Turner’s “Short-Fuse Sallee”

Written By Anton Petrov

North American, P-51D-5NA (Mustang), Serial number 44-13561

356th Fighter Squadron, 354th Fighter Group “Pioneer Mustang Group”, 9th Air Force,
Criqueville, France (A-2), Gael, France (A-31) and Orconte, France (A-66), July-October 1944.

Flown by the commander of the 356th FS, Maj. Richard Eugene Turner, an ace with 19 aerial victories (11 kills + 8 damaged)[2], Plus 8 strafing kills, plus at least 1 V-1 rocket destroyed.

The illustration above shows what airplane 44-13561 looked like not long after Maj.Turner scored his 11th aerial victory on July 30th, 1944. Note the 19.5 victory markings in the form of white swastikas over a black rectangle painted on the fuselage, the last marking was likely a “half swastika” (possibly representing Turner’s V-1 bomb kill).
It’s worth noting the star-spangled black band around the tip of the nose. This was the identification marking of the 356th FS’s Mustangs during summer and autumn of 1944. S/Sgt Mark Hanson and Sgt Louie painted this marking on the squadron’s airplanes, as instructed by Turner . This marking replaced the previously solid white tip of the nose, and was in turn replaced by a solid red tip of the nose in Feb 1945(with the spinner painted red also).

P-51D with a serial number 44-13561 was flown by Maj. R.Turner in summer and autumn of 1944. He stopped flying it around the 7th of October that year when his tour of duty came to an end, by which time Turner completed 94 combat missions and submitted 21 victory claims[1]. This airplane was named ‘Sort-fuse Sallee’, as a reference to Turner’s girlfriend whose name was presumably Sallee. It’s interesting to note that when Turner’s relations with his girlfriend deteriorated during his leave in USA, Turner named his following Mustang simply “Short-Fuse”, dropping the name “Sallee”. 44-13561 was Turner’s first “bubble top” Mustang, but the name “Short-Fuse Sallee” was actually not new, it was inherited from Turner’s previous Mustang, a P-51B which was responsible for most of the victories displayed on the side of Turner’s subsequent airplanes. At least one of those victories however, Turner’s 11th to be more specific - his last aerial victory, was achieved from behind the controls of 44-13561:

Jul 30, 1 x Me-109, 30 miles south of Caumont (France)[2]

This victory happened at 16:20 in the afternoon. Turner sighted a flight of three Me-109s which were flying towards cloud cover. Maj. Turner managed to catch up with one and hit it with a very long burst. The Me-109 began to steam coolant and pieces flew off. Turner fired a second burst. The enemy pilot popped off the canopy and bailed out. [3]

As can be seen on this page, there were a few different versions of the victory markings on “Short-Fuse Sallee”, P-51D. Evidently, at some stage the original victory markings (as per illustration above) were replaced with larger ones which now extended onto the nose of the plane , as can be seen in the illustration below. In addition to this, the number of victory markings in this new version of the victory display has gone up to 20.5(the marking on the bottom right shows half a swastika). These reflect Turner’s claimed aerial, ground and V-1 kills. However, there is clearly some discrepancy in the number of markings across the three different markings versions on 44-13561. Turner’s victory score, based on the information available, was likely: 11 aerial kills + 8 damaged [1], plus 8 ground(strafing) kills + 1 damaged [4], plus 1 to 2 V-1 flying bomb(s) destroyed . The discrepancies in the markings might be due to Turner’s ongoing disagreements about his victory score with the Victory Credits Review Board. Turner is even known to have commented:

‘I fought one war with the Nazis and another with the Victory Credits Review board’! [5]

The illustration above shows what 44-13561 looked like at some stage between August and October 1944.
This illustration is based predominantly on the photos on this page. Strangely, there seem to be 20.5 victory markings on it.

The last victory markings version painted on 44-13561 took the form of what appears to be white swastikas over black circles, as can be seen on this page, and in the profile artwork below. Here we see 20 victory markings, the 0.5 was probably rounded off to 1 and was painted as a full swastika. Interestingly, Turner’s last P-51D of the war ,“Short-Fuse” (The plane he flew briefly when he returned to the front in April 1945), reverted back to displaying 19.5 victory markings.

The illustration above shows what 44-13561 looked like in early October 1944. Note the 20 victory markings and the remains of the swastikas from the previous victory markings which can still be seen at the top of the bomb artwork.
Note the black & white “Invasion stripes” of the allies at the bottom of the wings as can be seen in the illustration below. It appears that there was a thin gap between the black and the white stripes in this area, possibly left from the masking tape. Elsewhere (on top of the wings and on the horizontal stabilisers) there was only the black identification stripe.

FOOTNOTES

[1] info based on individual photos on this page http://www.354thpmfg.com/galleries_wwlouie_pt2.html

[2] Information about Carr’s victories is based on the book by Frank Olynyk called “Stars & Bars”, published by Grub Street in 1995, p.601., ISBN 1-898697-17-5

[3] Information in this paragraph is based on ‘P-51 Mustang Aces’, by William N. Hess and Thomas G.Ivie, published by Motorbooks International in 1992, page 139,

ISBN 0-87938-530-8

[4] https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/person/richard-e-turner

[5] ‘354th Fighter Group’, by William N. Hess, published by Osprey Publishing in 2002, pages 93, PDF e-book ISBN:978 1 78200 894 1

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 contact me through the Planes in Profile Facebook page to help make the content of this page more accurate. Thanks:)

Anton Petrov
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