Posted: 10/20/2014 11:59:28 PM EDT
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I love WWII planes that wore them. Here's the story of how they came about.
http://fly.historicwings.com/2013/03/invasion-stripes/ 
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Quoted:
Good read. This last D-Day I had the opportunity to listen to a few vets speak. One was a maintainer and told the story of getting woken up to go paint on the stripes and that was when he realized what was going to take place. Awesome! Not many of them left, sadly. 
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Thanks for posting this.
My uncle flew B-17s, he flew two missions on D-Day, none the next day and was shot down by flack the day after that. The tail gunner was killed in his chute, the others parachuted successfully. Two were captured, the rest evaded, the French Underground took them in. My uncle was captured but escaped when the staff car transporting him was strafed. After the war, the French sent him a few letters and came to visit one time. His third and fifth missions were to Berlin and another mission was to Brux Czechoslovakia, called Most today. Of the five bombers he flew, four were shot down, only one survived the war. B-17s indicated 155 mph on the way to the target and 140 on the way home. Germany had extensive radar in Europe, they always knew where the bomber streams were. |