Anderson’s “Old Crow”/Taylor’s “Pretty Pix”
North American, P-51D-10NA (Mustang), Serial number 44-14450
363rd Fighter Squadron, 357th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force,
Leiston, England, October 1944 - January 1945.
Flown by the commander of 363rd FS Maj. Clarence Emil “Bud” Anderson, ace with 16.25 aerial victories (+2 probable, +2 damaged) + 1 destroyed on the ground [1]
and
Flown as “Pretty Pix” by Lt. James Taylor, end of January 1945 to presumably the end of the war.
Illustration above shows what 44-14450 looked like around October 1944. The illustration is based on this photo reference.
The airplane displays 13 Balkenkreuzes just under the canopy, representing Andersen's 12.25 aerial victories, all scored in his previous airplanes.
Just in front of the victory display the names of the crew are painted in white over a black rectangle, they are:
Pilot
Capt. C.E.Anderson
C.C. Heino
Arm. ZimmermannThe exact shade of green that the plane was painted in is unknown because it was painted at the airfield by whatever green was available at the time, most likely the RAF green or Olive Drab. In the words of a model builder John Swearingen on Bud Andersen's website 'To Fly and Fight':
"This Mustang started out life unpainted, was painted in the field O.D., had its upper surface invasion stripes overpainted in what looks to be Medium Green. As for British paints being used, my guess is that the 357th used anything that resembled green /Olive Drab that its crew chiefs could lay their hands on . I really love the P-51s of the 357th for this very reason, being that so many are a hodge-podge of O.Ds and various greens. In other words pick just about any green within reason that you want to use".It appears that the data stencil has been overpainted with green.
The plane was likely still fitted with the N-9 gunsight.
The airplane had white identification stripes painted on the wings and the horizontal stabilisers. Also there appears to have been a white stripe painted around the rim of the tyre on the landing gear (possibly only on the side of the tyre facing outward) , as per the illustration below.
Bud Anderson was assigned P-51D, 44-14450, when he returned to serve his second tour of duty in the fall of 1944. 44-14450 became his third airplane to carry the name ‘Old Crow’, named so after the cheapest bourbon whiskey available at the time. This became Bud’s favourite fighter of WW2 to fly and was flown by him throughout Bud’s second tour of duty which ended in January 1945. While flying this airplane Anderson added 4 more aerial victories (and presumably one ground victory) to his tally. The first two of these victories occurred on 27th of November, a big victory day for the 363rd FG :
On that day 363rd was escorting the 353FG for a fighter sweep and strafing attacks over Germany, but had to postpone their strafing attacks when they encountered two formations of about 80-100 enemy fighters in each. Anderson’s flight readied themselves for the dogfight by climbing above and into the enemy formation. Anderson picked a straggling FW 190 for his first victim and fired at it but it’s unclear if he caused the enemy much damage since the enemy was described to only “He broke into me and half-rolled to the deck” . Anderson and his wingman then climbed back up chasing the large bunch again and picked two FW-190s. Bud selected one and fired the first burst hitting the enemy all around the fuselage. When he fired the second burst the EA went down spinning and out of control. But due to numerous fighters all around, Anderson didn’t follow the FW down to confirm it was destroyed and therefore this victory was only credited to him as a probable, even though Anderson reported: “There is no doubt in my mind the pilot was killed”. Instead, Anderson followed another FW 190 which he saw below him at about 29000 feet. Getting on the enemy’s tail Anderson opened fire from around 250 yards striking the enemy in the wing roots and all around the fuselage with a first burst and then, when the enemy dove, Anderson hit it all over the belly and wings with a second burst. The enemy went down smoking and shedding pieces of debris in its wake.
Anderson and his wingman then dove and chased after two more WF 190s, but because the “Old Crow” gained a lot of speed in the process by the time they reached the enemy Anderson had to pull up and circle around to ready himself for the attack properly. By this time the FW 190s were trying to flee back to Noorhousen aerodrome. However the fighters had to all change course when they reached the airfield and the AA gunners opened fire on both their own FWs and the American Mustangs. Anderson and his wingman followed on the tails of the two FW’s and saw them both crash-land four miles apart. Anderson reported: “Although we did not actually shoot these airplanes down, my wingman and I caused them to crash-land”.
Nov 27, 1 x FW 190, (Probable), Magdeburg area (Germany)
2 x FW 190, Magdeburg area (Germany)
The next aerial victories, again one probable and two confirmed, occurred on Dec 5th, 1944 during an escort mission to Berlin. Anderson’s flight flew ahead in advance of the bombers to break up any attacks forming ahead of it. Bud reported:
‘We intercepted about 20 FW 190s… They broke around and I picked one out, firing a burst and getting good hits all over. he rolled over and I did not follow as there were too many enemy aircraft around’.
Lt. James Sloan who flew with Anderson said that he didn’t believe this airplane ever recovered from the spin as the pilot was either killed or the controls shot away. As on November 27th, this victory was credited to Anderson only as a probable. Next, Anderson went after four more FW 190s which were darting in and out of the haze. He recalled;
‘I fired and they broke left and I latched on to No 4 man, firing a long burst at close range. The canopy blew off and fire belched from the cockpit as it spun straight down into a broken overcast. I then closed on the No 3 man, fired at good range and more good hits occurred in the cockpit region. This ship spun down smoking, out of control.’
Then Anderson came across an Me 109. Anderson positioned the “Old Crow” on the enemy’s tail and hit the gun button only to discover that his warbird was out of ammunition.
Actual video footage from Anderson’s gun camera on Dec5th can be found on this page of Anderson’s website. This page also contains all of Anderson’s original encounter reports which describe his aerial victories in more detail.
Dec 5, 1 x FW 190, (Probable), West of Berlin (Germany)
2 x FW 190, West of Berlin (Germany)
The next day, on Dec 5th, Capt Anderson was promoted to Major, at a young age of 22. The profile artwork below shows what the “Old Crow” looked like not long after this time.
Illustration above shows what 44-14450 looked like around mid December 1944/early January 1945.
Note that the plane now displays all of Anderson's aerial victories. The symbol representing these was changed from a Balkenkreuz to a swastikas inside a white circle on a red rectangle (a nazi flag basically).
Presumably around the last days of October or the start of November, the airplane was stripped of its green paint everywhere except the anti-glare panel/name, the colour of the letter codes/serial number were reversed to black and the rudder was painted red - the latter being an identification marking of 363rd FS introduced at the end of October 1944.
Sgt. Melvin Schuneman replaced Otto Heino as a new a new ground crew chief and Capt. Anderson became Major on the 6th of Dec 1944, so the writing on the crew plate by late December displayed:
Pilot
Maj. C.E.Anderson
C.C. Schuneman
Arm. ZimmermannThe exhaust stack shroud has been removed.
The airplane was fitted with a K-14 gunsight.
The white identification stripes, at least on top of the wings, appear to have still been present, but by now they were most likely quite weathered if not partly rubbed out. There was possibly also still a faint trace of the white rim around the landing gear tyres. There doesn't appear to be any ID stripes visible on the horizontal stabilizers though. Similar to the illustration below:
On Jan 14th 357th FG had its greatest moment of glory when it destroyed 56.5 enemy aircraft and lost only 3 of their own. However, prior to this mission Maj. Andersen, who was the Operations Officer, listed himself and Yeager (another squadron commander) as spares on the mission roster. This meant that if no one had aborted then Anderson and Yeager could return to base without having to complete the mission, so subsequently they were cleared to return to base before the Mustangs of the 357th reached Germany. But rather than turning straight back they turned right, towards Switzerland, and took a very long, scenic detour through the mountains. They flew their Mustangs at treetop level over Switzerland and France, zoomed out over the lake’s water with their propellers throwing up mist, flew dangerously low over the roof of a hotel that Yeager stayed in while in Switzerland and as if that wasn’t enough fun they dropped their drop tanks over Mt. Blanc and fired at the falling tanks to try and ignite them. In Anderson’s words they had “One hell of a wonderful day”. So long was their detour that they were the last two planes to return to base. When Anderson’s Crew Chief ran towards the Old Crow and excitedly said to Anderson; “The group got more than 50 today ….. How many did you get?”. Realising what Anderson missed out on he replied in a strained voice; “None”. He later recalled that he felt sick at the realisation.
Anderson’s last combat mission of WW2 was on Jan 15th, flying the “Old Crow” for the last time. After this the “Old Crow” was reassigned to Lt James Taylor of the 363rd FS who renamed the airplane “Pretty Pix”, allegedly named for his girlfriend. This airplane survived the war and was transferred to Neubiberg Air Base, Germany, where it was scrapped.
Bud Anderson ended WW2 as the third highest-ranking ace in the 357th FG, outscored only by Maj Carson and Maj England. He went on to serve the US army after the war and achieved the rank of Colonel on 15th of March 1963. He outlived all the other American triple aces of WW2 and died in May 2024, at the age of 102.
The illustration above shows what plane 44-14450 looked like while it was flown by Taylor. It is based on this photo reference.
Note the new name "Pretty Pix" in place of the Old Crow. It might have been painted in white and red(or black?). I chose ‘red’ because the tone in the reference photo was similar to the red squares of 357th FG’s identification marking just in front of the name. Just like with the name "Old Crow" the“Pretty Pix” name was painted on both sides of the airplane, as can be seen in this photo of Pretty Pix from the starboard side.
Turner scored one aerial victory in the war. This victory was scored on the 14th of January, 1945 [2]. To mark it on the airplane it appears that all of Anderson’s victory markings were removed leaving only the first one (the one in the top left on the Old Crow).
The crew names were erased. It’s possible that they were repainted again some place else in the area obscured by Turner in the photo reference, but without proof of this I felt that its safer to leave them absent in the illustration above.
The D-Day stripes on the fuselage were most likely removed at some stage. Most Mustangs didn’t have them in 1945, so it’s likely that Pretty Pix didn’t have them either, eventually.
There are still traces of white identification stripes visible on the wings in the photo reference, but these too probably disappeared at some stage.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Information about McComas’ victories is based on the book by Frank Olynyk called “Stars & Bars”, published by Grub Street in 1995, p.116, ISBN 1-898697-17-5
Other sources used are:
The book ‘P-51 Mustang Aces’, by William N. Hess and Thomas G.Ivie, published by Motorbooks International in 1992, page 27, ISBN 0-87938-530-8
The book ‘Mustang Aces of the 357th Fighter Group’, by Chris Bucholtz, published in 2010 by Osprey Publishing Limited, page 69 and 93. PDF e-book ISBN: 978 1 84603 986 7
[2] Page 93 of the book above.
Anderson’s website “To Fly and Fight”, I highly recommend exploring it for anything related to Bud’s career or any of his “Old Crow” airplanes.
SUMMARY OF LINKS TO THE REFERENCE IMAGES AND/or VIDEOS
Photos used as reference for this airplane can be found on Bud Anderson’s website toflyandfight.com. A link to the page containing the photos is here:
https://toflyandfight.com/the-p-51-mustang/the-old-crow/
Photos of “Pretty Pix” can be found on the website page linked above and on http://www.littlefriends.co.uk . The exact photo address is linked here.
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