Meyer’s “Petie 2nd”/ Heyer’s “SweetIE Face”

Written By Anton Petrov

North American, P-51D-10 (Mustang), Serial number 44-14151

Flown by Meyer

487th Fighter Squadron, 352nd Fighter Group, 8th Air Force, Bodney, England, August - October, 1944

Flown by the deputy commander of the 352nd Fighter Group, commander of the 487th Fighter Squadron, Lieutenant Colonel John Charles Meyer (a.k.a. Whips and/or J.C.) – an ace with 24 aerial victories in WW2, plus one probable, plus 13 planes destroyed on the ground, plus two future aerial victories during the Korean war

“Petie 2nd” as it looked in mid-August 1944, not long after Meyer started to fly it in combat. Note the 16 victory markings (8.5 of which were aerial kills) and white “Petie 2nd” inscription.

The Mustang with serial number 44-14151 was assigned to the newly-wed Lt.Col. John Meyer when he returned from leave in the USA on August 2nd, 1944 for his second tour of duty. His new fighter, which he named “Petie 2nd”, became Meyer’s best-known airplane, mainly because it was his most photographed and arguably nicest-looking fighter. But despite its fame, its service record reveals that, out of Meyer’s three wartime Mustangs, Petie 2nd is the least deserving of its popularity and most deserving of being called “unlucky”.

Meyer’s second tour was nearly cut short on August 13th, when enemy flack positions zeroed in on Petie 2nd during a fighter sweep to Fauville (France), wounding Meyer in the thigh [1]. Though Meyer recovered quickly and Petie 2nd was fixed (it’s not clear which parts of the airplane were fixed exactly), Meyer didn’t actually go on to score any aerial victories while flying this beautiful airplane. He did, however, score a couple of ground kills in Petie 2nd – both on August 25th, 1944.
On that day, when the Bluenosers (as the planes of the 352nd Fighter Group were nick-named) flew into German territory, the enemy fighters refused to come up for battle. So Meyer, in his Petie 2nd, led the 487th down into a strafing attack across the enemy airfield near Neubrandenburg, destroying seven aircraft and damaging five others on the ground. Meyer’s personal claims were a Ju-52 and a He-177 – his 17th and 18th victories, respectively. These were the only victories Meyer would score in Petie 2nd. [2]

17) 25.08.1944 1 x Ju-52 (ground victory) airfield near Neubrandenburg (Germany)
18) 25.08.1944 1 x He-177 (ground victory) airfield near Neubrandenburg (Germany)

Petie 2nd, as it looked in late August to early September, 1944. Note the 18 victory markings, two of which must have appeared on the plane after August 25th.

Corresponding markings (2 new swastikas) of Meyer’s two kills were painted onto Petie 2nd soon after the attack. The 18 markings on the plane from late August to early September 1944 reflected his total tally – as can be seen in this photo.

But, strangely, photos of Petie 2nd in the second half of September 1944, show substantially more kills painted on it – 26 to be precise (as can be seen in this photo).

Illustration above shows what Petie 2nd looked like in the second half of September 1944. Note the darker-coloured Petie 2nd inscription and the darker-coloured 26 victory markings.

It turns out that, during the time Petie 2nd was assigned to Meyer, it wasn’t the only airplane he flew and scored victories in. However, all victories Meyer scored in that time, regardless of which airplane he scored them in, appeared as kill markings on the fuselage of Petie 2nd.

Meyer’s most successful two days of battle action during the time Petie 2nd was assigned to him (and up to that point) happened when he was flying a different airplane. They occurred on September 10th and 11th.
September 10th, 1944: Meyer led his squadron into a strike in which the 487th ploughed an enemy airfield with lead in eight strafing passes, destroying 20 enemy aircraft. Meyer personally destroyed four of the planes on the ground [3]. On this occasion, Meyer flew George Preddy’s famous “Cripes A’ Mighty”, a P-51D-5 Mustang, coded HO-P, with serial number 44-13321.
September 11th, 1944: Meyer had his most successful air battle to date, in which he destroyed three Bf-109s and one Fw-190. In this battle, Meyer flew Bill Fowler’s “Stardust”, a P-51D-5 Mustang, coded HO-F, with serial number 44-13597.

Cripes A’Mighty was the airplane Meyer flew on September 10th, 1944, when he destroyed four enemy aircraft on the ground.

Stardust was the airplane Meyer flew on September 11th, 1944, when he destroyed four enemy aircraft in the air.

That’s eight victories in two days (four ground and four aerial). But none of them was scored in Petie 2nd, even though it was assigned to Meyer. One can only speculate that, unfortunately for Petie 2nd, it might have been out of action at the time, possibly due to repairs or maintenance.

With the latest victories, Meyer had 25.5 to his name (12.5 of which were aerial kills) and was second only to the group’s leading ace, George Preddy.

Because Meyer was away on holiday in the USA in June 1944, he missed the action of the Normandy landings/D-Day. Immediately after the landings, the Allies began to set up airfields in continental Europe. One reason was to be closer to their troops but another important reason was to avoid having to cross the English Channel during every sortie, which often resulted in the losses of planes and pilots over the Channel who couldn’t make it to back England because of fuel shortages or aircraft damage. Now, these airplanes could land safely in the Allied-held parts of continental Europe, refuel and recover. Meyer experienced this first-hand one day, while flying Petie 2nd. A story released by the 352nd FG on September 13th, 1944 described how Meyer, while short on fuel had to land at an airfield in Belgium that had just been abandoned by the Germans. The story goes on to say:

When he climbed out of his cockpit he saw that four other 51 (P-51) pilots were in the same fix. The Germans were still shelling one end of the nearest town, so going for help on foot was impossible. It was suggested to pool all the gas, so for four hours the five pilots drained their tanks and helped pour it into Col. Meyer’s Petie. With 35 gallons, Col. Meyer took off for Brussels, where he refuelled, sent help to the others and then took-off for his base in England. [4]

What Petie 2nd might have looked like around October 1944.

One day in late 1944 in Bodney, while reversing a jeep, a young corporal named Bernie Howard crashed into Petie 2nd’s stabiliser and damaged it. Sympathetic crew chief, S. Sgt Bill Conkey, sent Petie 2nd to the maintenance shop, meanwhile giving Meyer a replacement – “Petie 3rd”. Legend has it that Lt. Col. Meyer was never told this. [5]

Flown by Heyer

487th Fighter Squadron, 352nd Fighter Group, 8th Air Force, Bodney, England, November 1944

Flown by Lieutenant Sheldon L. Heyer

What Petie 2nd might have looked like in late 1944, while it was flown by Lt. L. Heyer as “Sweetie Face”.

While Meyer was flying “Petie 3rd”, Petie 2nd underwent repairs and was assigned to Sheldon Heyer, who renamed it “Sweetie Face”. The plane was re-coded to HO-N.

By the time Heyer started flying the ex-Petie 2nd, he already had one aerial victory to his name, scored against an enemy Bf-109 on August 6th, 1944. It happened while escorting B-17s to Hamburg and running into a formation of 30-plus enemy Bf-109s.[6] This must be the one victory painted on the side of Sweetie Face in this photo.
At this stage I was unable to find information about Heyer during the time he flew Sweetie Face or what happened to this airplane in the end. If any of you have such information and could share it in the comments below or in a message on PinP’s Facebook page (providing sources will help), that will be very much appreciated.

Noteworthy Visual Characteristics

While flown by J.C. Meyer

1) The swept-back ‘Blue Nose’ was the identification marking of the 352nd Fighter Group. It made its first appearance on the group’s Mustangs in late April 1944. Because of this marking the unit and its airplanes were often called the ‘Bluenosers’. Sometimes the 352nd Fighter Group is even referred to as the ‘Blue-nosed Bastards of Bodney’. The latter name is based on the rumour that that when the unit’s mustangs with their distinctive blue noses made their first appearance over Germany, the head of the Luftwaffe, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, reportedly said: ‘I knew the war was lost when I saw the “Bluenosed Bastards of Bodney” over Berlin’! [7] In reality there is no evidence that Göring actually said this and the name ‘Blue-nosed Bastards of Bodney’ was most likely made up some time after the war.

With all the fame surrounding the Bluenosers, I had difficulties finding which shade of blue was used by the unit exactly. Turns out, there were probably various shades used. The very early examples of the blue on the noses of the unit’s airplanes, which were painted in Olive Drab, was a very light shade However, the blue became a darker medium once the “aluminium”-coloured Mustangs started to arrive at the unit. The exact paint name of this “medium blue” is unknown as far as I could find in my research. I read that later, the colour “RAF Deep Sky Blue” was sometimes used for the noses too, which was a darker shade yet again. Below are some examples of colour photos of the Bluenosers. Here are some additional links to colour photos of the Bluenosers from WW2:
https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/media/media-400726jpg
https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/media/media-387702jpg    Not that the two Bluenosers in this image have a different shade of blue on the nose.
https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/media/media-388403jpg
Because the tone of “Petie 3rd’s” nose appears to be slightly lighter than the insignia in the b/w photos, I chose to use a slightly lighter/brighter blue colour in my artwork.

The photos above are low-resolution screen grabs taken from copyright-free images on Wikipedia. To find the original high resolution photos please go to these pages:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/352nd_Fighter_Group
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Bodney

2) It’s unclear what the name “Petie 2nd” meant. It’s possible it was a reference to Meyer’s wife. He had named the new, bubble-canopy Mustang after returning, newly married, from his one-month leave in the USA. The mustang he flew before his leave was called “Lambie II” and there is anecdotal evidence “Lambie II” was renamed to “Petie” before Meyer’s leave but I found no decent evidence to support this claim.
The name probably appeared on the port side of the nose only.
Note the difference in colour between the two illustrations (Petie 2nd as it looked in August vs second half of September). The name was originally painted in white with a black outline and later, as can be seen in some photos, it was coloured in with darker colours, most likely yellow on top and orange at the bottom.

3) The top part of the inscription indicates the names of “Petie 2nd”s crew:
Crew Chief - Senior Sergeant W.F. Conkey
Assistant - Sergeant W.H. Kohlhas
Armourer - Sergeant J.O. Bleidner

4) Note the differences in the colour of the victory markings, too. It is often said that, originally, the victory markings were painted in white – same as “Petie 2nd” – but Meyer wasn’t happy with this because the markings were hard to see. So, he instructed to have them repainted in yellow, as well as “Petie 2nd”.
However, looking at the photo reference, the colour of the original victory markings clearly appears darker than white and, in the later photos, the colour clearly looks darker than yellow. Based on the photo reference, I suspect the markings were probably painted in yellow originally but were repainted in orange or a yellow-orange later on, instead of being white originally and yellow later.

5) Note the difference in the design of the “pilot name” inscriptions on the canopy rail. ‘5a’ has the name written in italics and the whole inscription is positioned closer to the front of the canopy than ‘5b’ , which is slightly further towards the back of the canopy and has the name written in non-italic capital letters.
Perhaps the canopy on Petie 2nd was replaced around October and the name was re-written because of that?

6) “HO” was the identification code of the 487th Fighter Squadron

7) “M” on the tail was the identification code of Meyer’s airplanes.

8) Note that the original (blue) carburettor air filter intake grill must have been replaced with another (unpainted) one –presumably, only on one side of the airplane.

9) “The Little Bastard” was the emblem of the 487th Fighter Squadron. Meyer, being the squadron’s commander, prohibited others from painting this emblem on their planes. Meyer’s plane was the only fighter in the squadron that had this emblem. It was first painted on the side of Petie 2nd and later on Petie 3rd.
Note that the lightning in the early version of the plane appears to be quite light, lighter than the victory markings. It’s a little daring to presume it was white but perhaps it was a lighter shade of yellow? In the later photos, when the markings were repainted, the lightning appears substantially darker, confirming it was definitely not white in the later version of the markings.
Also, note that the blue background colour of the emblem seems to be slightly darker than the blue of the nose, as in this photo for example. I’ve read somewhere that Meyer picked the blue shade in the emblem but I have not been able to confirm this.

10) The “Invasion/D-Day stripes”. These remained on many Allied planes after the Normandy landings and until the start of 1945. Their purpose was to help in identifying friend from foe.
It’s interesting to note that usually, these were accompanied by stripes painted on the wings and horizontal stabilisers in the parts marked by 10a and 10b but Petie 2nd seems to be missing these.

11) The invasion stripes might not have been painted on the bottom of the fuselage. This is a presumption but it is based on images of actual WW2 Mustangs that show that the stripes didn’t wrap around the bottom of the fuselage, possibly because they were painted while the planes were standing on the ground and the crew simply didn’t bother to reach all the way under. As can be seen HERE and HERE.

12) Note that the antenna wire seems to be missing, as on many Mustangs of the 352nd FG.

13) The antenna mast appears to be darker than the rest of the airplane on many mustangs (but not all) of the 487th squadron, including Petie 2nd. It’s possible it was painted with some non-glare paint or possibly with the same colour as the nose. I chose the same colour as the nose in my artwork.

While flown by S.L. Heyer

1) Sheldon Heyer renamed Petie 2nd as Sweetie Face when he was assigned this airplane.
It appears to me ”Sweetie FACE” was painted in two colours, possibly yellow and orange, with a black outline/shadow. This is somewhat in keeping with the latest colours of the name “Petie 2nd”. I have also seen “Sweetie FACE” interpreted as being painted in solid yellow, with a red outline/shadow instead.

Two possible ways of interpreting the colours of the inscription. Based on photo reference, it appears to me the top version is more correct.

2) Note that the names of the crew were erased on Sweetie Face.

3) The pilot name on the canopy rail was most likely changed to “Lt. Sheldon L. Heyer”.

4) The airplane’s code was changed from “M” to “N”.

5) The rudder was painted blue. This was the identification marking of the 487th Fighter Squadron. The last three digits of the serial number were probably repainted white, though I couldn’t find photo reference to confirm this.

6) The gun pods on Sweetie Face appear to be darker than the surrounding parts of the wing. It’s possible they were painted orange, similar to THIS airplane.

7) All of Meyer’s victory markings have been erased, leaving only one, reflecting Heyer’s one victory.

8) “The Little Bastard” emblem was erased, since only Meyer was allowed to have it on his airplane. By this time, Meyer had started to fly Petie 3rd and the emblem was painted on that plane instead.

9) I have included the “Invasion stripes”, presuming they were carried over from Petie 2nd, though it’s also quite likely these were erased on Sweetie Face.

10) I appears that the earlier N-9 gunfight (with the ring and bead sight in front of the windscreen on the nose of the airplane) was replaced for a more advanced gunsight (possibly a British Mk III reflector gunsight?).

11) A static ground earth wire might have been added to the airplane.

FOOTNOTES

[1] “P-51 Mustang Aces”, by William N. Hess and Thomas C. Ivie, Motorbooks International, 1992, page 87. ISBN 0-87938-530-8
[2] “352nd Fighter Group”, by Thomas G. Ivie, Osprey Publishing, 2002, p.81, PDF e-book ISBN: 978 1 84603 755 9
[3] “352nd Fighter Group”, by Thomas G. Ivie, Osprey Publishing, 2002, p.82-83
[4] “Bluenoser Tales: 352nd Fighter Group War Stories, by Jr. Mark L. Hamel and Samuel L. Sox, p. 228-31.
[5] “352nd Fighter Group”, by Thomas G. Ivie, 2002, p.125
[6] “Fighter Group” (The 352nd “Blue-Nosed Bastards” in WW2), by Lt.Col(Ret) Jay A Stout’s, page 256, eBook ISBN:978-0-8117-4867-4
[7] Info taken from the book “352nd Fighter Group”, by Thomas G. Ivie, published by Osprey Publishing in 2002, p.6.

All the work presented on this page is subject to updates and revisions in the light of new information which might present itself. If you have any new information relevant to this page or disagree with anything that's presented here, then please feel free to contact me through the Planes in Profile Facebook page. Thanks:)

Special thanks to Maciej Góralczyk for taking the time to make some valuable suggestions which helped to make the art look more accurate, as well as for providing some photo reference. Also thank you to everyone who helped in the ww2aircraft.net forum https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/j-c-meyers-petie-2nd-and-3rd.58314/, especially le_steph40 .

Anton Petrov
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