in real life.  Doing a quick search just now, for instance, resulted in an image for an invasion stripes-marked Bell P-63 King Cobra, even though the type saw no action on June 6th 1944 with any of the air forces involved...