506th Fighter Group ground crewmen push a North American P-51D-20-NA Mustang (Serial No. 44-72560) across Marsden matting in the 462nd Fighter Squadron dispersal area on North Field. While it is not known who was assigned to fly this Mustang, members of the 506th Fighter Group Association believe the plane was named Little Joe.
USAAF/Loomis Dean/National Archives via Fold3
Several things to note about this picture for modelers. First is the wear on the backside of the propeller blades from the sand and volcanic grit on Iwo Jima. The cuff at the bottom of the blade was made of a hardened rubber so it does not show the wear that the metal portion of the blade does. Second is the light color and the pattern of the exhaust staining down the side of the fuselage. Third is the wooden twin Uncle Dog antennae, and their location and spacing on the spine. Fourth is the AN/APS-13 rear warning radar installed on the tail.
The official caption to this photo is 7th Fighter Command personnel push a North American P-51 “Mustang” toward the dispersal area at an airfield on Iwo Jima. July 1945.
Below is a photo of Captain Urban L. “Ben” Drew flying his Republic P-47N Thunderbolt (Serial No. 44-88492) sometime in either late July or August of 1945. The 414th Fighter Group arrived on Iwo Jima in late July and flew several missions before the end of the war.
Captain Urban L. Drew (Urban L. Drew via American Air Museum)
Captain Drew was a six victory ace with the 375th Fighter Squadron of the 361st Fighter Group in the European Theater of Operations. Captain Drew’s claim to fame is that he was the only Eighth Air Force fighter pilot to have shot down two Messerschmitt Me-262s in a single mission. That occurred on October 7, 1944, when the 361st Fighter Group attacked Achmer Aerodrome in Germany where Me-262s were stationed.
Lt. Urban L. Drew (Urban L. Drew via American Air Museum)
Above is a nice photo of then Lieutenant Drew standing along side his North American P-51D Mustang, E2-D “Detroit Miss” (Serial No. 44-14164) while he was with the 375th FS/361st FG. It is believed that Captain Drew’s P-47N Thunderbolt, 682, was also named “Detroit Miss”, but there is no definitive photo evidence. In the first photo, there appears to be a reclining pin-up girl with a name above it just below the front of the canopy, but it is hard to make out a name.
The 414th Fighter Group was activated on October 15, 1944, and equipped with P-47’s. Assigned to Twentieth AF, the 414th FG was temporarily stationed on Guam, and attacked objectives in the Truk Islands on July 13th and the 22nd. The group began operations from North Field on Iwo Jima later in July with an attack against the radar station on Chichi Jima. Operations during August were directed primarily against enemy airfields in Japan, but the group also strafed hangars, barracks, ordnance dumps, trains, marshalling yards, and shipping.
Captain Drew ended the war with six aerial victories and one ground victory, all in the ETO.
References:
1. The Mighty Eighth: A History of the U.S. 8th Army Air Force, Roger A. Freeman, Doubleday and Company, Inc. (1970)
2. Fighters of the Mighty Eighth: 1942-1945, William N. Hess and Thomas G. Ivie,
Iwo Jima Models 