As per usual with the Vikings, note that this is reduced to 33%. Click on the profile to see it on Photobucket where you can click again and see it at 100%.
When the creation of the "Special Air Unit" for China was authorized, the eventual plan was for there to be three air groups comprised of American volunteers. These were to be the 1st American Volunteer Group--a fighter unit equipped with the Curtiss P-40s,the 2nd AVG--a bomber group comprised of various bomber types, and the 3rd AVG--also a fighter unit. Only the 1st AVG would arrive in China before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor saw the plans for the other two groups canceled. Elements of the 2nd AVG were en route to China when the program was aborted and many of its personnel and resources were diverted to Australia. A portion of the 2nd AVG's ground crew and aircraft and a single pilot were already in the Far East, however, and many would be folded into the 1st AVG to bolster its strength. The 2nd AVG was to consist of three squadrons of 33 bombers each, one of Douglas DB-7s (A-20s), one of Lockheed A-29 Hudsons, and the last of Vought A-19 Vikings. As it was, only the A-19s would reach Burma, the other two types being taken on strength by the USAAF.
At first, the 33 crated export-standard Vought V-187 Vikings purchased by CAMCO remained at Rangoon until the AVG could figure out what to do with them since the 2nd AVG pilots were no longer coming. Soon, though, the losses of P-40s suffered by the 1st AVG saw the decision made to use the Vikings to flesh out the three squadrons of the AVG. Pilots would fly the type of aircraft dictated by the missions assigned to the unit. Since the P-40s lacked any real ground attack capability, these missions were obviously given to the A-19 Vikings. Many pilots had little trouble with the transition, often flying a P-40 one day and an A-19 the next. In fact, this was easier than it might otherwise seem as quite a large number of the 1st AVG's pilots came from the US Navy and US Marine Corps. Many of these naval aviators had experience flying dive bombers, often on the SB4U Viking, specifically, the naval variant of the very plane operated by the AVG.
Not everything went smoothly, however. Since these Vought V-187s were, like the Curtiss H81s, produced for export, they lacked some of the more advanced features of US aircraft. They lacked bomb displacement gear, the reflector dive bombing sight, radios, and the later wing racks. In fact, the AVG didn't even have reliable US bombs to arm the aircraft. They had to use old Soviet 250 kg bombs from Chinese stocks. These weren't the best, but they were far more reliable than the Chinese-manufactured bombs and WWI-era bombs that were being offered as alternatives. Among the pilots with dive bombing experience were Tex Hill, Ed Rector, Tom Jones, Frank Lawlor, Lewis Bishop, Link Laughlin, Frank Schiel, and Bob Little.
This particular aircraft was flown by Lewis Bishop and can be seen with the ochre-colored Soviet bomb underneath it. In most cases, the rear gunner was Chinese. It is one of the aircraft assigned to 3rd Squadron "Hell's Angels" and can be seen with its own marking that tied in with the squadron, but had a unique element, as well. Unlike the female red angels on the rest of 3rd Squadron's planes, this aircraft had artwork of a demon roaming the land, dispensing lightning and bombs to the hapless people of the world. It was also given the distinctive shark mouth seen on P-40s, though it didn't look quite the same on these new Vikings.
http://www.oncamouflagedwings.org/aid/hudson/mystery.htmThis profile is based on the actual Lockheed Hudson's used by China and about which relatively little is known. It was the image above and the mysterious "devil" is what I found most intriguing. It's very reminiscent of the Hell's Angels used by the AVG, but the Hudson's weren't actually known to be used by the AVG. I tried to recreate that "devil" on the A-19, but styled a little more closely after the Hell's Angels. I think it turned out alright, personally. It took a lot of work to get the shark mouth looking how I wanted it to, as well.
Cheers,
Logan