British & French ID stripes/"invasion stripes"

Nov 12, 2004 2 Replies

OK, we've all heard about how the D-Day invasion stripes were hand/brush painted, so shouldn't be perfect, tho most of them on models & real warbirds today are perfect, but what about the black & white ID stripes seen on RN Sea Furys & Fireflys, etc? Or the yellow & black ones seen on French Corsairs & the like? Should they be perfect? Were they applied in a hurry?


Korean War--applied on the carrier

Or the yellow &

Ditto

Should they be perfect?

They were done to a limited number of AC in closed hangers--by Navy men, who seem to be a bit more precise/anal than air force.

If I remember correctly, the black-and-white invasion stripes were done at the very last moment, for security reasons. The yellow-and-black stripes were applied to all Israeli, French and British planes involved in Operation Musketeer in 1956 - the attempt to overthrow Egyptian president Nasser and conquer the Suez Canal. That operation was planned and executed in very short time and also in secrecy (although Nasser - and the CIA- were well aware of the military build-up.) I expect that those stripes were done in haste as well.

H. Sim>>but what about the black &

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