Mid-december, out little team of archeological scuba-divers was informed of the presence of a WW2 plane’s wreck, not far away from Ajaccio. People in the area had witnessed the ditching of a what they believed to be a spitfire during the war, in the same place. And internet cable-layers had noticed a large shadow on their sonar...
I was not with the divers when they searched, and finally found the beast. But as historian of the association, I received a lot of pictures of it. It was easy to establish that we had no spitfire, but, more surprising in the area, a Mustang P-51, B or C type. The rest was to be far more difficult. Two weeks, and many, many hours of internet searching later, I was able to point out the identity of the pilot of the plane, his unit, and the exact date of the crash. The Lt ‘Don’ Taylor, 309th FS, 31st FG, had to ditch his plane here on the 5th of July, 1944.
That was only a beginning. The idea, now, was to get the serial and the lettering... It would have been a shame, too, to not to show the public the exact look of such a beautiful, shiny and colorful war-machine. So what to do ? Pick an approximate profile of a 31st FG plane from any publication available ? Paint it by myself ? Google had led me to the SPS forum, and gee... those people were able to design such perfect profiles, to make them so historically accurate ! Maybe any samaritan here would accept to help me...
The real enthusiasm I have met here was the first surprise. Believe it or not, they thanked me to offer the opportunity of working on the project, when I considered myself as a kind of beggar ! And I don’t even talk about the patience they had to show, considering the ammount of remarks I began to send. I had forgotten my modest initial goals, and was demanding for the best !
The best has come, far beyond expectations. A profile and a screenshot will remind a retired pilot of his flying days. The wreck’s project is not mine anymore : thanks to you all, it’s a community’s one. The WZ-I will never surface, but virtually, it has come out of the depths.
Find the thread here:
http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/forums/profile-painting/810-desesperate-need-p-51b-profile.html
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