World War II Database

1. Michael says:
22 Jan 2022 05:41:13 AM

The date looks wrong, as the white star under the OS2U wing has no red center dot and the rudder is freshly repainted to hide the white and red stripes used until August '42.

2.  David Stubblebine says:
22 Jan 2022 12:12:50 PM

Michael (above):
Thank you for paying attention to such detail and for bringing up your concerns. The truth is, I struggled with the date of this photo when I posted it in 2014 and for many of the same reasons you point out. Indeed, neither the color version of this photo nor the B&W version appears to include a red dot in the National Insignia. I can’t explain that except to say I have seen other photos where the red center actually is present but appears absent because of glare or other photographic issues. I don’t know if that is the case here or not. More compelling, however, is the absence of the National Insignia on the sides of the fuselage. For a Pensacola training plane, these should have been applied starting 26 Feb 1941. Interestingly, this is the same date the three vertical rudder stripes were to be eliminated. For one of the changes to be present but not the other one is perplexing, but also supports my best guess that this photo was taken very near the precise date of 26 Feb 1941. I hedged my bets and dated it as “early 1941,” which I still stand by. Less precise but still a consideration is that by May 1942 when the red dots were removed (along with a second generation of horizontal rudder stripes), it is doubtful they were flying many of the aging P2Y flying boats at Pensacola. The absence of the red dot continues to bother me, though.
Thanks, again.

3. Michael Mietelski says:
24 Jan 2022 07:47:32 AM

David,
Thank you for the expalanation. Of course, the lack of proof (here the red dot) is not proof of a lack. But February as a date does not convince me at all. I know that Pensacola is not Anchorage, but the maximum daytime temperature (average of 100 years) in February is 19*C, 22 in March, and only 25 in April. Moreover - the early 1941 was extremely cold in Florida, daily temperatures in February and March were on average 3*C (~5*F) lower than the long-term average, which contrasts somewhat with the guy wearing only swimming trunks. Maybe these antique P2Ys flew a little longer?
Cheers :)

4.  David Stubblebine says:
24 Jan 2022 05:08:54 PM

Michael (above):
You may be right. Your weather analysis sounds reasonable to me and perhaps more reasonable than my aircraft markings analysis. We will leave these comments on this photo page for other viewers to see and make their own assessment. Perhaps someone knows the Navy file number for this photo so we can see what the Navy says about the date.