BAOSHAN MUSTANG: (14TH AIR FORCE)

BAOSHAN MUSTANG: (14TH AIR FORCE)

Captain Clell McKenny of the 51st Fighter Group’s 25th Fighter Squadron “The Assam Dragons,” is seen at the tail of his North American P-51D Mustang “Lil Stuff II” at Baoshan in western Yunnan Province. The 25th Fighter Squadron was the last American fighter squadron to fly the Curtiss P-40 in combat in China. With the arrival of the Mustang, the squadron gave up its unique, large fanged, dragon’s mouth markings that were applied to the nose of their P-40’s, and instead painted the tails of their P-51’s with a
black checker board pattern and twin back-slanting stripes around the fuselage. When asked why the color black, Clell answered that black was the only color that was available in enough quantity to paint all of the Squadrons’s aircraft. This probably explains why the tailplanes of 23rd Fighter Group’s 75th Fighter Squadron were painted solid black.