Stewart’s “Sunny VIII”

Written By Anton Petrov

NORTH AMERICAN, P-51D-20NA (MUSTANG), SERIAL NUMBER 44-72181

336th Fighter Squadron, 4th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force, Debden (Essex, England), February- April 1945.

Flown by the commander of the 4th FG, Col. Everett Wilson (Ev,Stew)Stewart.

Everett Stewart was a talented fighter pilot and a gifted leader whose participation in WW2 began in the Pacific theatre where he quickly rose through the ranks to become a squadron commander. He clocked around 280 flying hours in the Pacific and after the Battle of Midway his fighter group was transferred to the European theatre (to a base in England) in mid 1943. In January 1944 he was transferred to the 355th FG becoming that group’s Commanding Officer from 4th of November 1944 until 21st of February 1945 [1]. He flew different airplanes up until this point in his career, many of which were named “Sunny”, including Sunny IV (a P-47D coded PE-G), Sunny V (a P-51B, WR-S), Sunny VI (a P-51D, serial 44-13540, also coded WR-S), and Sunny VII (a P-51D, serial 44-15255, coded WR-S like the previous two). He scored 7.833 aerial victories, 1 damaged and 3 probable, plus 1.5 ground victories while flying some of these airplanes [2].

He was promoted to Colonel in January 1945 and was given command of the famous 4th Fighter Group (Debden Eagles) on 21st of February 1945. It was here that he was assigned the Mustang which became his last Sunny, a plane which was naturally destined to be christened Sunny VIII due to the naming sequence of Stewart’s airplanes.
Col. E. Stewart flew 7 missions in Sunny VIII (out of his total of 180 missions), the first mission being on the 27th of February 1945 and the last on the 20th of April 1945 [3]. Sunny VIII’s best achievement occurred on March 3rd. On that day Col. Stewart and his deputy Lt. Col. Sidney Woods led two groups on an escort mission to Magdeburg-Brandenburg when around 15 Me-262 jet fighters made runs on the 4th FG. Col. Stewart managed to damage one of them [4] thus concluding Stewart’s total victory score for the war.

Mar 3, 1944, 1 x Me-262, vicinity of Gardelegen (Germany)

On the 29th of May 1945, due to bad weather, Sunny VIII was lost in a fatal crash at Castleshaw Moor while it was being ferried by Lt. Harold H. Frederick from Debden to the air depot at Speke [5]. Lt. Frederick perished in the crash. Col. Stewart on the other hand continued to command the 4th FG through to the end of the war, until the 21st of September 1945 to be more precise.

 

Noteworthy Visual Characteristics

1) The sweped-back red nose colouring was the late-war identification marking of the airplanes of the 4th FG.

2) “Sunny VIII” was the name that E.Stewart gave to the airplane. It was the last in a sequence of “Sunnies” given to Stewart’s airplanes which included P-47Ds, P-51B and P-51Ds.
It appears that the red name was painted over a white background and has a very light blue drop shadow.

3) Sunny VIII was one of only two airplanes in the 4th FG that had a light blue anti glare panel. The other airplane was that of the commander of the 336th FG, Maj. Freddie Glover’s P-51D. No doubt this was a way of distinguishing the airplanes of these two commanders.

4) Note the red rectangle around the gun camera opening.

5) The crew names are painted in red, in a rather decorative art style.

6) The letters of Stewart’s name on the canopy frame appear to have been painted in white with a red interior, or put another way, they essentially appear red with a white outline. as per the image above.

7) The flare gun hole appears to have been plugged.

8) The 11 swastikas on the canopy frame were Stewart’s victories at the time he received Sunny VIII in February. I presume this means that the victories are: 7.833 aerial victories (rounded off to 8) + 1 damaged + 1.5 (Rounded off to 2) ground victories = 11 victories.

9) “VF” was the identification code of the 336th Fighter Squadron.

10) The antenna mast appears to have some darker paint on some parts of it.

11) The number 472181 represents the serial number 44-72181

12) Note the antenna array for the AN/APS-13 radar equipment.

13) It appears that the top of the fin (and even the base of the antenna array?) might have been painted white, or light aluminium, as can be seen in this photo.

14) The blue rudder was the ‘late style’ colour identification of the 336th squadron.

15) “S” was the identification code of Stewart’s plane.

16) On Patreon

17) On Patreon

18) There doesn’t appear to be an antenna wire on this airplane.

19) “Sunny VIII” appeared on the starboard side of this airplane as well as on the portside, which was uncommon.

20) Note the carburettor air filter intake cover appears to be solid (unperforated), as seen in the photo on this page. The solid covers were sometimes fitted onto the Mustangs in the European theatre because of the cold weather (or cold temperatures at high altitudes).

FOOTNOTES

[1] Based on Stewart’s Wikipedia page as well as other sources.
[2] Information about Stewart’s planes and victories is based on (or was deduced based on) the book by Frank Olynyk called “Stars & Bars”, published by Grub Street in 1995, p.574.
[3] Based on various sources including the info by American Air Museum In Britain https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/media/media-377265jpg
[4] Based on the information from the book ‘4th Fighter Group, ‘Debden Eagles’’ by Chris Bucholtz, published by Osprey Publishing in 2008, page 111, PDF e-book ISBN:978 1 84603 809 9
[5] Based on the info by American Air Museum In Britain https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/aircraft/44-72181

SUMMARY OF LINKS TO THE REFERENCE IMAGES AND VIDEOs

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
Previous

Bowers’s “Sweet Arlene”

Next

Norley’s “Red Dog XII”