P-51D  Mustang Of the 308^th Fighter Squadron

“The group had begun replacing the old B models with the P-51D and, about the middle of July, I flew the new model on operations for the first time.  The D was a considerably improved airplane.  It had a bubble canopy instead of the greenhouse-style enclosure, and the bubble allowed a lot better visibility in the air.  Instead of the drab brown paint job, the new planes were NMF - natural metal finish.  They fairly glowed in the sky.  That we didn’t need camouflage any longer testified to the way the air war in Europe was going: We were winning big.  The wing had been thickened slightly so that the armament now consisted of six .50 - caliber machine guns set upright.  Upright guns meant no more jam problem, and , for good measure, the P-51D provided half again as much firepower.  The large amounts of fuel the Mustang carried eased many of the worries about navigation.  An awful lot of navigation errors could be rectified by the simple expedient of changing course, hunting around a bit, or even back-tracking, if necessary.   The great range of the P-51 was provided by the internal fuel it carried:  92 gallons in each wing and 85 gallons in the fuselage tank.  This was supplemented by two 75-gallon external tanks slung from bomb shackles under the wings.”

Ø       Robert J. Goebel, Mustang Ace 

“American groups flagrantly and arrogantly identified their aircraft by having their own individual identification markings on their aircraft.  The 31^st Fighter Group was known as the “Peppermint Group” because the P-51s, which it flew, had red and white diagonal stripes painted on the tail of its planes… the 308^th squadron carried the letters ‘HL’ ”

Ø       Rolland G. Lamensdorf, History of the 31^st Fighter Group