<p>"The Bottisham Four", a famous photo showing four U.S. Army Air Force North American P-51 <i>Mustang</i> fighters from the 375th Fighter Squadron, 361st Fighter Group, from RAF Bottisham, Cambridgeshire (UK), in flight on 26 July 1944.<br>
The nearest aircraft is P-51D-5-NA s/n 44-13410 ("Lou IV" on the left side, the 4th aircraft named after his daughter, "Athelene" on the right side, probably the crew chief's lady friend or wife), flown by the 361st CO, Col. Thomas J.J. Christian Jr., who was killed in this plane while dive-bombing the Arras marshalling yards on 12 August 1944.<br>
The 2nd aircraft is P-51D-5-NA s/n 44-13926, already equipped with the fin-fillet, was flown by Lt. Urban L. "Ben" Drew. This aircraft crashed during a training flight near Stalham, Norfolk, on 9 August 1944, the pilot, 2Lt. Donald D. Dellinger, was killed.<br>
The 3rd aircraft is P-51D-5-NA s/n 44-13568 ("Sky Bouncer" later "Alice Marie") flown by Capt. Bruce W. "Red" Rowlett, 375th FS operations officer. This aircraft suffered an engine failure on take-off and crashed on 3 April 1945.<br></p>
The furthest P-51 is P-51B-15-NA s/n 42-106811 flown by Capt. Francis T. Glankler (named "Suzy-G", after his wife), 375th FS "D" Flight commander. This plane was written off after a crash landing at Bottisham following a combat mission on 11 September 1944.
USAAF, photographed for a series of U.S. 8th Air Force publicity pictures for widespread distribution (photos were taken from B-17G bombers of the 91st Bomb Group) <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=304525">[1]</a>.
1944-07-26
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