USAAF unit identification aircraft markings
Videos
Page
USAAF unit identification aircraft markings, commonly called "tail markings" after their most frequent location, were numbers, letters, geometric symbols, and colors painted onto the tails, wings, or fuselages of the aircraft of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) during the Second World War.
A Boeing B-17G in the markings of the 91st Bomb Group and displaying fuselage codes, tail symbols, and 1st Combat Bomb Wing color markings
B-17G Flying Fortresses 44-46604 and 44-48676 of the 306th Bomb Group, in 40th CBW markings-RAF Thurleigh UK
446th Bomb Group B-24s displaying the 1943 division and group marking scheme
B-24s of the 458th Bomb Group, 96th Combat Bomb Wing, in 1944-45 color scheme
509th Composite Group
Videos
Page
The 509th Composite Group was a unit of the United States Army Air Forces created during World War II and tasked with the operational deployment of nuclear weapons. It conducted the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in August 1945.
First Ordnance Squadron area on Tinian
Assembly Building where bombs were assembled
Commander Ashworth in the First Ordnance Squadron Area
Rear Admiral William R. Purnell, Brigadier General Thomas F. Farrell, Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, and Captain William S. Parsons