Bo_Nidle Posted February 24, 2022 Posted February 24, 2022 (edited) Capt John T. Godfrey of the 4th Fighter Group, 336th Fighter Squadron flew as wingman for the 4ths then leading ace, Capt Don Gentile in his famous "Shangri-La" until Gentile's last mission on April 8th 1944. Flying his OD unnamed Razorback during this time, Godfrey amassed a formidable score of aerial victories, becoming one of the 4thFg's top aces in his own right. His aircraft carried a simialr red and white checkerboard design similar to that on "Shangri-La" to enable the two pilots to quickly recognise each other. Godfrey was grounded due to fatigue on April 9th 1944, the day after Gentile's last mission. Whilst he was grounded he was assigned a new Mustang which he named "Reggie's Reply", in honour of his brother Reginald who had been killed when his ship was torpedoed en-route to Britain. He did not get to fly his new Mustang until April 22nd 1944 but claimed three aerial victories in it. However his time with his new aircraft was to be very shortlived as it was written off in a none fatal landing accident 6 days later whilst flown by another pilot. Notes on "Reggie's Reply": Photos of "Reggie's Reply" are scarce. I can only find one relatively clear one showing the starboard side,post crash, and one close up of Godfrey in the cockpit showing his tally scoreboard marking. I have had to rely on illustrations,decals and a painting by Troy West. Not ideal. The checkerboard has often been recreated by decal manufacturers as being red on bare metal. Other accounts state it had a white background as Godfreys previous P-51B had. In the photo of the starboard side it is difficult to say one way or another, but it makes sense that he would have had the same style on his new aircraft, so I have gone with the white background. As "Reggies Reply" had been freshly painted, and saw only brief action, it had little weathering evident so its a pretty clean looking aircraft. "Reggies Reply" has now had its metal finish modified to take advantage of the natural metal finish improvements in the latest patch. Download links: Godfreys OD P-51B: https://www.mediafire.com/file/pn82jzgprt1ldks/4thFG_336thFS_John_Godfrey_April_1944.zip/file "Reggie's Reply" (Version 1.1): https://www.mediafire.com/file/s0y9pgs6ij2jg8d/4thFG_336thFS_Reggies_Reply_Late_April_1944_V1.1.zip/file Edited March 28, 2022 by Bo_Nidle 13 1 1
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