Eagle Strike Productions 1/72and 1/48 P-47D decals: 362nd Fighter Group Jugs Parts I and II
By Chris Bucholtz
Your reviewer has a special connection to the 362nd Fighter Group, and especially its 379th Fighter Squadron. In 1998, he did the research that led to the AeroMaster IPMS/USA National Convention decal sheet, which featured five aircraft whose nose art was painted by George Rarey. For an overview of Rarey’s amazing wartime art, check out www.rareybird.com. In the course of this research, he met pilots and ground crew who flew and serviced these aircraft, and the sheet was so well received that preliminary plans were in the works for a second sheet.
With that background you can understand his enthusiasm at the arrival of these two sheets. Each has three Thunderbolts, all in natural metal, with the group marking of a red vertical tail underlined by a thick black stripe. Here, we’ll summarize them and provide a little of what we know beyond what the decal sheet includes.
Part I Subjects
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“Carol Ann,” a natural-metal P-47D-22 razorback flown by Group Commander Col. Morton Magoffin. The plane is colorful, with a red spinner and cowling band and invasion stripes (not included) on the lower fuselage. The names on the crew data plate for this aircraft are incorrectly given as the same as for Joe McLaughlin’s “5 By 5.” Eagle Strike thoughtfully notes that the plane had the early Curtiss Electric propeller. The nose art was painted by George Rarey and depicts a frisky Army mule, indicative of Col. Magoffin’s West Point education. Col. Magoffin was shot down in this aircraft near Falaise on August 10, 1944 and was badly wounded. He was taken to Paris for treatment by the Germans and left behind when the Allies took the city. His successor was Col. Joe Laughlin, whose “5 By 5” was depicted on the 1998 Nationals sheet. When Laughlin visited Magoffin in Paris, Magoffin greeted Laughlin by saying, “I always wanted you to have a command, Joe, but this is not the way I intended for you to get it!” Magoffin today lives in Pleasanton, California. -
“Shirley Jane,” a natural metal 377th FS P-47D-27 flown by Captain Edwin (not Edward, as stated on the sheet) O. Fisher, also bedecked in invasion stripes and a red cowling band. Fisher had seven aerial victories, making him one of the group’s two high scorers. Fisher also shot down three V-1s. “Bill” Fisher hailed from Portland, Oregon and was a fireman and the captain of the Pacific University boxing team before joining the Air Corps. He was killed in a 1946 flying accident.
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“Bonnie,” a yellow-cowled 379th FS P-47D-28-RE with an extended tail fillet and no invasion striped, flown by Second Lieutenant Eugene Martin. After George Rarey was killed on June 26, 1944, Corporal Joe Carpenter took over as the unofficial cowling artist of the 379th. Rarey’s mascot—a colorful parrot smoking a cigar and perched atop an eight ball—had become the squadron’s unofficial logo. “Bonnie” wears Carpenter’s vision of a 379th coat of arms—a shield with a bomb, machine gun and P-47 flanked by two “Rarey Birds.” Gene Martin lives in Southern California.
Part II Subjects
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“Gooch,” a P-47D-30-RE from the 377th FS with a red cowling band and a black rudder trim tab and lower fuselage invasion stripes, as it appeared in September, 1944. This aircraft may have been flown by Lt. Kenneth Caldwell, who was killed in a flying accident in 1945, although we can find no positive confirmation of this. -
“Why Pick on Me?!!” a P-47D-30-RA with the extended tail fillet, flown by Lieutenant Robert V. McCormick (not McCormack as the instructions say) of the 379th FS in early 1945. The plane has three large red-bordered circles on its left fuselage side, their significance unknown.
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“Chuck’s Wagon,” a P-47D-25-RE flown by Lieutenant Charles Mann of the 377th FS in early 1945. This plane has a red cowl with triangles over the cowling flaps and invasion stripes on the lower wings. The sheet shows the plane with the extended tail fillet, but a snapshot of crew chief Chuck Johnson and 377th pilot Jack Barensfeld posed in front of this aircraft clearly shows no fillet. The plane’s name is in huge letters across the fuselage, and the sheet provides the black and red “pinwheel” design applied to the wheel hubs. What’s more, the plane also sports the legend “Victory First” next to a pink brassiere and ladies slip! Chuck Mann founded the 362nd Fighter Group Association with former 379th FS crew chief William Marles in 1959. Chuck passed away in 1998, but his wife Fern is still instrumental in both the 379th FG Association and the Ninth Air Force Association.
