I mentioned on the previous page that 41-18912 had changed it's colour scheme at some stage. well here it is in all it's glory...I believe that the scheme is Olive Drab over the original Aluminium doped colour. I have seen a profile showing it as Olive Drab over White, but the difference between the White of the national marking and the fuselage is enough to convince me that the Aluminium remains. Note the lower part of the canopy frames are Olive Drab but the upper framing (hidden by the wing on my profile) remain in their original Aluminium. Otherwise the markings remain the same.
Stinson #41-18912 as per above in Olive Drab over Aluminium doped colours. Serials in Black. Blue/White national insgnia in four positions. No other markings at this stage.
 Sumney.JPG |
 Two L-1's at an airfield in Burma, ca December 1944.jpg |
Two more images of #41-18912 in the same scheme. The first is credited to Ken Sumney in '10th Air Force Story'. The second shows what is likely this airframe in the background parked next to the water in Dec 1944 (I say 'likely as the serial is not visible to confirm).
And finally an image showing that #41-18912 had a version of the 'Burma Belle' artwork added eventually while in this scheme, which by then was quite worn.
Another operator of the L-1 in Burma was the 1st Air Commando Group. The two (later three) Liason Sqns that were part of their establishment had 20 Vigilants along with 100 L-5 Sentinals. The L-1s were used for casualty evacuation, while the smaller L-5s were mainly used for supply of small jungle strips. One of there airframes was #41-18965 as per above and the other shows probably one of their's in flight. All the 1 ACG airframes seem to have just carried the Olive Drab over Neutral Grey scheme with Black or Yellow serials.
Stinson #41-19022 from 1 ACG in Olive Drab over Neutral Grey with Yellow serials. Blue/White national insignia in four positions. Reference for this profile and the photo of #41-18965 was the unit history 'Any Place, Any Time, Any Where' published by Schiffer.
The final organisation that I know of that used the L-1 in Burma was the OSS who organised large scale guerilla operations behind Japanese lines. The Stinson L-1 Vigilant was the preferred liaison aircraft for Detachment 101’s unofficial air force, the 'Red Ass Squadron'. Available photos show that they operated their machines in the overall Aluminium doped scheme per the above. STOP PRESS Just as I was about to upload this issue I found on the 'Remembering The CBI' Facebook page an Album of over 750 OSS Det 101 official photos. This shows that they operated quite a few L-1s in the Olive Drab over Neutral Grey scheme. Also 'Burma Belle' was apparently one of their airframes.
Stinson L-1 '03135'from Det 101 of the OSS in overall Aluminium doped scheme with Black serial. Blue/White national insgnia in four positions.
Note that the floatplane drawings are NTS with the others due to the greater length of the float.
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